by  Minty   LaVendy

When we were looking to purchase a Coleman popup I did a lot of research and I was aware of the fact that there was a bad batch of ABS roofs on the models from 1995 to 2000, the ABS plastic that forms the roof shell is bad and when exposed to sun rays deteriorates and cracks, the interior is not affected since the roof is made of a double shell, filled with foam and only the surface exposed to the sun deteriorates, which means that the inside shell is still new . We purchase one of these models, knowing we could fix it. When we purchased it it only had  a few hairline cracks, within a few months, the whole thing was cracking and the plastic was curling around the cracks. I ordered the ABS pellets, mixed them with some type of stinky fuming chemical ( I forgot the name) applied on the areas affected.....and voila!.....so I thought....After a few months the patched areas started cracking again as the rest of the surface was constantly cracking. That is when my husband who has experience with sailboats decided to patch the dammaged areas with fiberglass.....ugly but it worked.....for a little while.... Now the roof was really ugly and still cracking.

 We were planning a trip to Fort Wilderness ( Disney's campground), as a temporary and desperate measure I decided to cover the pop up with tar tape ( One side aluminum,one side tar used for roof repair) I covered the whole roof with several layers of tape, let it seat a couple of weeks under our burning south Florida sun to settle, and painted it with white roof paint to look pretty. That was 4 years ago and we did not have to worry about the cracking roof anymore, except for an annual new coat of paint to keep it white. I wished I had found that solution first, it would have saved us a lot of aggravation. The repair is now permanent, the roof is now totally sealed and worry free. Once more the simplest and cheapest solution ended up being the best. Not only the new roofing is very efficient it is also a cosmetic solution, as it hides all the areas that were dammaged.