Delamination and Temperature Extremes

[Jager]

Ok question for you guys that might have experienced delamination of the fiberglass exterior of your camper.

If you have experienced this do you use your camper in an environment that has a large temperature difference between the inside of the camper and the outside?

I have a friend who was building a house. He had a pretty nice 5th with fiberglass exterior. We live in the far north east. He living in his camper all the way into January while the builders were building his house. He put his 5th away fro the remainder of the winter and in the spring of the next year noticed that the siding was all delaminated. He thinks this was because the temperature inside the camper was 75F while the outside temperature was 10F (or whatever, very cold). He feels the large temperature difference between interior and exterior put stress on siding and it separated from the walls.

Any comments on this? Anyone out there do winter camping where there is 50 - 70F difference in temp between interior and exterior? How how about cooling side of this. Anyone out there who goes camping in 110F temperatures and cools the camper interior down to say 65 or 70?

[Bob Landry]

From my experience in the marine industry, there are millions of watercraft of all sizes that have endure temperatures at both ends of the spectrum and do not suffer from delimitation. Delamination is cause by water intrusion into the layers of the fiberglass layup. That said, trailers are different in that they do not utilize a standard fiberglass layup. What you will find is a material with the trade name "Filon" that is nothing more than cheap plywood covered with a layer of chopped mat and something similar to gelcoat.
True delamination is a slow process that can take months to years to manifest itself, while delamitation on trailers begins as soon as water seeps down between the plywood and gelcoat. The wood gets wet, and like any plywood, the glue begins to soften and the plys of the wood begin to separate. Some manufacturers, Like Jayco, claim to have some kind of super-duper heat/pressure process for making their Filon, but in reality it's all the same stuff and requires diligent maintenance as far as checking seals around doors and windows This is why the manuals all stress this and why so many warranty claims for delaminaion are rejected.

[Festus2]

I too would question that exterior/interior temperature extremes could cause delamination. As Bob pointed out, almost all delamination is caused by water or moisture penetration into the layers of plywood, fiberglass and gel coat. In some cases, delamination can be caused by a sloppy layup process, a "bad" batch of glue, and a couple of other reasons but this is highly unlikely to happen in this industry.

There have been a few posts which talk about the effect of covering and whether or not doing this somehow contributes to delamination. It seems that the heat buildup under the cover is suspect but there is nothing out there to prove that covering can cause delamination.

Perhaps your friend's RV had some kind of unknown and unfixed leak that started the delamination and that the temperature extreme had nothing to do with it.

[Bob Landry]

I think the problem with trailers unlike boats that have a solid fiberglass layup, the Filon is constructed mainly of wood with minimal fiberglass and gelcoat and is much more susceptible to moisture intrusion and immediate damage beginning after it happens. It would be unfeasible to build trailers with the same type of layup because the weight would be such everyone would have to have a 1 ton truck to tow one.

It's for that same reason I would be hesitant to cover a RV. Once moister gets under it, the heat would vaporize the moisture into almost steam, and I think that would contribute to the breakdown of an already fragile gelcoat layer.

[theeyres]

Delamination is also often caused by poor glue up when made. Heat will then cause the filon to separate from the luan. But this is still not what your friend is talking about.

[JRTJH]

I wonder if the temperature extremes, when it's much colder outside than inside could cause any moisture in the walls to condense on the back of the luan, permeate through it, cause the luan to stay wet and cause the delamination when it get's hot later in the year?

[Jager]

Thanks for all the responses and good information. Interestingly enough my friend did complain about moisture in the camper. His wife would cook in there which I'm sure put tons of moisture in the air. He said that his windows would sweat like crazy and that they were always wiping them down.