how do you clean the rubber bumpers on a 2011 roadtrek

sergeant76 New Bedford, MA Senior Member Joined: 04/28/2004 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member Offline	Need to have damage done to my rear/side Bumper cover on our 2010 Chevrolet/RoadTrek 190 Popular repaired. Would anyone know what the bumber cover is made out of? Ron Ron & Rose Cabral New Bedford, MA 2010 Chevy/RoadTrek 190 Popular FMCA-303873 ~K1RRC~ RRCRT@aol.com
loving retirement SF Bay Area Senior Member Joined: 06/30/2006 View Profile Offline	I believe the ground effect covers are made of PVC. If so then it is made of the same material that is used for some of the sewer pipes in many homes.
PSW Oklahoma City Senior Member Joined: 10/21/2002 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member Offline	Ron, that seems to be a common place to injure those ground effects. I had a similar experience on the left front bumper three or four years ago. My plastic actually cracked for a distance of about 3/4 inch. I fixed it myself by cleaning the back side of the plastic and then lightly sanding the affected area with rough sand paper to get a good bond. Then, I applied liberable amounts of J&B Weld up there. I let it dry for a couple of days then wet sanded lightly the visible damage and touched it up using a matching color auto touch up paint. I emailed Roadtrek and they sent me the code for the correct color of touch of paint. Interestingly, it was a Pontiac color! It matched perfectly. I got to thinking how vulnerable those corners were to abrasions and so I went to Home Depot and bought some adhesive backed material used to repair pond liners (the kind of water features people have in the back yard that are lined with a really heavy special plastic material). I cut out four pieces of the patch material to about a 3" by 5" size and cut a radius on each corner of each piece. Then, I removed the backing carefully aligned and applied the piece to the bumper cover corners so that exactly where your damage is would be covered, that obviously being the most vulnerable spots. The material has a black matte finish and almost perfectly matches the black portion of the bumper. Believe it or not, it looks great and appears to be original to the design. I kept some extra material and figured if I ever zapped a bumper again and scratched up the little guard I had made, I would just replace it. Once the material is in place and pressure applied to it for a minute or so and after it sets overnight, it is on there to stay. Years later and lots of washings later it has never moved or come loose. Remember this material is designed to be applied in a continually wet environment so it is pretty resilient. If I were doing it again, I would not even bother to use the touch up paint. I actually like the appearance of the four little bumpers better than the plain look from the factory. It makes the bumpers look less vulnerable and we all know those ground effects are exatctly that: vulnerable. Total cost of the repair: less than ten bucks for the patches and about ten for the touchup kit, which is good to have on hand anyway. I also have a Chevy touchup kit for the Sand color of my RT body. PSW 2013 Phoenix Cruiser 2350 2014 Jeep Cherokee behind it and a 2007 Roadtrek 210P for touring
sergeant76 New Bedford, MA Senior Member Joined: 04/28/2004 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member Offline	Thanks Loving Retirement and PSW for the information. I appreciate the info that PSW forwarded regarding the adheshive backed material that is used to repair pond liners. Will be going to Home Depot to check it out as well as to purchase it. Ron
MarshaNichols Salinas Senior Member Joined: 05/18/2012 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member Offline	PSW wrote: Ron, that seems to be a common place to injure those ground effects. I had a similar experience on the left front bumper three or four years ago. My plastic actually cracked for a distance of about 3/4 inch. I fixed it myself by cleaning the back side of the plastic and then lightly sanding the affected area with rough sand paper to get a good bond. Then, I applied liberable amounts of J&B Weld up there. I let it dry for a couple of days then wet sanded lightly the visible damage and touched it up using a matching color auto touch up paint. I emailed Roadtrek and they sent me the code for the correct color of touch of paint. Interestingly, it was a Pontiac color! It matched perfectly. I got to thinking how vulnerable those corners were to abrasions and so I went to Home Depot and bought some adhesive backed material used to repair pond liners (the kind of water features people have in the back yard that are lined with a really heavy special plastic material). I cut out four pieces of the patch material to about a 3" by 5" size and cut a radius on each corner of each piece. Then, I removed the backing carefully aligned and applied the piece to the bumper cover corners so that exactly where your damage is would be covered, that obviously being the most vulnerable spots. The material has a black matte finish and almost perfectly matches the black portion of the bumper. Believe it or not, it looks great and appears to be original to the design. I kept some extra material and figured if I ever zapped a bumper again and scratched up the little guard I had made, I would just replace it. Once the material is in place and pressure applied to it for a minute or so and after it sets overnight, it is on there to stay. Years later and lots of washings later it has never moved or come loose. Remember this material is designed to be applied in a continually wet environment so it is pretty resilient. If I were doing it again, I would not even bother to use the touch up paint. I actually like the appearance of the four little bumpers better than the plain look from the factory. It makes the bumpers look less vulnerable and we all know those ground effects are exatctly that: vulnerable. Total cost of the repair: less than ten bucks for the patches and about ten for the touchup kit, which is good to have on hand anyway. I also have a Chevy touchup kit for the Sand color of my RT body. I am sooo visual...any pictures?
sergeant76 New Bedford, MA Senior Member Joined: 04/28/2004 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member Offline	I have been informed by an individual on the RoadTrek Facebook that he believes the bumpers are ABS Plastic, he also mentioned If it needs body filler I would need a flexible abs plastic body filler. On another forum I was also informed that they felt it was ABS Plastic. With the information I have received I will attempt to repair the damage myself. Ron
ryegatevt New Hampshire Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2005 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member	I've always been tempted just to take off the plastic "bumpers" altogether. The RTs I've seen without them look more stealthy and to me neater. We bought our rig off the lot and if I had ordered I would have deleted the ground effects. No plastic would also cure the dreaded "curb anxiety"... Steve & Bev 2005 Roadtrek 210 Tess, our Sheltie
loving retirement SF Bay Area Senior Member Joined: 06/30/2006 View Profile Offline	ryegatevt wrote: I've always been tempted just to take off the plastic "bumpers" altogether. The RTs I've seen without them look more stealthy and to me neater. We bought our rig off the lot and if I had ordered I would have deleted the ground effects. No plastic would also cure the dreaded "curb anxiety"... I have been told that a few owners have successfully taken them off of Roadtreks. Anyone that has done so, I would be very interested in knowing the steps in removing the front and rear ground effects.
1775 NY Senior Member Joined: 09/30/2009 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member	loving retirement wrote: ryegatevt wrote: I've always been tempted just to take off the plastic "bumpers" altogether. The RTs I've seen without them look more stealthy and to me neater. We bought our rig off the lot and if I had ordered I would have deleted the ground effects. No plastic would also cure the dreaded "curb anxiety"... I have been told that a few owners have successfully taken them off of Roadtreks. Anyone that has done so, I would be very interested in knowing the steps in removing the front and rear ground effects. There was a recent discussion about this on the Roadtrek Facebook group and Roadtrek says that they rivet the bumper covers on so removing them would result in a bumper with a lot of holes in it. The alternative - which one of the owners there is doing - is to buy new bumpers and replace the covered bumpers. We did not order our RT with the bumper covers. It looks just fine with the OEM Chevy bumpers front and rear. I can pull up to the front tires when parking facing a curb with no worry. Roadtrek 190 Popular 2011 Meryl and Me Hit the Road
sergeant76 New Bedford, MA Senior Member Joined: 04/28/2004 View Profile Good Sam RV Club Member Offline	PSW, went to my local Home Depot to purchase the adhesive backed material used to repair pool liners. They did not have any stocked, just starting to stock the shelves with pool supplies, I do know the price is $4.98, went to Lowe's they did have material to repair pool liners, but the material is clear, not black. Also, it does not have the adhesive backing, a tube of glue comes with it. Ron

how do you clean the rubber bumpers on a 2011 roadtrek

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