Fixing my 1994 Prowler camper trailer - water damage, bent axle - updated 6/19/26

Water damage. It's almost inevitable with camper trailers. Despite decades of experience building campers, manufacturers can't seem to figure out how to keep their products water tight.

I bought this 24 foot Prowler about three years ago. It seemed to be in decent condition:



It has a nice, clean bathroom:



A newer queen mattress:



And the interior, though definitely dated, seemed sound:



Take a closer look at the wall to the left of the window. See the wrinkles? That's water damage. Leaking water is slowly dissolving the 1/8" plywood paneling, which eventually releases the vinyl wallpaper from the paneling.

It turns out there is a total of four areas that have damage, roughly corresponding to the four corners of the trailer. I briefly thought about just getting rid of it, but I couldn't saddle someone else with these problems. I decided to fix it.

The first step of course is to fix the roof:

This is the intersection of the front metal and the roof membrane. There were several holes like this along the edge of both the front and back of the camper. 

It seemed to me that the best way to fix it would be to recoat the whole roof. But first I filled all these holes with sealant, making sure to squirt it inside the holes. Once dry it was time to coat the roof. This is the roof coating I used, which I got from Home Depot:

It received good reviews and has a 12 year warranty. And it was relatively inexpensive at $134 for the 4.75 gallon pail.

I waited for sunny day and removed the broken awning from the side of the camper. The roof was pretty clean from a recent rainstorm, so I rolled on the white goop, which was messy. Two coats took about half the bucket:

Really pleased with the way this came out.

That TV antenna and the AC unit are coming out. No one uses cable TV anymore, and the AC unit is a non-serviceable design and of course doesn't work. Eliminating these two things will eliminate two roof penetrations.

I put a piece of plywood in the hole, making it flush with the surrounding sub-roof. 

I bought a piece of roof membrane, cut it to fit, and glued it down. Once dry, I covered it with the white roof coating. Came out nice. I'll try to get some pics of the roof.

But it's not quite weather tight yet. The windows all need to be removed and recaulked. I did this in conjunction with the interior repairs, since the windows are held in with interior bezels which must be removed to get the windows out.

So let's move to the demolition of the inside. I took off all the damaged paneling and did the various repairs needed. The plan is then to wallpaper the whole camper to make it all match.

I started with the right front. The paneling was degraded and soft above the window, and came off rather easily. Here's what I found underneath:



At first glance we can see some mold, but it really isn't that bad. The batt insulation was wet, and the window header had a spot that was almost completely rotted through on the upper left corner.

While I was here I decided to delete the cabinet. It wasn't very useful and sort of takes up space. I took off the little countertop and disassembled the cabinet, but I retained the face frame intact so that I could reposition it flush with the fold up table area.

I temporarily set the face frame into the opening to see how it looked:

You can see here that I had already made the framing repairs and painted it with Kilz.

This cabinet door will be non-functional since the space inside is only about four inches deep. But I plan to build a box and make a seating area with a fold up seat, so there will be storage there.

I skipped ahead, so let's go back to the wall. I replaced the rotten header:



That was the only bad piece. I put in new insulation:

I was unable to locate any sort of 1/8" plywood. It seems to me there used to be something called luan plywood, basic plywood that was good for closing the backs of furniture projects and the like. But all I could find was hardboard, Turns out that hardboard was a mistake. It's not stable enough for this kind of application, and ended up bowing. But it looked really good at first:

This was a somewhat complicated cut because I wanted to install it as a single panel. The upper half of the front of the trailer is tipped backwards to make it more aerodynamic, but I thought the lower part was vertical. It wasn't. The length along the floor was 47 inches, but it was 48 inches at the mid intersection point. And nothing was square. The walls weren't square. None of the cabinets were installed level or square. It was quite a challenge to get a tight fit with the hardboard.

Just above this area the ceiling was also damaged. Just like the wall repair I cut out the bad stuff, replaced the wet insulation, and cut in a new panel:

Next, the left front corner:



No rotten wood here, but some mold. 

Kilz again to the rescue. I then put in new insulation:

And installed the new panel:

Caulked:

With the wall covering:

Moving back to the bedroom, it's clear the window was leaking since there was no damage above it. I peeled off the paneling and found this:

This is the worst damage in the camper. The piece that forms the sill was completely rotted through at the lower left corner of the window, and the vertical member below it was also quite damaged. The floor plate, however, was in good condition.

So I removed the bad pieces and made up some replacements:

I put in the insulation and installed the hardboard:

And caulked the seams:

And finally the new wall covering:

Next, the ceiling on the other side of the bedroom:

Happily, the rafters were intact. The OSB is a little punky but is not falling apart. Since replacing the OSB would require removing the roof, which is not recommended, I'm just going to let it dry out and then repair what can be accessed from the underside.

It appears that the camper was assembled from the inside out. All the cabinets have screws and staples that could have only been installed if there was no roof or siding. I would guess that the factory assembled the walls with the interior panels and stood them up into position on the floor. From there it seems they installed the cabinetry by running the staples and screws in from the outside. Then they insulated and put on the aluminum exterior sheets. 

I suppose it's efficient, but that makes repairs a lot more difficult.

Continuing on. I painted it with Kilz and insulated it:

Then a piece of hardboard:

This repair went over the face frame and into the interior of the cabinet above the bed.

Seams caulked:

Finished:

Above the couch:

Above the door:

Wider shot:

Main area above the door:

I removed those AC ducts.

Since my bad experience with the hard board the next best thing I could find was some 5 millimeter plywood I found at Lowe's. I primed front and back, cut to fit and installed it. It's just slightly thicker than the original, but I made it line up by shimming under the original panel.

Finished:

My wife recovered the couch/bed and made the curtains. I got rid of the ugly carpet and linoleum and installed peel and stick tiles, and trimmed it out with some PVC bead detail from Lowe's 

And the kitchen:

The bath:

The only thing I did in here besides fix the leak in the toilet water line was replace the floor.

Bent Axle

I notice some premature wear on the left front tire, so I pulled it off and did some measuring. I put a straightedge horizontally on the brake drum surface where the wheel mounts. I measured to the frame at the front and back of the brake drum:

That is nearly 1/4" of difference. Placing the straightedge on the front of the axle, I confirmed that the axle is bent.

11/19/25 update:

I borrowed a bunch of chain from my son and wrapped it around the axle:

I attached the other end to a nearby tree:

The tree was not in alignment with the trailer, so the route of the chain takes it around a fence post. I bolstered the post with an angle brace and hooked up a come along:

I did several pulls and releases until the axle checked out as straight:

(The dimension is different from the previous pics because I was measuring to a different point.)

6/19/26: A friend at church contacted me and said he had heard that I might want to sell the camper. He wanted to gift it to one of the pastors, so I consented. 

It's now gone to its new owner:

I hope the new owner get lots of trouble free use.