Homeowners and RV owners who have experiened a torrential downpour without gutters know the uneasy feeling of having water pour down the sides of their vehicle or house. Homes without gutters allow gravity to take the water usually to the side of the house, but it gets everywhere. Gutters provide a path for the water to be moved how the homeowner wants it.
Installing gutter spouts on an RV is relatively simple compared to a home. It’s also very beneficial to avoid future leaks and to place the water where you want it to go.
Installing RV rain gutter spouts is a simple matter of placing connectors on your house, then hooking gutters into the connectors. This can be a do it yourself project or one you get pre-assembled.
How to install rain gutter spouts on your RV with pre-assembled gutters
If you want the easy and slightly more expensive way, you can find a pre-designed kit for your RV. The kit will come with a couple of gutter sports and the hardware needed to connect them to your RV. The hardware generally includes a couple of anchors or clips that attach to the gutter rail.
What are gutter rails?
Gutter rails, or drip rails, are generally preinstalled on your RV. These rails keep water flowing in the right direction within your RV. The main purpose of the gutter or drip rail is to keep water from reaching the side windows and other potential openings on your RV. They often don’t dump the water any place in particular, but ensure that rain or snow is slowed down when falling.
Gutter rails also offer the opportunity to more easily install better gutters and gutter spouts that better control the direction and speed of moving water.
So, step by step
You’ll probably need a ladder to reach the gutter rail on your RV. You’ll also likely need a screwdriver.
If you want to have your gutter spouts on extra secure, consider drilling a small hole in your gutter spout. You can apply glue sealant to this – so consider glue too.
- Place the gutter spot in either the end of the gutter rail, or in the place where you need it based on where water flows off your RV.
- The gutter spout can be installed with a screw, glue sealant, or by fastening it into the gutter rail. It really depends on the spout itself. We would recommend glue and a screw if you have both options. This could also mean drilling a small hole into the back plate of the gutter spout so the glue can come through.
- Installing with a screw is a matter of placing the right sized screw through the hole and into the gutter rail. These usually hold well, but RV rattling could gradually make this come close.
- At this point, consider pouring some water from a bucket or a hose into your gutters. Ensure the water is flowing to where you want it to go after exiting the gutter spout. We suggest this before adding glue or anything else.
- Adding sealant glue will also help keep water from running behind the gutter spout. You can slather sealant glue on and make sure it coats the gutter rail and the connecting piece on the gutter spout. We suggest apply glue through the hole you drilled so that it applies to both at the same time.
- Allow the glue to try for at least a half an hour, if you did use glue. If you only plan to use the screw, you are already done.
If you don’t have gutter rails, you will probably need to go through the process of installing gutters. This article is written more for the purpose of gutter spouts, but installing the gutters themselves are a matter of choosing a material like plastic or PVC, measuring the right length of your RV, and installing alligator clips on your RV. The clips hold the gutters in place, though getting glue-lined rubber gutters also works.
What does the gutter spout do?
The gutter spout does what the gutter rail doesn’t do very effectively. A gutter spout can be installed in the place you want to funnel water to the right place. You can get a variety of lengths and angles for gutter spouts that allow water to flow further away from the RV.
Different lengths and angles ensure that water is further from your RV, which is nice when you are parked and don’t want to walk through RV-made puddles when leaving the RV. While a regular gutter might just let water drain straight off without real direction, the gutter spout forces tha water down, then in the direction you want.
Can I adjust the gutter spout later?
Even if you added glue to your gutter spout, it’s not really permanent. Glue is meltable or can be chipped off. If you decide later that the gutter spout is needed elsewhere, you can just loosen the screw that holds the system in place and slide it elsewhere.
This is one big advantage to the design of independent gutter spouts – the whole thing can be changed!
Can these be professionally installed?
They can, but you probably won’t need professional installation. This is especially true if you have gutter rails already installed. The process is just one or two steps.
If you don’t want to climb on a ladder, then we suggest you do either get pro help or someone who is taller than you to help.
Conclusion
Gutter spouts are a simple, effective way of funneling water away from the sides of your RV to a place where it’s safer for you and your occupants.
Installing is also easy and just involves a screwdriver, some glue, and a little handiwork. The process is well worth it to ensure your water flows to just the right spot and doesn’t make the side of your RV runny and black with rain water.
