There has been some interest in the construction of the side dinette windows at the front sides of our Shasta trailers. I have one side apart and the other side still together so I took some pitcures.

The two below show the left window before dissasembly. The outter shows a good number of screws holding the trailer skin to the framing near the window. Also note the molding has shrunk away from the skin. On our trailer a good bit of caulding had been applied in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent leakage. The inside frame is cosmetic.

The picture below shows the left window after the inside frame is removed. Not much detail can be seen though. The inside frame and the glass doesn't have the radiused corners that the outside skin has.

The glass is held against the aluminum skin and the molding around its edge by 1/4" plywood strips nailed around the window frame. The pictures below show these strips. Well they aren't quite 1/4", some are 1/4" and some probably 3/16". Note in the pictures two strips were put on the top. One was used on each side and on this window there was no strip on the bottom.

The right Dinnet Window was the same. The pictures below show it. Note the dammage to the framing under the window. The 1x2 is nearly rotted through.

I believe the sealing was dependent on the glass being pressed against the rubber molding which went over the aluminum skin. The picture below shows the original molding shown on the left. The molding on the right is a replacement for our Hehr window molding from Vintage Trailer Supply. I can't see any difference and think this would be a good replacement. A report on ClassicShasta list verifies this is a good replacement, i.e. "it worked great".

This should work well but a better method of pressing the glass against the molding may be useful. I've though of using spirngs such as the first or second springs on this page. A report on the ClassicShasta list suggested "1/4" caulking backer rod", which is a closed cell foam tube, which might work as well or better.

A report from the ClassicShasta list suggested: "Use new nail or screw holes so the plywood strips that push against the glass do not move. Definitely a weak point of one the design but those windows are one of the things that makes a Shasta unique. One of our sills was completely rotted away, just a pile of black dust in the bottom of the wall."

So, that's what I have so far. If anyone has ideas or knowledge of sealing these windows better please let me know. It'll be some time before I need to put these back together but will need to know what to do by then.

Thanks for any information you can add.