Dear Dave,
You may recall that I wrote earlier this year asking about coating the new roof on my travel trailer. Thank you for that information. I wanted to share this photo of what the repair tech discovered in the refrigerator vent stack when he removed the old roof. This is the plywood cutout from the original factory roof that was simply dropped and left in the exhaust stack on top of the coils during construction. I feel fortunate that there wasn’t a fire as a result.
I wonder if it wouldn’t be prudent for other owners of this year and model trailer to have a quick inspection of the exhaust stack just in case this wasn’t a one-off occurrence. —Bruce, 2022 Gulfstream 189DD
Dear Bruce,
I am amazed that you did not have a significant loss of efficiency or cooling of the refrigerator with this piece of wood blocking the cavity behind it. It just reinforces the debate of quality and workmanship, especially during the “COVID years.”
Quality control issues not just in RV industry
However, this is not just the RV industry. I have a friend who purchased a new, custom-built home four years ago. (They were not first-time buyers.) They are now replacing carpet and outside trim. The deeper they “dive,” the more they find poor workmanship and inexpensive materials used. The entire subdivision seemed to be “luxury” homes and several are having the same issues. It just goes to show that even with codes and inspections, not every unit will be perfect.
This is also an example of an RV manufacturer that is actually an “assembler,” as they purchase almost every component from a third party original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In this case they would have purchased a generic roof that fit almost every floorplan in that length and cut out the vent area for the refrigerator. Otherwise, the hole would have been cut during or just after the roof was made.
Insulation in roof
What is also a little puzzling is the piece is just an 1/8” lauan panel, and there is no foam insulation or any other material glued to it. Looking at the Gulfstream website, I would guess the roof has loose fill insulation rather than block foam. Therefore, the hole would be cut first in the top rubber membrane stretched over plywood or lauan and the loose fill pulled out to expose the inside ceiling panel. This would have been cut and then fell into the cavity.
Most likely the assembler did not realize how this would impact the refrigerator and may have thought someone would do a final cleaning. This happens quite often on an assembly line when you have one project or task and not knowing what gets done further down the line.
It also might be a result of the “piece pay” process, where you get paid by the finished piece no matter how long it takes. So, the faster you work, the earlier you get to go home at full pay.
Clean behind the refrigerator
This is why I recommend removing the refrigerator vent and cleaning it out as well as inspecting the cavity. I have found insulation that fell into the cavity and even some that was filled by the assembler thinking it needed insulation in the gap.
Thanks for the follow-up and the recommendation to check the cavity—and not just with your model, but with anything that has an absorption refrigerator and an upper vent.
Second follow-up from Bruce
I sent Bruce the rough draft of the article and he sent this reply back:
“Looks good, Dave. Thank you. I was having problems maintaining a decent temperature in the refrigerator, especially when I visited Arizona earlier this year. There wasn’t any insulation in the vent stack but then, there wasn’t a lot of insulation in the roof anywhere. Now I can easily get the fridge down to 28°…”
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Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and the author of the “RV Handbook.”
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Quota systems and “piece pay” give us cheap (?) RV prices and the high profits that investors demand. Quality and workers suffer.
Thank you for the word of warning, Dave! This seems something that should have been essy to address when the hole was initially made. Have a great week and safe travels!
The less time a rig is on the assembly line the bigger the bottom line; cleanup takes time. I have found lots of saw dust and scraps on my rig when doing repairs.
I found the same thing after I had the roof replaced after storm damage. I guess this is a testimony to the training of people doing this work and/or how much they care about what they do.