Just got back from a week boondocking in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Had a great time, this is the 5th year or so we've gone, but ran into a bunch of problems this time. I am hoping some folks more experienced with camper maintenance can give me some tips. This is a Jayco 184BH travel trailer, 2015-ish?


Problem 1: I turned too quickly and the back of the trailer got snagged on something solid, pulling off the rear passenger side corner trim. I bashed it back into place with the hatchet, and used some duct tape to try to keep out any water from rain/puddles. What can I use as sealant between the siding and the trim? Just latex caulk? I am less concerned with aesthetics than I am with water intrusion.






Problem 2: I have been getting a combustion odor inside the camper when using the propane refrigerator, and on the outside, I am noticing some discoloration near the upper vent. I hope it shows up on the photo. This may be related to problem 3, below. I noticed it a tiny bit last trip, the occasion whiff of odor, but it was much more noticeable this trip. I took precautions in case this generated CO.




Problem 3: The pilot flame for the propane water heater is not a nice, blue flame. It is frequently yellow and thus, sooty. The inside stovetop burners and furnace work great, the LP tank is full, tank valve is completely open.




Problem 4: Somehow in the last 100 miles before getting home, I managed to get a window broken. Where can I buy a replacement? Can I get just the window and not have to replace the frame?



Thanks for any advice you might have for me regarding these problems.

1: Dicor might have a sealant that will work well with that.  You definitely don't want any "self leveling" sealant, you want something that stays put.
2: Have you opened that up, and looked for spider webs and other nasties in there?  You should be checking it out at least every spring, or more often.  
3: There's a sleeve on the burner that you can adjust the air/fuel mixture.  Loosen the screw, and move the sleeve to allow more or less air until it burns are nice blue color.  You're going to have to try to clean out the soot that's in the water heater, too.
4: Local RV dealer, try Amazon, too.

Good quality 100% silicon caulking.

Thanks for your reply.

In regards to #3, the burner itself is just fine: when it lights up, it looks good. It’s just the pilot light that looks orange and sooty. No mixture adjustment on the pilot light that I noticed, but I’ll look again. I am wondering if it could be a regulator issue: High flow works good (stove burners, furnace, water heater) but low flow (water heater pilot light and refrigerator) not so much. I don’t have a lot of experience with the LP system

Did you drive through a Riot?

Not the best.
What OP seeks is automotive seam sealer:

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-seam-sealer-cartridge.html


If he pokes around some more on that site he will find tools to straighten the corner piece better too.

Someone may have replaced your pilot with one meant for Natural Gas instead of LPG.

The window looks like its in a rubber gasket. If thats the case and you can get a replacement piece of glass it should be easy. A piece of clothesline rope and silicone spray would be all you need. If it is sandwiched between a aluminum frame it may take more disassembly depending on the gasket to frame interaction.

Thanks all for the tips. Much obliged.

We bought the LP vs. natural gas nozzles, we bought the camper new, so unless someone is pranking me, a nozzle change probably isn‘t the culprit.

the pilot light nozzle is dirty and needs to be cleaned.

Putty, or Butyl Tape?

Ours are all electronic ignition, no pilot, so there's that...

The fridge burner is pretty small, and doesn't normally produce much odor when it's burning cleanly - also produces almost no soot.

I'd bet that yours is either dirty, misadjusted, or has a dead bug in the burner orifice (some bugs are attracted to the smell of propane).

It's pretty common to install bug screens on the back sides of the fridge vents, as well as the water heater and furnace vents - a very good modification to make.

There are a couple of RV surplus parts places, might be worth it to just replace the window. Water gets inside and it's over...

https://factoryrvsurplus.com/collections/windows/Window

A couple more RV salvage yards:

https://usedrvparts.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/welcome.pl?
www.rvyard.com
https://colawrvsalvage.com

And some new RV window suppliers:

https://www.all-rite.com/
https://www.easyrvwindows.com/index.html
http://rvwindow.com/RV_Product_Categories.aspx
https://www.sunviewindustries.ca/

Wow, thanks guys!

He’s talking about the burner tube air shutter. Irrelevant.

If the fridge cools adequately it’s not a reg issue.

Sometimes there is “mud” in the lines; lubricant in the LP transport systems from earth to factory to truck to you. Clean out the pilot tube with canned air first.

I thought I'd post an update.

Both the water heater pilot light and the refrigerator were fixed by limited disassembly and cleaning.

I couldn't figure a good way to use butyl tape for the rear trim and not smear it around trying to press the trim back into the right position, so I went with the Dicor, and a new marker light, which I DID use butyl tape on.




As for the window, the local glass place said they couldn't repair it, so I ended up buying a new window with frame for a couple hundred bucks.




Thanks for the advice, all.

Nice work! Looks good.

Excellent! It did buff out!

Great work with the repair OP.  Looks good!

OP, you did an awesome job on that fix.

Thanks, guys. I will have to keep an eye on the Dicor sealant to make sure it doesn’t dry out/crack/etc., but I guess I should be doing that with all the seams anyway.