RV Roof Leak and Trailer Tire Blowout: Two Lessons We Learned the Hard Way
When we started full-time RVing, we promised ourselves that we wouldn’t share only the pretty scenery and fun adventures.
We’d share the problems, too.
After all, we’re learning as we go, and if one of our mistakes can keep another RVer from making the same mistake, there’s some good in that.
For nearly seven months on the road, we’d been pretty fortunate. Then suddenly we were hit with two major RV problems almost at the same time.
First, we discovered water leaking into our travel trailer.
Then, while traveling, we had a trailer tire fail and found ourselves sitting alongside the road.
Neither experience was particularly fun.
But we learned quite a bit from both of them.
A Peaceful Week at Lake Texoma…or So We Thought
We were staying at Caney Creek Recreation Area, just south of Kingston, Oklahoma, along Lake Texoma near the Oklahoma-Texas border.
We’d deliberately chosen a campground that was a little out of the way because we wanted something we hadn’t had much of lately:
Nothing to do.
We planned to stay for about a week, relax, walk General, watch the birds, and enjoy being beside the lake.
And it really was beautiful.
We watched egrets along the shoreline, found fossils among the rocks, enjoyed the walking trails, and had an enormous campsite with plenty of room around us.
There was even a tent camping loop with spectacular views across the lake.
For a little while, life was just about perfect.
Then it rained.
Discovering Water Inside Our Travel Trailer
One night, just as we were getting ready for bed, we realized we had a problem.
Water was getting into the trailer.
And not just a few drops.
We found water coming down around both sides of the bedroom closets. Some of the clothes inside had gotten wet.
Then we discovered water running across the front wall.
Our mattress was wet.
Really wet.
We set up a space heater to start drying everything as quickly as possible because the last thing we wanted was moisture sitting inside the trailer and causing even more damage.
Meanwhile, Ed headed to the store looking for sealant.
There was just one problem.
It had been raining.
And it was supposed to keep raining.
We couldn’t properly seal the roof until we had a chance to get everything dry.
Finding an RV Roof Leak Isn’t Always Easy
We eventually learned one of the most frustrating things about RV water leaks:
Where the water appears inside the trailer isn’t necessarily where it’s entering.
We initially thought we’d found the problem.
We applied sealant.
It leaked again.
Someone else helped us and put more Dicor on the roof.
Still no cigar.
Eventually, Ed found a tiny spot that appeared to be responsible for the leak.
By then we’d put sealant on all sorts of places because we were trying to figure out where the water was getting in.
The problem was that once water entered the roof, it could travel.
Water entering on one side of the trailer could work its way across and finally appear somewhere completely different inside.
That made tracing the leak much harder than we expected.
How We Finally Tracked Down the Leak
One technique we learned was to use a garden hose to test small sections of the roof.
The important part is small sections.
Don’t simply spray the entire roof with water. If the trailer starts leaking, you still won’t know where the water entered.
Instead, wet one suspect area and watch for water inside.
Then move to the next area.
It takes patience, but it gives you a much better chance of isolating the actual source.
Our leak was particularly confusing because sometimes we’d see water after a light rain and not after a heavier rain.
It didn’t seem to make any sense.
Our best guess was that tiny differences in how the trailer was leveled from one campsite to another changed the direction the water traveled across the roof.
Eventually, though, we found it.
The leak was fixed.
Problem number one solved.
Then came problem number two.
A Flat Trailer Tire Along the Road
Not long afterward, we found ourselves stopped alongside the road with a flat trailer tire.
We had a spare.
Unfortunately, we discovered something else we should have been carrying.
A proper jack.
The jack that came with our truck wasn’t adequate for what we needed to do with the trailer.
We called roadside assistance and found someone who could come help us, but the service was going to cost around $180.
Then something wonderful happened.
A gentleman from Texas stopped to see if we needed help.
And he had a floor jack.
With his help, Ed was able to lift the trailer and install our spare.
It’s difficult to express how grateful you feel when you’re stranded alongside a road and a complete stranger stops simply because he sees that you might need help.
Another Problem: We Didn’t Trust Our Spare Tire
We’d had the spare tire ever since purchasing the trailer.
We didn’t really know its condition.
On top of that, the lug nuts didn’t match properly.
We managed to get everything together well enough to get off the road, but neither of us was comfortable simply continuing our trip on that spare.
At the nearest welcome center, we asked if we could temporarily leave the trailer somewhere out of everyone’s way.
Thankfully, they said yes.
We put the damaged tire and good rim in the truck and started calling around.
A nearby Walmart had exactly one tire in the size we needed.
One.
And it was only about seven miles away.
On a Sunday.
Sometimes things really do fall into place when you need them to.
We also bought ourselves a floor jack.
Yes, it added more weight to the rig.
But after sitting beside the highway unable to properly jack up our own trailer, we decided it was weight worth carrying.
What Caused Our Trailer Tire Failure?
Initially, we wondered if the tire itself had simply been defective.
Before starting our travels, we’d put new Goodyear Endurance tires on the trailer.
Someone who looked at the damaged tire thought it might have suffered a sidewall failure.
But then Ed checked the remaining tires.
They were all about 10 PSI low.
And that’s when the real lesson began.
We Had Become Complacent About Tire Pressure
When we first started traveling, Ed checked the trailer tires regularly.
Every time we prepared to move, he’d pull out the air compressor, check the pressure, and make sure the tires were where they were supposed to be.
They were almost always fine.
Week after week, he’d check them.
Still fine.
Eventually it became very easy to think:
“They’re always fine. Why keep checking?”
So we stopped being as diligent about it.
That was a mistake.
Underinflated tires can generate excessive heat as they travel, increasing the risk of tire failure.
We can’t prove exactly what caused our particular tire to fail, but after discovering the other three were significantly underinflated, we certainly couldn’t simply blame the tire manufacturer.
The bigger lesson was obvious.
Check the tire pressure. Every travel day.
Tire Pressure Can Change
One of the things we’ve noticed since becoming more diligent is that tire pressure isn’t completely predictable.
Sometimes we check a tire and it’s exactly where we left it.
Another time it might be several pounds low.
Temperature can affect tire pressure, and there are plenty of other variables involved in dragging a travel trailer down America’s highways.
We don’t need to know exactly why a particular tire lost a few pounds of pressure.
We just need to catch it before we leave.
Now checking the tires is simply part of preparing to travel.
Trailer tires and truck tires.
Every time.
RV Gear We Won’t Travel Without Now
Both of these problems changed the way we prepare for travel.
There are several things we consider especially important after this experience:
- A reliable tire pressure gauge
- Portable air compressor
- Proper jack capable of handling the trailer
- Lug wrench
- Wheel chocks
- Roadside safety equipment
- RV roof sealant such as Dicor
- Basic tools for emergency repairs
- A good spare tire—and knowledge of its condition
None of those things are particularly exciting purchases.
But they’re much more exciting when they’re sitting in your storage compartment than when you’re stranded alongside a highway wishing you owned them.
Inspect Your RV Roof Before It Leaks
We also became much more aware of the importance of inspecting the roof.
RV roofs take a beating.
They’re exposed to sun, rain, temperature changes, wind, vibration, and constant movement as the trailer travels.
Sealant can crack or separate.
And it doesn’t necessarily take a large opening to allow water inside.
Our troublesome spot was tiny.
Regularly inspecting seams, vents, roof penetrations, and existing sealant gives you a chance to catch a potential problem before you’re standing inside your bedroom staring at a wet mattress.
Don’t Forget Your Spare Tire
Another lesson from our experience was to inspect the spare, too.
Having a spare tire isn’t particularly useful if you don’t know whether it’s safe to use.
Check its age.
Check its condition.
Check its air pressure.
And make sure you have the correct lug nuts and equipment necessary to install it.
That’s something we wish we’d done before we needed ours.
Sometimes RV Problems Come in Bunches
When we first discovered the water leak, it seemed like a pretty big problem.
Then came the tire.
Suddenly we’d gone from almost seven months without any major problems to dealing with two of them almost back-to-back.
That’s RV life.
Things break.
Plans change.
Weather doesn’t cooperate.
Tires go flat.
And sometimes a stranger from Texas pulls over with exactly the jack you need.
In the end, both problems were resolved.
The roof stopped leaking.
We got a new tire.
We bought a proper jack.
And we learned a few lessons that have stayed with us ever since.
The Biggest Lessons We Learned
If we could pass along just a few things from this experience to another RVer, they would be these:
Check your tire pressure before you travel. Every time.
Inspect your spare tire before you actually need it.
Carry a jack that’s appropriate for your RV.
Inspect your roof and sealant regularly.
Remember that the location of an interior water leak may not reveal where the water is actually entering the RV.
And perhaps most importantly:
Don’t become complacent just because something has worked perfectly the last 20 times you checked it.
That’s exactly when it’s tempting to stop checking.
We made that mistake.
Hopefully, sharing it will keep somebody else from making the same one.
That’s why we share the good days, the bad days, the beautiful campsites, and the days spent sitting alongside the road.
It’s all part of learning to RV.
We’ll see you down the road…and Over The Hills!
Continue the Journey
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