Sealing tail light housings to camper body

[Mr. Lahey]

Hi all,

Had a problem with a water leak at tail light housing on my maiden voyage. Seems I guessed wrong on how to seal these up to the body. I have water leaking into the hatch from the wiring access hole.

I think I have the repair figured out now that I really look at what I did wrong. I would like to hear from those who have used this type of light and sealed it up right.

In below picture I ran a strip of butyl tape around outside perimeter of tail light housing as shown by red arrow. I also plugged the 4 notches like one shown with red arrow with butyl tape as well. Just did not seem right to me to let the water run in the top. Follow the groove around and then out the bottom.

Plan now is to lay the tape all around surface shown by yellow arrows. The screw housings back on. This should let water run in and out of housing. Yet still seal surface by wiring to keep water out of the body?

Am I on the right track here with the redo?

tailliteback.jpg (71.2 KiB) Viewed 2394 times

Out to the shop now to take off 4 lights and clean all the butyl off the wrong surfaces.

[linuxmanxxx]

Just get clear e6000 glue and seal it everywhere so no water gets in or behind housing and that stuff sticks and stays stuck.
Steve

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[GuitarPhotog]

Use some butyl tape around the edge, and seal with a polyurethane caulk like sikaflex or trempro 635.

[saltydawg]

Best way to water proof them is to never seal the bottom, always leave water away out.

Electricians waterproof electric boxes by drilling a hole in the bottom, water will find a way in,letting it out is easier than stopping it from getting in.

[les45]

I've always just installed the fixture tight to the skin and then run a bead of latex caulk all around the perimeter of the light and then paint the caulk to match (usually white).
I've been doing this for years and nary a leak.

[Mr. Lahey]

Thanks for the input guys.

I decided to go with letting the water in and out of the housing. Then just sealing the wire pass through hole. Seems to have done the trick. I rolled up some butyl tape into kind of a rope. Then closely circled the wires with the rope and kind of mashed the wires into the rope too. Then I screwed the housings back down. I had butyl squeezing out the back side of wiring hole when done. I pressed it back into the hole to get a good tight seal.

So far it's survived the several buckets of water poured right on the housings test. Dry as a bone inside the hatch. Hopefully mission accomplished.

[saltydawg]

I would still try to seal the top of the housing a little. Even with just some clear caulk, yes you need to let the water out, but if you can stop some getting in its less to let out.