Slide problem 303rls

[EJWilliams]

I would call GD and ask for a dealer in your area that they would recommend. There is a new kit out to help with that issue.
It consists of extra rollers that can be installed. I believe the dealer would have to order it from GD.

Thanks for the advice, The factory told us they would fix it through even though it was out of warranty.
The dealer is ordering the parts and looked at the problem. They say they will fix with blocks covered with carpet, not rollers. They say they have better results with this fix. Interesting!

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[slauretani]

Glad to hear you are getting it fixed. I would be interested on how the blocks work out for you. Keep us up to date.

[311Snow]

Our 2019 311BHS (Purchased 1st week of March) has a torn floor on the driver side right in front of the fridge. We have a trip this weekend and then it's going back to the dealer for a few other fixes. I hope they can patch the floor and figure out what is causing the tearing. The appliance slide does seem to be very heavy and tends to "bounce" as it comes in/out. I am wondering if the extra rollers are needed on our model as well.

[Clsfly]

Do the extra rollers actually fix the problem? To me it seems the extra rollers just increase the spots where the floor can get torn again.
I'm continuing to use the carpet runner when we close the slide, rollers never contact the vinyl (which is wrinkled from the original damage). I'm not sure the rollers actually 'roll' they seem to be stuck and just drag on the vinyl. The vinyl isn't glued down where the rollers contact it and it just pushes it.
In summary: the slide is out of adjustment, cheap rollers, cheap vinyl, vinyl not glued down & the owners aren't warned of the potential problem.

[Canyonlight]

See post #2 picture and narrative from Rob where his 2015 (and our 2014 as well) has not only the black floor rollers but white slide rollers. It seems at some point GDRV stopped building with the slide rollers on some/all models. Not sure why but it would be interesting to learn the history on this as it seems to not be the right move.

https://www.mygrandrv.com/fo...=slide+rollers

Dan

[Superduty]

The street side slide (heavy side) on my 2018 Reflection 303 tore the floor, as been reported here before. Took it to the dealer, as it is out of the 1 year warranty however, Grand Design did take care of repairing. Here is what they did, and after this I understand why you should not add extra rollers for support.

They removed the 3 slide glide bars (wood) which are to help support the slide when moving in/out. One on each end of the slide,and one in the center which is the one that tore the floor. They also removed the trim corner caps, and trim panel (black toe kickers) and trim 1/2” off the bottom of these so the are even with the floor to the slide.

Now, when I start the put the slide out it barely touches the floor for appx 2-3” then the rest of the way out it never touches leaving appx a 3/16” between the floor and the bottom of the slide. With the 3/16” gap, a roller would have a lot of weight on it, which could and does leave some marks in the floor.

(Anyways, I will continue to put a small thin board under that area to prevent this from doing any more damage, just to be sure)

The night before the repair, meet a couple with a 18 303 going to the same dealer 6/24. Guess why? Yup, a tore floor, same area except this is there second time in for this. They have the extra roller added already and stills put a piece of thin sheet metal under the roller when moving the slide currently. You should see the marks the roller has left. Most rollers I’ve seen are a minimum 1 1/8” in height. You can do the math from 3/16”. A lot of weight on that roller to carry the slide. No wonder it leaves marks in the floor, etc

I threw a old picture I had before the repair of the wood slide bars. Not the best picture, but maybe it would help someone out.

Attachment 20580

[Superduty]

Forgot one thing to mention. I took sand paper, and under the slide I made sure it was nice and smooth. No rough edges, etc. This way, if the slide does sag, at least it should glide across the floor without gouging.

[ramcneal]

Has anyone tried to correlate when the problem occurs to the amount of food items in the pantry and drinks in the refrigerator? I don't have a 303RLS or any Grand Design at the moment, but this is the unit my wife and I are thinking about so I'm curious to know what's the key contributor to this problem. I guess I'm asking is this weight or something unknown occurring to the slide that causes the problem.

[EJWilliams]

Thanks for the advice, The factory told us they would fix it through even though it was out of warranty.
The dealer is ordering the parts and looked at the problem. They say they will fix with blocks covered with carpet, not rollers. They say they have better results with this fix. Interesting!

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Bad news, the floor ripped out again after taking the unit out for the first time. We also had a problem in Utah with the passenger side spring hanger break and lost a wheel and tire.
The floor was fixed by our dealer (McClains Rv in Sanger Texas) and did a great job. It seems when they put the blocks in with the carpet the screws were too short and came out causing the blocks to turn and tear up the floor even more. It looks like we now have the spacing required and time will tell.

The spring hanger is another problem. We were pulling into Helper UT. when I noticed smoke coming from the rear of the coach. It was caused by the drivers side wheel plate rubbing against the tire causing it to smoke. We had already lost the wheel and tire on the rear axle drivers side and had to have the axle, wheel and tire replaced in Helper UT.

Since the incident, I have found multiple spring hanger breaks listed on this web site and would appreciate pictures forwarded to me regarding the problems. I have been turned down by LCI saying our tires were not torqued properly and possibly did not do the maintenance required since I performed it myself and did not have receipts.

Progressive Ins. handled our claim and they were very professional and efficient except for the handling of the subrogation from LCI.

Any help would be appreciated.



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[KennyC]

The floor in our 303 RLS kept getting damaged by the support at the front edge of the slide in front of the left edge of the fridge. Apparently, there is a lot of weight bearing on that support. Fortunately, only 1 square inch of the vinyl floor ripped up but remained partially attached. To keep this from getting worse, I did the following:
1. Removed the floor molding at the front edge of the slide - it's nailed from the top, so it can be carefully pried up and removed.
2. Pried the slide support under the fridge away from the slide floor as much as possible - the support is screwed into the bottom of the slide floor.
3. Cut the 4 screws holding the support using a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel.
4. Removed the slide support and filed any protruding screw material flat.
5. Cleaned any debris from the slide area.
6. Attached 1/8 thick felt (1-inch wide and a little longer than the support) using industrial velcro - thinking that if the felt is damaged with time, I can replace it.
7. Checked the slide operation - worked great, no floor problems.
8. Pulled the nails from the slide floor molding and painted it with a Sherwin Williams interior acrylic paint mixed to match the brazilian walnut stain.
9. Reattached the molding with 1-inch brads using a pneumatic brad nailer.
10. Glued the vinyl flooring flap with a 2 part epoxy cement.
So far, slide is working fine and looking like new.