Jalousie Windows

I’ve always liked the look of jalousie windows on a vintage camper, but the ones on either side of the ’65 Avion truck camper have a flaw that can cause them to leak. They are high enough on the wall that they slant inwards at the top, and since the sill is designed to be horizontal when the window is installed, it actually slants inward about 6°. This means that water that gets onto the window sill is likely to pool rather than drain away to the outside. If your window is perfectly sealed the water should just sit there until it evaporates, but chances are the seal will not be perfect and the water is going to find its way into the wall.

*Water pooling on the window sill. The camper is level, but the window sill slants toward the interior. The operator hardware has been removed.*

Some jalousie windows, like the ones in our 1964 Airstream, have a sill that slants outwards so the water drains. To solve this problem I made an aluminum ‘cover’ for the sill that allowed it to slant out for drainage. There may be better ways to do this, but I used 3/8″ aluminum bar stock which I shaped on the milling machine. It was time consuming, but not as bad as having the new wings rot out again.

The new sill in place from the outside. The tape is to make it easier to remove excess Trempro 635. There are 3 stainless steel screws holding the piece in place. The sill doesn’t go all the way to the outside edge to allow room for the window to close, and because there are drain holes at that point so water is unlikely to accumulate.

In these photos the new window sills are in place. Since the original operators sat directly on top of the sills they had to be moved. This works out better anyway because the dinette table will block the bottom of the windows and the operators in the original positions would be hard to reach. I happened to have a couple of NOS jalousie operators that I picked up last year at a Habitat for Humanity Restore that could be installed halfway up the window. It took a bit of fiddling with the linkages, but they work great now!

I did this to the two windows on the curb side and the single window on the street side. The bathroom also has a jalousie window in the back wall, but that wall is vertical so it doesn’t share the same problem.

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