Small world, I discovered a leak in my front dinette Hawk a couple of days ago. The first sign of a problem was it was hard to push up the roof, there was water and ice buildup on the outside of the windows, on one side only. I regret I didn’t take a careful look outside at that time, I was busy checking out the water that was inside. There was water/ice accumulation inside on top of the dresser lid. The only part of the inside canvas and thermal liner that was wet was directly above the dresser lid, at the end of the rear window. There was no water anywhere at the ceiling. The truck was parked on a slope with the rear downhill. The damage was limited to the laminate on the lid, separating around 2 edges, and a small patch of the thermal liner lost half it’s thickness because it was frozen to the lid.
I’m assuming somehow water got in from the front or side and flowed down between the folded canvas like a gutter until it found a way out, at the back of the rear window. The big question in my mind is how did the water get in from around the closed roof. I never had any problems in the past with water getting in while driving through rain/snow. I usually park it in the barn for any severe weather or high winds. The only thing I can remember when it was parked outside, since it was last opened is a wintery mix of a half of an inch with no significant winds. If there was any driving with that with snow on the roof it was 10 miles or so below 45 mph. On a different day, actually night, I did drive through heavy fog for about an hour. The water was only on the passenger side and that is the side that I have an additional, a seventh, turnbuckle. All turnbuckles were tight. So I’m confused on how the water got in to begin with.
I learned the importance of making sure the windows are well sealed even when, especially when, the roof is down. I will be parking it inside more often and/or opening it up more often just to check. I wonder if anyone uses a water detector/alarm or even better something that monitors humidity (Govee?) to avoid this type of thing or worse.
