Bottom Slide Cracking

[tyates007]

If this has been asked before I am sorry. I did use the search both on the forums as well as Google and did not find much. We just got back from a great trip. During the trip as I was running the glides out I noticed a popping/cracking noise from the front room slide. Upon inspection there is a plastic corner piece on the edge of the slide. Looks like a small plastic angle piece. This has cracked and broken. Has anyone else had this happen. Looks to run the whole width of the slide. My main concern is water damage occurring. Here is a picture.

[wcampbell]

Same issue on my rig. Those are called slide out skis and they are sold by Recpro. Yes you will have water damage if not replaced.

Most likely the problem is your slide rollers are positioned at the very outside edge of the slide where the ski is located. So when the slide moves the roller crushes the plastic slide ski.

The solution is to move the rollers inward a few inches (toward the center of the slide) so the rollers do not contact the slide ski.

You may also need additional rollers, which are cheap around $25 each. There are YouTube videos showing how to add rollers. This involves having the slide 1/2 way out and jacking up the slide 1/4 inch or so and installing or moving rollers. Also when part way out you should be able to replace the slide ski easily.

Once you do that the slide skis should be fine.

If you do not have rollers and you slide just moves over a “wear bar” then add rollers. Be sure to measure as rollers come in different sizes.

My small bedroom slide has 3 rollers none of which contact the slide skis. This is proper.
My large super heavy kitchen slide has two rollers at the very outside edge crushing my slide skis and it’s jerky when moving. Also you would think Forest River would put the rollers over the support gussets off the frame. I have a wide body toyhauler.

Oh well another project on the rv due to crap lazy building quality.

Good luck!


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[Second Chance]

@tyates007, you don't say what model and year your RV is (you can create a signature with that information). We had the same thing happen on our 2016 Reflection 337 and the issue is not with the rollers. This happens because the slide floor is fastened to the sidewall in that location with screws through the sidewall into OSB - not a very good idea in the long run. The screws are not long enough and the OSB is not solid enough to support the weight fastened this way. If you look underneath, you will likely find that the floor is sagging there, too.

Working with Grand Design Customer Service, one of our favorite mobile techs jacked the floor back in to place, pre-drilled holes (not done during manufacturing), and installed longer, stronger screws. He then installed new plastic trim and metal flashing (provided by Grand Design) over the repair. The results were good and it held up well.

Rob

[tyates007]

Same issue on my rig. Those are called slide out skis and they are sold by Recpro. Yes you will have water damage if not replaced.

Most likely the problem is your slide rollers are positioned at the very outside edge of the slide where the ski is located. So when the slide moves the roller crushes the plastic slide ski.

The solution is to move the rollers inward a few inches (toward the center of the slide) so the rollers do not contact the slide ski.

You may also need additional rollers, which are cheap around $25 each. There are YouTube videos showing how to add rollers. This involves having the slide 1/2 way out and jacking up the slide 1/4 inch or so and installing or moving rollers. Also when part way out you should be able to replace the slide ski easily.

Once you do that the slide skis should be fine.

If you do not have rollers and you slide just moves over a “wear bar” then add rollers. Be sure to measure as rollers come in different sizes.

My small bedroom slide has 3 rollers none of which contact the slide skis. This is proper.
My large super heavy kitchen slide has two rollers at the very outside edge crushing my slide skis and it’s jerky when moving. Also you would think Forest River would put the rollers over the support gussets off the frame. I have a wide body toyhauler.

Oh well another project on the rv due to crap lazy building quality.

Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you I will check the rollers

[tyates007]

Thank you Rob. I will update my profile. Coach is a 2018 Solitude 377. I have contacted Grand Design by email but will try and call them this week.

[tyates007]

Thank you Rob. I will update my profile. Coach is a 2018 Solitude 377. I have contacted Grand Design by email but will try and call them this week.

Grand Design contacted me back this week. Says slide ski is the issue but no idea why it would crack the way it has. I need to call their parts number and see what the price for new skis would be. I am a little worried what would have caused it to break and crack. They don’t look horrible to replace so I may just try and do it on my own. Dealers are so far out in their service departments right now it could be months before I can get it in.

[tyates007]

I know it’s been awhile since I posted this. Finally got around to replacing the ski this week. Went with DuoForm Slide Skis. They are much wider and much heavier than what was on the rig originally. I did the job by myself in about 1.5 hours. Not to bad at all. I am pretty finicky about for so I probably custom cut the ski a lot more than needed but that’s the beauty of free labor 😉