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Old 12-28-2014, 10:43 AM   #1
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Roof hatch leaks through knob

Hello friends,

My first post here. I have a 97 Chevy blue bird diesel short bus. The project is coming along nicely, seats are out, insulation and flooring in, bed frame in, but both of my emergency roof hatches leak through the knob. When I pop them and get up there I see that both hatches are concave! They are sunken in a little and each holds about a half inch of water on top. It's no surprise they are both leaking a bit through the knob hole, down past the inside knob handle and dripping down onto the floor (and now my bed).

I'm going to assume that these hatches are not meant to hold standing water and that they have sagged due to age. I put some goo around the forward hatch and it helped a lot, but there's still a bit of moisture. The rear hatch didn't leak until I opened it, now it drips too so I'm going to goo it up as well but it's a temporary fix. I live in western Oregon so rain this time of year is pretty much non-stop pineapple expresses.

So I'm looking for a nice, permanent solution. Not against buying two new hatches but they don't seem easy to find. school bus parts dot com or something has hatches but no prices. I doubt they're cheap new.

I read some other posts on this site that mention replacing the roof vents with simple rv vents instead, this seems like maybe the cheaper option? Anyone have any thoughts on that?

The project is coming along great, and I plan to spend Feb-Oct traveling the country!

Thanks for the great site and maybe I'll see some of you on the road?

-Michel

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Old 12-29-2014, 05:55 AM   #2
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I hope to hit oregon in the summer!
My bus has leaky roof hatches. What I plan to do is remove them entirely and patch the holes with steel. Then install either rv type vents or probably ac units.
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Old 12-30-2014, 01:24 PM   #3
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Roof vents generally measure 14 x14 inches but emergency hatches are more like 24 x 24 (if memory serves, and in this case it may not) lol.

The easy way would be to remove the hatches and just cover the holes with fiberglass or sheet steel. Use some butyl tape to seal the patches and you're good to go. You can always cut in your roof vents later.
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