Have a weird water problem

[LadyFaire]

OK, got a screwy one for you. First of all, here is my floor plan. This is necessary, mainly because it should illustrate my confusion.





If you look at the floor plan, you'll see my dinette is in the slide. Now, as far as I can discover, there are NO waterlines of ANY sort in the slide or even in that area of the coach. We have a water problem, and we are confused as to where and WHY.


The last time we took the coach down to dump the tanks, it was raining moderately - not a frog strangler or anything like that. I believe this is the first time we have actually driven the coach in the rain. We've had the roof checked carefully (it is fiberglass and all seams and seals were cleaned, checked and resealed as needed), we've had the slide checked and the seals lubed. After dumping the tanks, we got the coach back home and set back up with the slide out, which is how we generally keep it. The evening after we dumped the tanks, I noticed that the carpeting in front of the dinette (main coach floor, NOT the slide floor) was kind of damp. Did we spill something???? It was not soppy, just 'heavily' damp. Hmmm. The following morning, it was wet. I looked at it and blotted with a towel, but didn't get much. Later in the day it was unabashedly WET. We started the towel blotting in earnest. We were going through 3 towels a day, and they were dripping wet!! By the by, the ONLY place that is wet is right in front of the table. Not in front of the seats of the dinette, not over in front of the sofa - just in front of the table. About a 3 foot wide strip. The coach is winterized - there is no water being used, the system is not pressurized, and there have been no unexplained puddles under the coach.


We are finally getting to the point where the water/wet is noticeably decreased, but still wet. Only 1 towel today (YAY!), and we are hoping we can finally get it dried up!


Have any of you ever experienced something like this, or heard of it? Does anyone have any idea of what is causing it? We have had NO water seepage or leaks in the coach at all, even through nasty storms. So, this is totally 'new' and unexpected.

[be happy]

I will take a stab at this, I am sure others will come on who have more knowledge than I.

First off I am confused about if you are winterized why did you have to empty the tanks? Is there a moister path from the bathroom wall to the puddle? I asked thinking water could be coming down from the vent pipe

https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...d30b_plumb.pdf

On the outside what is directly under the wet spot? Sometimes water will travel strange ways. Do you have a slide topper, or does the rain hit the slide roof? If no topper water could end up where you stated. How do not know but with water anything is possible.

As you may tell I really have no answer for you just ideas to look at.

Good Luck

[LadyFaire]

The coach is winterized, but we still spend a lot of time in it - we want the pups to consider the coach just another piece of 'home'. Therefore, the toilet does get used. We take a gallon of water to the coach to flush with. There is no other place that is wet. Only in front of the table, under the edge of the slide. We've looked under the slide, but either we don't know what we are looking FOR, or there is nothing out of the ordinary. There IS a topper over the slide, and it is good condition. One of the first things we checked. The carpeting on the slide part is bone dry, as is the carpeting to either side of the wet area. This morning, my 'blot' towel is barely damp to the touch, so I think we've just about finished up. I just would like to know HOW it happened and WHY, so we can avoid ever having it happen again.

[Morich]

Some ideas to think about what was really happening as the slide was moved in and out.
Was the slide wet when you pulled it in?
That might lead us to think there was water on the sides as it was moved in and out. If the slide sides are wet as we move them the rubber seals on each side may act like "wipers" and scrape any water all to one point for it to drip off inside?

Then an idea that you may want to think about is what dogs may do when in new strange spaces? Any chance of accidents that don't get recognized?
Travel CAN get stressful for all of us!

[LadyFaire]

Before that last run to the dump site, it had been raining for several days. So, yes, the slide was wet. I honestly don't know if we've run the slide in before when wet, so will have to check into that. As for the pups - they are toy poodles. We've probably gotten at least a gallon of water up, and there is no smell, as there would be for urine. And yes, travel IS stressful.

We are just confused due to the very NARROW area of wet. It seems illogical, on the surface, for only THAT small section to suddenly be 'wet'. Sorry, not expressing myself very well.

[Morich]

That's where I find we have to think really hard on what other wierd things can catch us! I was assuming you would know the difference, but if we don't stop and give it some thought the wierd stuff catches me.
We had a "leak" going across our back patio at the house and just could not figure how the cover was leaking like that!
We finally figured it out when the cat's water went dry at the same time. Raccoon was "soaking" something in the bowl and leaving a puddle! the trail dried but left a small puddle about six inches across for the next morning. He finally got his feet muddy enough to figure!

You may not have a real leak but just something that made the water from rain get scraped off and run across the bottom of the slide to drop out in the front?? Maybe just the tilt of the RV at that once point and may never happen again?
That's going with a hope and prayer!

[Americanrascal]

I've had some occasional similar problems with our rear slide during heavy wet weather events. I was able to trace the source of the unwanted puddles on the floor to the bottom wiper seal and the side wiper seal in the vicinity of their intersection of the slide. Both needed to be tightened and I may need to change the bottom wiper seal of the slide soon.

Wondering if this might be the source in yours? Our rig is slightly tilted when it sits that allows more contact on the side of the slide during driving rain events and we also had been running through significant road spray at the time of the latest event

[Ray,IN]

Before the next rain, lower the driver-side (unlevel) of the MH a couple inches or conversely raise the passenger-side , then note results of water on the floor. That will cause all rain water to run to the outside of the slide, and either eliminate it as the source or confirm it as the source.
If the bathroom was the source, it would leave a trail of wet, not just a spot.

[vfraley]

My layout is similar and my roof vent and air conditioner are overhead in the area you are describing. Are you sure it’s not coming from there?

[GrumpyVet]

Make sure your slide "weep holes" are not plugged up. (I clean ours with pipecleaners, you'd be surprised that muddabbers could get in there) and check to see that your upper slide swiper is in good shape. Unbeknownst
to us, ours wasn't sealing properly ( couldn't tell from the inside looking at it) and we would get water inside. Replaced it and we were good to go.

[LadyFaire]

Originally Posted by vfraley

My layout is similar and my roof vent and air conditioner are overhead in the area you are describing. Are you sure it’s not coming from there?

Definitely not the AC or overhead vent, but I hadn't even THOUGHT of that. The water is actually coming from UNDER the slide, into the main floor carpeting, only in front of the table.

[LadyFaire]

Originally Posted by GrumpyVet

Make sure your slide "weep holes" are not plugged up. (I clean ours with pipecleaners, you'd be surprised that muddabbers could get in there) and check to see that your upper slide swiper is in good shape. Unbeknownst
to us, ours wasn't sealing properly ( couldn't tell from the inside looking at it) and we would get water inside. Replaced it and we were good to go.

I don't even know what 'weep holes' ARE!!

[GrumpyVet]

Originally Posted by LadyFaire

I don't even know what 'weep holes' ARE!!

You "may" not have them. I was too lazy to check. We have them on our passenger full wall slide on our Journey.

[NormD]

I was discovering a wet carpet in front of the driver's seat whenever we drove in a heavy rain. The problem was overlapping steel plates near the wheel well that were not sealed. Sealant from below cured the problem.


Could you have a similar leak, perhaps toward the side, where road spray could enter and pool up? It could then perhaps travel to a low spot, such as the center of your floor, and wick up through a gap between floor panels.

[LadyFaire]

I am having some work done on the coach shortly (installing air horns and additional backup lights) - I will definitely have them take a look.

[Morich]

I don't feel a leak from below will wick upward and be enough to form a puddle!
But if the water gets on the bottom of the slide while out and then the slope of the slide bottom makes it move inward and collect, I can see it might drop off in a puddle.
But that takes knowing when and what was happening when the leak showed up.

If it is something that hap[pend more than once, you might consider setting a "trap" to trace where the water might come from to collect?

You mention farm knowledge. Does that mean you have ever tried to outsmart a raccoon? One way to figure how they are getting in is to put some kind of dust like flour down, so they leave tracks!
We started to think we had a bear at the bird feeder but the tracks proved out we had a raccoon that could stretch out four feet tall!

Works for water, too as when the flour gets wet, it leaves a track in the flour and you can look for where it starts!

[4x4van]

It could easily be coming from the outside of the slide itself from rain; following the rear bottom of the slide, then inside through a leak in the bottom seal. At that point it can follow along the bottom of the slide inside till it drips on the carpet.

I have a similar leak on my rear bedroom slide, but it only leaks when the slide is in and I am parked nose up and leaning to the right (opposite side of the slide).

As Ray said, before the next rain, adjust the level of the coach so that the drivers side is a bit low and see what happens. Pretty sure that your carpet will remain dry.

[Wyatt]

OK maybe I missed something but, most slides have a rubber gasket that wipes water off when you bring it in and flips out when you bring out the slide.
If that gasket that runs along the top of the slide gets misaligned it is doing the opposite amd it’s going to drag water in with it instead of squeegeeing it out.
Just one more thing to check off the list when you’re troubleshooting everything…

[Touring Tom]

I’ve not researched your coach’s plumbing diagrams, but offer this as a hypothesis for investigation. I suspect that your coach has a pvc plumbing vent from the bathroom/ laundry area. It may be located in the wall between the slide and the restroom. These are not pressure lines and typically exit the roof, uncovered, vertically above. These vents are open at the top, with plumbing drains “teeing” into them from the side, then extending downward to gray water or blackwater collection tanks, below. if there is a pvc joint which was not glued (or alternatively poorly glued), it’s theoretically possible that a column of rainwater could collect in the vertical vent, above a clog, then leak out over time. That would likely only occur if the drain portion had a clog or an unusual plumbing design allowed water to accumulate in a horizontal tributary to the drain (similar to a trap beneath a sink, tub, or shower). If you have access to a fiber optic endoscope (I bought one from an eBay source, which is 30 feet long and plugs into a USB port on my computer, for about $15) then you can run the lens portion down the vent line to visualize what is inside that line, all the way to the tank. These endoscopes are basically camera lenses with a light source which illuminates the area ahead. The image is displayed on a computer screen. I use a small laptop, myself.
I mentioned this, only because I don’t see anyone else who had responded with this possible water source. Good luck, locating your water source!

[LadyFaire]

OK, we replaced the slide topper - that was apparently what the problem was. No water in the coach since!