Emergency Roof Hatches

[moosemanusa]

So curious, what products have people used to stop it raining inside?

Those darned Roof hatches always leak, Silicon dries up and cracks to often (does in Texas heat)..

[bevans6]

Mine doesn't leak.  Stock seal, in an MCI.

Brian

[TomC]

Use silicone grease around the seals-doesn't dry.

[belfert]

Mine don't leak either, but my bus is newer and has the Transspec hatches like most school buses have these days.

[Iceni John]

If your bus has older hatches/ventilators about 24" square, you should get some Transpec hatches off a school bus being scrapped.   The inner (lower) and outer (upper) halves are simply screwed together, sort of like an RV window frame.   Different versions of the Transpec hatches are available to match different roof curvatures.   When I repainted my roof I recaulked everywhere using Loctite S40 polyurethane sealant, including around the edges of the roof hatches  -  so far, so good.   Silicone sealants are less effective than polyurethane ones, plus you can paint over the poly ones.

John   

[Dawgs]

I'm needing new seals on mine as well.

[lvmci]

Hi All, I'm going to take the front hatch cover off and fabricate a dual pane window over the front hatch, which will open on the rear side, with a normal window crank, we had a sky lite in our previous bus, and my wife loved it, these hatches on the mci3C are almost as big as those skylits, lvmci..

[moosemanusa]

The buses (3 of them same problem) are running new hatches, the two part ones.. The (hard rain) gets under the plastic and seeps through, We've tried Silicone / Roof Tar but once they dry they just crack.  The Transits locally have the same problem. 

I think the issue is finding a waterproof solution that allows for flexing,  We used Plastidip (almost like truck liner) because its fairly waterproof but if layered up correctly should block moisture, its also flexible.

These are Black Buses and when in the sun can reach extreme temps, Egg frying temps pretty much 250 days plus a year.