The podcast explores the complex issues surrounding RV roof leaks, focusing on practical solutions such as RV roof sealing tapes and Dicor lap sealant. With a methodical approach, I explore the various types of roofs, including rubber, TPO, aluminum, and fiberglass, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method of sealing. The conversation also addresses the essential preparation required before applying any sealing materials, emphasizing the need for a clean, dry surface to ensure optimal adhesion and sealant longevity. I address common misconceptions about the use of generic tapes versus RV-specific products, highlighting the potential pitfalls of using inferior materials that may compromise the roof's integrity. Furthermore, I present two options for RV safes, underscoring the importance of securing valuables while traveling. This segment serves not only to inform but also to provide practical solutions to enhance RV safety and maintenance.

Eric Stark: 00:00:00

Have you ever had a water leak on your roof that just drove you crazy? Couldn't figure out how to fix it, Couldn't find it, Couldn't find the right stuff to fix it.

A little confusing when you get on the Internet and start trying to find answers. Well, we're going to solve that problem today because we're going to talk about RV roof sealing tapes and dicor lap sealant.

And we're going to discuss the pros, the cons, how to use it, what kind of roofs it'll work on. Whether it's rubber, tpo, aluminum or fiberglass, we're going to cover it all.

And then we have two safes we're going to give you an option to choose from to put in your rv. Sometimes you need a safe for your RV to lock up those valuables. Especially today, more electronics, phones, things like that. Got to keep them safe.

And then I have a quick tool tip. It's the Durlast Probe kit. It's for electrical connectors. It makes it super simple to check things power wise without taking the connector off.

So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your trusted source for do it yourself RV maintenance and repair. Today is episode 193. So let's jump into it.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes here, I want to talk about something that I came across my desk the other day. I thought this was pretty interesting. A company reached out to me about diesel heaters for putting in your rv, little portable diesel RV heat.

Well, they have vans, pickups, small trailers. They're pretty popular right now. And I'm not talking about the quality of the heater. That's not really this discussion.

What was interesting to me is he sent me a link to Amazon where I could look at it. And that's basically where they would, where they would want me to push you if I did a video on it to do a review.

But it's interesting enough his video, or excuse me, his email had in his, his email address went to a website and the website is the same company as the product on Amazon, if you can follow that. But the product on his website was $50 less than it was on Amazon.

Went from $150 to $100 basically, and still with free shipping unless you want it expedited for like three bucks. So I'm thinking, wow, this is crazy. You go to Amazon, you think you're getting the best deal. You're not always getting the best deal.

This was proof positive in the video of this. I'll have screenshots showing both products, the brand, everything, and they were identical. Same images, same company, same everything.

So when you, when you're buying online, think about it, make sure you are getting the best price if you want to go that extra mile, because you might not be able to find like that other website where they're selling it. But I'm just kind of giving you a heads up. Even on Amazon, the company store, you're not always getting the best price. Price.

All right, let's jump into the safe since that's another way you can protect your money, having a safe in your rv. See here, I'm just protect your cash, that's it. We're going to save you money. Every turn of the turn we go.

So in an rv, you're, you're cramped for space. You know, you don't have all this room to put in, a big old giant safe to put your valuables in.

And you need something that's fairly light so you're not adding a bunch of extra weight to the rv. Something that could be mounted to the floor or a wall.

You know, the safe in an RV is not going to keep somebody from really stealing if they really want it. You know, a hardened criminal who wants that, he's just going to rip it out somehow. He'll get a chainsaw and cut the floor and wall out if he has to.

But in most cases, that's not going to be it. It's going to be someone who just goes into your rv. They get in, they're just going to grab what they can quickly and get out.

It's a smash and grab deal. You know, we see it all over the Internet anymore. Happens in la, all the big cities, real quick and dirty, down and dirty.

So there's one safe made by stealth safes. It's called the Dorm Room. And it's tall, it's 8 inches wide, and I forget the depth. And it's like 17 or 18 inches tall, maybe 20 inches deep.

And so you can mount that. It actually comes with a hole where you could run a power cord into it.

So if you put a laptop in there, your iPad, your iPhone, or your Android devices, you could actually charge them while they're in there. And it'll fit a laptop that's with like a 17 inch screen. So it's nice and roomy. You can put other valuables in there.

You know, those things won't take up the whole space, that's for sure. And it has some shelves in it. Pretty cool. And then Liberty Safes has A Safe.

It's the HDV 500X and this is a drawer type safe where the other one stands upright and it's small and compact. They're about the same price. They're both in the $300 range and it's pretty cool too.

And you can still put, you know, your, some of your devices in there, maybe not all of them. You'd have to look at it and see. But just to give you something to think about, you know, anymore we're traveling with more things that are of value.

You leave your RV for the day, you kind of feel weird about leaving your stuff in it. Should you bring it with you even if you're driving. Do I want it in the car?

By the way, the drawer safe could probably go underneath the seat of a lot of trucks in the back seat. So just giving you some options. So check that out. I'll have links in the description of this podcast and they'll be available for you.

Look, check them out and decide if you need one or not. That brings us to the next section. Talking about sealing that rubber roof. Rubber. Rubber roof tapes versus Dicor lap sealant.

So to really do this right, we got to kind of talk a little bit about what people are using on the roof and what they're called and how they're being used and using the right things. We'll spend just a minute on this. So what does it mean when someone says an RV roof ceiling tape.

So this is a tape that's similar to like this is made by Quick or co Far. It's Quick roof. What I'm holding up here, you can't see it if you're listening only. Right. My other hand is Dicor.

So these sealant tapes, they are designed specifically for RV applications.

The companies that make them sometimes make stuff for residential and it might be very similar in makeup, but we're talking about something that's made just for the roof of an RV and that's our focus. RV roofs, sheds, houses, garages, not on the table. So it's a pressure sensitive tape and it's designed to stick to rubber roofs.

Aluminum, fiberglass, TPO metal, all the roofs on an rv. And sometimes it's called micro sealant.

But micro sealant is just a trademark and I believe Eternabon owns that because they're tape has the micro sealant technology in it. Good, bad or indifferent, that's what it has. So all the roof tape sometimes can be called roof tapes, micro sealant tapes, take your pick.

Now there's also Butyl Tape and putty tape. These two tapes are designed for, let's say ceiling or roof vent. RV doors, windows, compartments, plumbing vents on the roof, skylights.

So butyl tape or putty tape, they go underneath the flange of whatever it is. Let's say it's your roof vent. So the putty tape would go between the flange and the roof.

You screw the vent down, and then you would put, if you decide to your sealant tape around the top or your lap sealant, which we'll get in a little bit more. We're just talking about the tapes right now.

And then, of course, you can go the hardware store and get something like Gorilla tape or duct tape or some sort of tape. Avoid that at all costs, unless there's an emergency.

And think twice before you start putting especially Gorilla tape on the roof or anywhere on your rv. Goril tape can be pretty nasty. Or duct tape, it leaves a residue. Sometimes it can melt in the sun.

I know on awnings, people put it on the awning fabric when it's tearing, and they'll go right up to the side of the rv. It's impossible to get off. You know, it takes so much time. And we don't.

We do awnings, unfortunately, the customer has to do it because it takes too much time. So you think about that before you put tapes down like that. A duct tape, a temporary thing. Is it an emergency?

Or you just do it because you don't want to spend a little bit of money? Spend the money. It's well worth it when you have to undo that mess.

So hardware stores, places like that, unless it's RV specific, you want to avoid it. Dicor lap sealant. Here's the basics of it. So this is what dicor is actually really good at.

It's for sealing things around the roof, like vents, skylights, antenna bases, plumbing vents, ladder mounts, things you might add to the roof. Solar panels, screw heads. Those are the things dicor really works good on.

Now, you do have to prep the roof first, and you always want to make sure it's clean and dry. You don't want any water in there, otherwise it won't stick. Dirty won't stick either. You want it clean and dry.

So if you wash your entire roof, I say let it dry over overnight or into the next day and then go ahead and seal it. And this is a caulking gun application. It's not a little squeeze tube or anything. It dries fairly quickly.

You know, once you put it down, you kind of want to get it where you want it to be because it's going to set up, it's not going to cure immediately, but it starts to, what's that called? Lost my thought here, skim or whatever. It starts to, you know, basically dry.

So you, you're not gonna be able to spread it or do anything after you're done. And actually it's self leveling. That's what we're really talking about here is a self leveling for all your vertical surfaces.

Basically the flat part of the roof, once you put it on, it levels out so you don't have to touch it anyways. And sometimes when it's a little cooler, it doesn't spread as much.

So you might need to run two beads right next to each other and they basically melt together, if you will. Yeah, it's to skim over, skin over. So it takes about five minutes to do that. Then it's got four hours before it becomes waterproof.

And that's for sure.

I know we've, here in Montana, we've had installations where it starts raining a few hours afterwards you put it on and it's actually waterproof then. But four hours is much better. So that's Dicor and we've talked about the ceiling tapes a little bit or getting into it.

So now let's talk about the sealant tapes versus Dicor. So there's pros and cons to both.

So the roof sealant tapes or ceiling tapes, those are really good for your long seams on the roof or joints where, let's say the front cap comes to the roof. It's going to be an eight foot wide seam, basically. So your front and rear caps, the long seams along the edge of the roof.

If you have a tear in the roof, definitely the sealant tape is, is a better repair for that. Unless it's a little tiny one, maybe a half inch long, a little Dicor is fine. The sealant tape is extremely dur.

It holds up and basically once you put it on, if it's done right, it's a permanent fix. It's going to outlast Dicor or anything else. It's going to work very well.

It's designed to hold up in the uv, the sun, different weather, water, it doesn't matter. It seems to work very good for a very long amount of time.

Now it's sometimes done a little bit quicker because you can kind of go every, over everything stuff. It's more. The prep is almost the same. You want the prep to be very good as well with this same as Dicor. And so that brings us to the cons.

If you don't prep it properly, prep the roof, it's not going to stick that well. And so you might be throwing your money away. So you really need to prep it and make sure it's going to stick.

So don't just wipe it off with a dry towel. You need to wash your roof and really get it dialed in. If you don't get it right as well, the edge can lift up some and you'll see that right away.

So if your edges are lifting up after you put a little bit down, you haven't prepped your roof properly. And the other thing about it is if you have a long run, you probably want two people to help you or at least one person to help you.

Because once you put this stuff down, it becomes very sticky and it gets aggressive and it'll just hang on. So, you know, if you put it down, it's going a little sideways and you got an eight foot seam you're trying to do.

All of a sudden at the last two feet you could be off at a half an inch. And by the time you get to the 8 foot mark, you could be over 2 inches away from what you're trying because you didn't get it on straight.

So two people spread it out and lay it down, set it down, maybe put a chalk line to kind of give you a guidance so it gets into place properly. It likes to be installed in warmer weather. It's going to stick better.

It's going to work its way around different contours, dips and valleys and stuff like that. Much better than colder weather is not going to stretch. And another thing too is it can hide problems. So you might have a leak that you just.

I'm just going to tape over it. But the wood is all soft underneath the rubber or the fiberglass. And so you're not really seeing what you're doing.

In fact, when you roll it out and really press it on tight, you might be damaging underneath it. And you don't really see it because with this, you know, it's best to use one of those little metal rollers and they have that in their description.

And you can actually buy those separately. So you really want to get it on tight. And so you can be damaging stuff if there's some underlying issues there that you can't see.

And then basically you're taping over it and now you're really not going to see it. Now with Dicor lap sealant and there's leveling or self leveling and non sag. So the non sag is what you'd use on the side of the roof.

Sometimes it comes over about a half an inch, maybe an inch. The rubber, that's where you use that, where it goes underneath the metal trim on the side.

But everywhere on the flat surface of the roof you use the self leveling. It's important that you get that straight. Self leveling on the side will just run down the side, especially in warmer weather.

The self leveling is ideal on roofs that has complex shapes when there's penetrations in the roof or like roof vents, plumbing vents, skylights. It just works really well around there because you have the screw heads, you have edges, it's going to overlap the edges.

It's kind of a simple way to do it without making it really hard. And there's a reason why is the sealant tape, when you put it around a roof vent, it's got to get over the screw heads real tight. It's got in.

There's highs and lows on the sealant. So it's hard to get a nice clean seal around it as well.

And then if you ever have to replace that vent, the entire vent, which on most roof vents have a metal base, but even plastic ones, they don't last forever. It'll be a real chore to get that sealant tape off. Especially if it was put on right or around plumbing vents, it's a little harder to go around it.

So you have to cut the tape and you know, lay it out and fit it and make sure it fits right so you don't have any folds in it. Just the other day I saw a guy's roof and he had the sealant tape and he wrapped around his, his stanchions for his roof rack and his ladder.

Didn't take any time. It's not going to last. He just wrapped it around it and stuck it down.

And the stuff that overlapped, he just folded over and kind of pretended that it was good. It's not how you do it. See, that's where the Dicor self leveling is so much easier for that.

And yes, it does create a little maintenance down the road. But going up there two or three times a year to put a little extra sealant on there if you have to is really not that big of a deal.

Doing all the long seams and stuff. Yeah, that can be more time consuming. So the self leveling dicor is easier for touch ups. It sometimes comes off really easy, sometimes it doesn't.

Depending on what the roof was like when it was done originally. So it's designed for RV roofs. And make sure that you use Dicor. There might be some brands out there that are just as good. We stick with Dicor.

We've tried some other brands. In fact, we bought one brand. Just absolute garbage and it was Camco, I'll tell you that. Don't buy Camco's lap sealant.

It's horrible and I like Camco products, but this one just absolutely sucked. In fact, it's all headed for the trash can. But don't buy that. Now. There are some cons to it.

You know, you're going to have ongoing inspections or maintenance, which isn't really a huge deal, I don't think. So if you, if you've done your longer seams with the, the tape, if that's what you want to do, you're good to go there.

And self leveling, you know, it's not good for the verticals, you can't use it. So you have to use the non sag for that. You have to remember that. And the lap sealant can be a little bit messier, you know, rips on the roof.

If you're not careful, you get it on your hands, it's hard to clean up or harder to clean up. So the lap sealant or the sealant tape, just spread it on and away you go. Basically right. How do you know which one to use and when?

How do you make that decision?

So you're going to have to analyze your roof, how much you want to be up there, you know, how much time you're going to spend to prep it and put the tape on versus the lap sealant.

If you're going to try to go around your ladder bases or the stanchions, you're going to have to get your tape and you're going to have to cut a hole in it and a slit so it'll wrap around the stanchion so it's one piece, not try to force it around it and make it stick. That isn't going to work. So it's going to take a little more time.

So if you're just going through the normal things on an RV roof, solar panel brackets, plumbing vents, skylights, roof vents, lap sealant might be the thing for you. That's what so many people use because it's just easier to do. And like I said, it's cleaner.

And if you need to get into weird spots where the tape's just not going to be able to lay flat and do Its thing, the like.

In some transitions on front caps to the rubber roof, you can maybe go the tape, you know, 90% away or across, and then in each end you might have to fill it with lap sealant because there's bigger gaps. They just didn't do it right at the factory. So you have to kind of fill it in, if you will, which that does happen.

And if you're ready to go up there two or three times a year, which you should anyways, no matter what, you should be inspecting your roof and washing it two or three times a year and putting the UV guard on it or something, depending on the type of roof you have. So if you're up there and you wash the roof and you got a few little spots of Dicor, you have to touch up, not a big deal.

The roof tape comes in handy, like I said, when you're doing long seams, caps, things like that. If you have some brackets that are very flat, maybe one screw holding them down or two screws like a solar panel bracket.

And you feel you want to do the tape. But keep in mind, whatever you do with the tape, you're going to have to get it off. If you ever remove that bracket, that roof vent, plumbing vent.

And that's where it can become a little tricky because you don't want to tear the rubber roof when you go to peel that tape off or damage the rubber roof, you know, because then you're now putting on more tape, a bigger piece of tape, kind of making the problem worse, if you will.

But you know, a puncture in the roof, you're out in the forest, a branch comes through the roof as you're driving or falls out of the tree or out of the, you know, the tree, you can put the patch tape over it. It works great for that. If you have some long hairline cracks in the rubber roof or tears, you can patch it with that.

And that's more of a put it on there, forget about it. You don't have to think about it. And then there's some people who like to do this, and I'm not against it.

I think it actually gives you a little more peace of mind when you put that tape down. If you put some Dicor lap sealant right along the edge of it, it gives it that extra layer of protection.

Now, lap sealant will crack over time and you might have to touch it up, but as long as the tape is still sticking to the roof, it doesn't really matter. It's not going to leak. It just gives you that peace of mind they do, that's what they do on vents and everything else on a roof.

The butyl tape or the putty tape is actually what's sealing it. The lap sealant is just that extra layer of protection and just makes it kind of painless. Forget about it.

When you do, when you're doing this type of stuff on your roof, make sure that you're doing it for success. So in other words, don't skimp on time. Actually don't skimp on price either. Do not buy this stuff if it's not aimed at name brand.

And in the description of the podcast I will have all the brand names that are common in the RV industry and there are some of the stuff on the company store website where they sell low quality stuff and you know it's a quarter of the price. And they even have videos that make it look like it's so good they'll show it sticking to a fiberglass side of an rv. That's the fiberglass.

Rubber roof and fiberglass are not the same thing. So don't be pulled into that because if you put it on, it doesn't work. You have a nightmare of a time getting it off.

So go with high quality products. Dicor, Eternabon, I'm not going to get into. Like I said, they'll be in the description. And make sure you don't skimp on time.

Clean it and prep the roof right and wait for the right temperature. Each product has that temperature that it likes to be installed in. So pay attention to that. Read all the instructions.

Sometimes we have to invest a little more money than maybe we want to. But this is the roof of your rv. This is the thing that keeps the rest of it dry intact and keeps its value.

If your roof leak leaks, life sucks because your RV now is going to slowly get ruined. You have water damage and you can't undo it. So it's better to stay ahead of that. So I hope this information helps you.

And now if you have any questions about it, you can use the Contact Us page on our website. The smartrver.com you can call me.

The phone number will be in this description and there'll also be a link in the podcast to the Contact Us page and other ways to get a hold of me, texting, so forth, it'll all be there. And by the way, both of these products are available on sunpro mfg.com and the link will be in the description.

Now that brings us to our Duralast Electric Probe kit. Now what is so exciting about a Duralast electric probe kit for most people? Not much.

It's just a little electrical kit and what you do with this little guy and you can get it at Duralast is an AutoZone brand. It might be other place, but I always see it at AutoZone. Harbor Freight might have it. Everywhere might have it.

I know the company store will have it, but that like really low quality ones. And maybe that's it. If you use it once a year, once every two years, maybe that's what you want. The Duralast brand is a pretty decent quality one.

And what it is is these little probes that you can stick into electrical connectors while they're still on, let's say a circuit board or on a sail switch or two connectors put together. You know, we're talking about the Molex connectors, little tiny connectors on furnaces, water heaters.

So you can put the probe in there and hook your volt meter up to it and see if you have power. It really makes it easy. And they're insulated at the right spot, so you can't short things out or not as easily.

Much better than trying to jam a paperclip in there or something like that or, or a ice pick or a little tiny pick that's too big for it, but you cram it in anyways. These things are designed for it. Now the kits are like 35 bucks, so I think that's a little on the spendy side.

But you know what, it's worth it if you used it once a year and it saved you an hour's worth of frustration, man, you just paid for it. So that's the Duralast Electric Pro kit. I'll have the part number in the description of this podcast.

All right, so that's bringing us to the end of the show. Next week we're going to have.

Or in two weeks we're going to have episode 194 and we're going to talk about electrical problems when they seem relentless and they won't go away. So we're going to give the information to deal with that so you can make them go away.

Now, just real quickly here, if you go to our website, you can contact us, reach out to us to me. I take phone calls, I check emails, I. I check text messages. All this goes into one place that's in front of me all the time.

The text messages don't go to a cell phone, they go to a computer. So I'm available. So if you guys need help with stuff, Reach out to me.

Or if you have experience with your roof, you've done something, you're really proud of what you did, or maybe you're ashamed of it, but you want some advice, send us pictures as well. We love these experiences. And then if you have a question, we can talk about it in the next podcast. We can answer that question.

Reach out to me anytime you want. Well, thanks for listening. Today, this is the Smart RV or Podcasted, your trusted source for DIY RV maintenance and repair.