An Expensive Free Night Of Camping

In our starter motor home, we had single pane windows.  In our current rig, we have dual pane glass.  Dual pane has some advantages such as better keeping out the heat or cold and also reducing noise.  But there is also a disadvantage.  Eventually the seals that separate the two panes of glass will break down and the seals will have to be replaced.  We noticed that in one of our windows we had a “creeping seal”.  It was in the top of the window.  The seal should only be around very inside perimeter of the glass, but the seal in this area was starting to move down in the general direction of the center of the window.  Although not the greatest picture, if you look at the right edge of the of the window above the level of the work bench, you can see how the seal was “creeping” away from the edge.

When you see this happening, you must deal with it fairly quickly.  These failing seals will allow moisture to get between the glass and even though it may well dry up in the sun, acids and other nasty things in the moisture will eventually etch the glass and permanently cloud the glass or even make it difficult if not impossible to reseal the window.

We found an RV window shop in Phoenix and made an appointment.  We checked all the other windows and found a second one with a failing seal so we had them both done.  The first one was right behind the entry door.  Country Coach apparently never intended for this window to come out.  A valance that covers two windows and a wooden pillar both had to come out to be able to get to the interior screws that held in that window.  It took well over 2 hours for that window to come out.  Fortunately the other window was in the bathroom and that one came out readily.

After removal, they take the window into the shop and with a utility knife they cut each pane off the glued seal.  They clean up the glass, lay in a new perimeter seal and seal it up with a hot melt solution of some sort.  They clamp it, allow it to dry, and then trim off the excess “tar”.

We were about 90 minutes from glass shop so they only got started on us at about  10 AM.  They finished up about 4:30 PM making it too late for us to head back as we would have arrived in the dark and we don’t want to set up camp in the dark.  So they just hooked us up at their shop and we had a “free” night of camping, as long as you ignore the $650 it cost us to repair the seals in two windows.