Pretty similar to my parking situation and leaks. Got my GFC in Feb 2022. Parking-wise I am slightly nose up and slightly tilted toward the passenger side. So would get that rear corner wet. With support from GFC I’ve done a bunch of sealing and it seems to have fixed things. I feel like I won’t know for sure until Fall/Winter in the PNW.
Care to share what areas you did?
I had a similar issue a few weeks ago where I got caught in some rain (first time camping in the rain with GFC camper.) I was experiencing dripping in the same area as your first photo. It appeared in the gap between the forward/fixed floor and the next piece of floor. My assumption is that rain coming down the opened tent somehow found it’s way on the inside of the frame or between the frame and the fixed part of the floor then crept along that ledge until it had an escape. Not a huge deal breaker for me as I generally never plan to camp in the rain, it hasn’t leaked there before and it was still dry up top.
I have a 4’ awning on the passenger side so with the passenger side cabana door open, it did not cover the whole door and I was getting water dripping down and the rear corner. Closing the door solved that issue, obviously.
That makes sense and might be what happened in my initial scenario. I haven’t been caught in enough rain again to verify.
I have been getting water still from the lower part even with camper closed, but I’ve been working with GFC to troubleshoot some of that stuff.
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I still get some leaking from somewhere underneath the inside front corners. That’s probably my fault for not taking more time to seal under the bed caps, etc. Also, I only see leaking from pressure washing.
Ya I sealed my Tacoma too but even driving to work today in light rain it crept in. I’ve also had it creep in during a hard rain while parked so who knows how much of that is the Tacoma design or GFC seals not working properly.
There still might be a gap depending if you had a factory bed cover or not. Mine came with the tri-fold and there is a rubber ‘plug’ along the front bed rail near the corners that I did not fully seal. I didn’t know about the plug until after install of the camper.
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I sealed the gaps at the corners where the machined aluminum corners meet the extrusions with Lexel provided by GFC. I sealed the gap between these two pieces on both the top horizontal surface as well as the side vertical surface. All 4 corners.
I also sealed the tent corners with shoe goo provided by GFC and per their instructions.
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Yup. That is all the spots in the PDFs they sent me. I did the same. Not the cleanest looking but fingers cross it does the job.
I did get caught in rain driving to work yesterday though and still had water in the bed but undetermined where that is coming from. I still think part of it is thru the bulb seals and part from bulkhead cap. Sent some pics to GFC again last night and waiting a response.
Again, still love my camper but appreciate the collaboration and feedback.
Agreed that the Lexel looks kind of shabby. Fortunately it’s out of sight most of the time.
I’m enjoying the camper in the nice weather and hoping when Fall & Winter arrive that the sealing does the trick.
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The seal that runs horizontal isn’t a bubble seal like mentioned in the videos. it’s a strip of gray, double-sided 3M and then a black, squishier strip (no bubble). It doesn’t run the entire length of the upper extrusion so there is about a 1/2" gap between the seal and the aluminum blocks. I also see a hole cut, assuming for water egress, but it’s very obvious why water is getting inside the tent. I placed a flashlight in the tent and closed it.
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Well good news and bad news:
First the bad news: I was a fairly early V2 Build (Aug '21, #1725) and had major water intrusion. The kit fixed issues when closed up, and I thought had fixed water intrusion when in use. Now that it’s monsoon season and rains are heavy, I’ve found I still have issues with the tent and seams wicking up water and soaking the bedding and even pooling up and dripping down in some spots.
Good news: I put in another service request with lots of pictures and videos. Without any questions, I get an email saying under warranty I get a new tent! They have a different way of making the tents now with heat sealed seams. Stoked on the customer service. Thankfully I’m near Denver where they have a partner repair shop. I even get to change the color to Grey (found the orange too flashy for my camping style).
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Thanks for posting your issue! I too had a similar experience (November '21 install, #2327) during a significant rain storm a couple weeks ago and noticed water wicking in through the bottom seam. Our mattress, sheets, etc. were soaked. I put some seam sealer on the outside of the tent (had already done the inside) around the bottom and on sewn areas and it has helped some, but still experiencing water ingress. I submitted a ticket to GFC as well, looks like they’re out of the office this week so expecting a response next week at the earliest.
This thread shows the difference in old vs new V2 tents
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Hello all,
After my long saga of issues since my install in Montana on April 17th, 2022 I finally went back to GFC to get everything repaired this past June 2022. At the time everything seemed great and they used a new product to seal everything up. After that June repair date I never saw rain. Now, with the rain back in the PNW my camper is back to leaking horribly! The front panel is leaking……again……and now the tent through the core-ply roof/ edges. I must say, i am incredibly annoyed. I have now reached five service request and this isn’t even a year old. I hope to hear back from them soon. My camper is definitely not made for the PNW LOL.
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I’m sorry to hear that. I’m also in the PNW and with the return of rainy season will be watching closely to see if the fixes GFC advised this past Spring actually did the trick. Fingers crossed.
Good luck on yours.
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I’ve had my service request in now for almost a week so i hope to have a solution soon. To be honest I think my panels are bent and the aluminum is not squared up/ is bent too, which is allowing the water to come in. My GFC was pulled from production before I received it in April due to issues……I wonder if not all the issues were caught.
So thought I would add to this too. I’m order #3922 on a Ford Maverick. I had it installed on Oct. 5th via white glove from Calder.
Wife and I had a chance to take it out. It rained pretty heavily through the night.
When we woke up, my wife’s pillow was soaked. I opened a service ticket accordingly and they asked if I could hose it down and see where the water came from.
The zippers on our tent for the front window wick a TON of water from outside the tent to inside. So they are basically sponges and once they absorb enough water, it just runs down straight into the mattress.
I also noticed that we have the “gills” drilled out, but no shoe goop in the corners. There are holes in the corners but right now thats the least of my concerns.
I’m curious if anyone has noticed this on their campers? Or did my wife and I end up with the only wicking zippers?
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I have been in rain too and didn’t experience the zipper sponge (#1229) I’m starting to think I have the only dry tent made by GFC
on a side note, you tease with “on a Ford Maverick” and don’t share pictures?
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