Need HELP with trailer issue

[auntie]

Okay gang..thoughts, information, help, prayers..anything you have I'll take it.
As some of you know, we have been having an "issue" with carpenter ants this season. We have the trailer (2000 Jayco Eagle) on a seasonal site in upstate NY. We noticed a few early in the season..didn't think to much of it. Sprayed..inside and outside of the trailer. Then we'd go again..and we'd see dead ones..and then some live ones. Again..spray and boric acid. Last weekend, well over a HUNDRED dead ants. So my husband AGAIN is checking the roof..underneath the trailer..looking for signs of entry..or wet wood. The roof is good, and we check it all the time, for cracks, and the roof and ac vent as well. This weekend we went in..and again LOTS of dead ants. Only this time, we notice a HUGE concentration on the top of the dinette booth..where the back of it meets the wall to the slide. This time my husband literally takes the dinette, and the cabinet under it off the wall and off the floor. We notice the carpet feels "damp"..and has a musty odor. Then he pulled it up from the corner and the ply wood in the corner seems wet and moldy. He goes outside and is feeling around the slide out unit..and the frame feels soft...the part on the outer wall. We didn't rip the black covering material off to see, as we want to tow it home before we take anything else apart. I did call our dealer, and sort of "picked his brain" as to what's going on. He did say that water damage from a water heater, or something of that nature, would probably be covered by insurance, but if it were a maintance/roof issue it probably wouldn't. This is making us sick...We are very careful and miticulous with our trailer..and keep the roof clear of debris, and make sure there are not seams that are cracked, that sort of thing. It is obvious that water leaked into the slide at some point, but we can't figure out where or how..but it's obviously wet. We at that point also popped open the shower which is at the rear of the unit..and found HUNDREDS of dead ants in there. WE never use the thing, and we honestly never even thought to check in there. We know we have to get the thing home..but are worried that if these ants have been living in the trailer they may have done some structural damage as well. Since it's on a seasonal site, and we're not there all the time we wanted to get it home to have it evaluated.
I'm asking..what do any of you know about this sort of damage, and is it really repairable on an eight year old trailer. I'm hoping that it's covered by insurance...but also know they'll probably fight tooth and nail to not cover it.
(we deal with ins. companies every day in regards to auto's but never in regards to RV's). Going to ask some of the adjusters we deal with tomorrow, but I know there is a wealth of information on this board, and even some brokers who could maybe steer me in the right direction as to how to approach this claim. At least I guess I'm happy I don't owe anything on the trailer..but just the same, I don't want to spend thousands repairing it either. We have had some great family times in it..and I'd hate to have just walk away from it at this point.
Any information or input is appreciated at this point. Thanks.

 

[AuburnJen92]

Wow Phyllis, I didn't realize it was that bad. I would pm Big Kahuna1 and ask him what you are up against. He had some great advice for me when I had some problems in the insurance area with some family members. I wish you the best of luck. I had carpenter ants really bad when we bought this house because it was sitting unoccupied. They even nested in our vending machines. I would have it inspected top to bottom for those critters. They get into everything. They are also nocturnal btw.

 

[auntie]

Thanks Jen. Big Kahuna...I knew there was someone on the board familiar with insurance issues. I'll do that tomorrow if he hasn't seen my pathetic post before by then. I'm so DISGUSTED. It's just that it's the last thing we need right now. We are so looking forward to our FW trip, and this is going to be a busy week for me. Getting the kids all set, and I have a Dr.'s appt for my mom....and I have to get my parents set and make sure someone is checking on them while I'm gone. Just a thousand little things that you need to do before a vacation. It figures, I'm nervous enough about leaving the kids(aka..my house!)..and my pets(hoping the kids remember to fee the pets )...and now our campground closes by Oct. 15..so the pressure is on to get the trailer out, as we won't have access to it after that. With us being in Fl. the next two weekends, it doesn't leave us much time. That's why my husband said, let's just get it home and take it from there. We don't have to rush and call the ins. company todoay..it can wait. I guess. He's calm..I'm a worrier. Then I get aggravated because he doesn't worry.
The ants..being noctornal...you bet..that's why we won't be staying in it again anytime soon. I'm gonna have a glass of wine and then go to bed..make that two glasses.

 

[LONE-STAR]

Even if Ins. dose not cover it it can be repaired. My dads trailer is a 1981 he bought it used years back. When he bought it we did not know anything about trailers. Well it had water damage bad. So we took the out side walls off replaced the wood in the walls and then put the outside walls back on. How ever my dad knows alot about construction. But he is in a wheelchair now so he told me what to do and we rebuilt a TT. His brain my back but it worked just fine. Best of luck with your trailer I know you can fix it.

P.S This is also why me and the DW bought a brand new trailer. One to work on is enough.

 

[Momof626x3]

I don't have any advice but wanted to tell you that I know how you feel...we have the same problem except most of our floor was affected by water damage. We don't really know why, we can only guess what happened. DH repaired the floor to the best of his ability and it's holding up fine but doesn't look very nice (and is still "hilly"). We had a leak in our front slide and think that was somehow the problem. We also have carpenter ants!!!!! They are horrible and they will not go away. They rode all the way to Disney and back...traps don't work, sprays don't work. They are chewing the foam insulation too. It is finally getting cold so they will die...I have to think about a new plan of attack for next year. Good luck with your issues...I hope you get them all resolved and have a wonderful trip to the Fort!!!

And if you find a way to get rid of those ants let me know!!!

 

[auntie]

Did you look into whether the ant infestation is covered by insurance. I'm trying to determine that, but my policy is confusing me. (apparently, it doesn't take much )My husband thinks that the water damage is probably repairable..or at least he thinks so. It's not that extensive. It appears to be limited to the slideout, but then again, once you really start taking it apart who knows what you may find. He's concerned that these ants tunnel through the wood to live in it, and could be weakening the over all structure. We don't know what to expect towing down the interstate. When going back over this..we actually did see a few ants LAST YEAR, but didn't think anything of it. Figured we're camping..you're gonna see ants once in a while. Only then this year, they were back with a vengence! So it would appear they've been in there a while now. I'm thinking it is getting cold that is why they appear to be dead at this point..who knows what the spring will bring. Temps upstate were in the 40's some nights with highs in the low 70's. They are going dormant at this point..I think. Still gross though.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I did roofing for 11 or 12 years back when I was younger, we only found ants where there was water leaking. My experience was that we never found an infestation on a dry building. The jobs we did have to repair from water and ants were treated with spray while we had it torn apart, after the rebuild I never had anyone with a continuing problem. Long story short is that once you dry the thing out and repair it you should be good to go.

 

[Shan-man]

The wood in your trailer is not structural, there is a steel or aluminum frame that provides the strength in your trailer. The wood in the walls is mostly there to attach cabinets, join wall seams, mount accessories, etc. So my advice would be to go on and tow. The one concern I can think of is if the sidewall material (fiberglass, aluminum, or whatever) is pulling loose due to damage inside the wall (delaminating). A 60mph wind getting under the sidewall could rip it off rather quickly. But it sounds like your damage is much less than this.

As you are investigating your leak, don't underestimate the amount of moisture that can come in via basement doors. I had a lot of sidewall and floor rot in my dinette area because the basement doors admitted damp air into the under-bench storage (1/2 accessed inside, 1/2 outside). I had mushrooms growing in there! Damage I couldn't even see until I tore the dinette out. My recommendation is to seal the exterior doors as best you can (replacing gasket material, adding weatherstripping, tightening latches) and when storing your rig place a dehumidifier in it. I put mine in the shower and open the drain plug so the water just drips out into the shower pan (and then into the grey tank). It not only helps the rig dry out any water that does leak in, but it removes most of the musty, old smell that's always there the first few days of a trip.

 

[big kahuna1]

If the water damage is sudden and accidental, ie a pipe broke or burst or the water heater burst, and not a maintenance issue such as caulking etc... then the damage caused by the water should be covered. Unfortunately, insects and vermin (critters) are excluded.

As I indicated before, carpenter ants like to nest in or near moisture. They are less active in the winter. They can cause damage by tunneling in the wood. They do not eat the wood but discard it. They may carry it outside to discard it so you may not see any saw dust but I am not sure about this.

There could be numerous things that caused a leak. I had a stinkin' rat or mouse chew through the underside of my TT and then climb on top of the black holding tank and then chew through the floor and get into an area under the toilet and then chew through the stinkin' water line. Luckily, the water just leaked on to the ground and I really had no damage other than the chewed line but it was a nightmare getting to the line that was damaged. Nasty, messy job that was. This of course would not be covered but had the line just burst and caused damage, the damage would have been covered.

I would try to get rid of all signs regarding the ants to the best of your ability and place a claim for the WATER DAMAGE. The company will have an adjuster determine whether it is water damage that would be covered or not and if not, they have to state why.

If I can be of any help feel free to pm me.

 

[auntie]

You know what's wierd too..is that at one point early in the season, I thought that there was a wet spot in the water heater cabinet. ..which is in the bathroom. I store the toilet chemicals in there..when I went to get it, I noticed a small wet spot on the vinyl flooring in the water heater cabinet. We actually put a small wash cloth there, to see if anything else leaked..and never saw the wash cloth wet after that. Is a little odd though. The water heater is in back of the slide out unit. I wonder if it could slow leak while the slide was in..? I don't know, my head is spining. I guess we have to get it to the dealer and see what they think. We were going to bring it home, but maybe a dealer closer to the campground would be a better option. Of course with the campground closing and our scheduled trip to FW (in Tina's RV.. )... we're running out of weekends to get this done. Normally this isn't something we'd wait on..but we're scheduled to go to FW this Saturday, won't be able to get back to our trailer until Columbus Day weekend. Which happens to coincide with the closing of the campground. Only we have to get our golf cart home too. We had anticipated leaving the camper on site again this year. (NEVER AGAIN!) It was nice, safe and dry on my driveway..which is where it should have stayed all winter.

 

[AuburnJen92]

If the water damage is sudden and accidental, ie a pipe broke or burst or the water heater burst, and not a maintenance issue such as caulking etc... then the damage caused by the water should be covered. Unfortunately, insects and vermin (critters) are excluded.

As I indicated before, carpenter ants like to nest in or near moisture. They are less active in the winter. They can cause damage by tunneling in the wood. They do not eat the wood but discard it. They may carry it outside to discard it so you may not see any saw dust but I am not sure about this.

There could be numerous things that caused a leak. I had a stinkin' rat or mouse chew through the underside of my TT and then climb on top of the black holding tank and then chew through the floor and get into an area under the toilet and then chew through the stinkin' water line. Luckily, the water just leaked on to the ground and I really had no damage other than the chewed line but it was a nightmare getting to the line that was damaged. Nasty, messy job that was. This of course would not be covered but had the line just burst and caused damage, the damage would have been covered.

I would try to get rid of all signs regarding the ants to the best of your ability and place a claim for the WATER DAMAGE. The company will have an adjuster determine whether it is water damage that would be covered or not and if not, they have to state why.

If I can be of any help feel free to pm me.

I told ya Kahuna would come to the rescue!

 

[juligrl]

Ouch - water issues are no fun any way they come. I don't have a trailer, but I do have a cottage that's having some water issues and a mouse (not the Mickey kind either) chewed its way in because of it. Good luck with getting your issues resolved.