2016 379FL Solitude Leak Right Front Slide

[DMWestoby]

We experienced our first leak. My husband stepped on a wet spot in his socks (which he very much dislikes). After walking around and feeling we felt the front corner right slide by the speakers and it was wet. We are in Tillamook so we do get rain during the winter. The right side is facing south and the front facing east. Anyway, we both looked at our cat Boo. Poor girl. I all but put my face into it and said it is not Boo, it is water. So now we have the carpet pulled back and the pressed board is wet. We believe it came in from the slide due to the wind blowing the rain from the rain gutter above right onto the top of the slide mechanism and we feel like it is coming in from there. Right now we have a ceramic heater on it and it is slowly drying. My husband has an idea / solution but we will be calling Grand Design as we just bought this the end of May. We love our Beautiful Behemoth and hope to nip this in the bud.

Anyone else experience this on the 379FL??? If so, what were your fixes or solutions besides the shop? My husband spent 20+ years as an ASE Master Certified Tech and his work was so well loved that doctors not only brought their cars in they begged him to work on their RV's so he is extremely technical and mechanically saavy.

[rickw801]

We have a solitude and love it as well. We have not had any leaks but I have heard of this happening on occasion and it usually the rubber gasket that folds back and forth as the slide goes in and out. Check that to see if maybe a small section is folded under. It hopefully is as simple as that. Especially if you've had no leaks lately or recently moved your slides since the last heavy rain. Anyway I'm sure it's nothing serious. Hope you find it which I'm sure your hubby will.
Rick

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[LCBoyer]

I have never had water inside, but the curb side front slide has water damage to the floor

[goducks14]

That rubber flapper is mainly a squeegee. The seal comes from the seals inside the unit when the slide open and the seals on the slide edge when closed. The flappers definitely provide some support to stop rain but isn't the main seal. I would look at the seal inside the trailer when the slides closed.

[DMWestoby]

We experienced our first leak. My husband stepped on a wet spot in his socks (which he very much dislikes). After walking around and feeling we felt the front corner right slide by the speakers and it was wet. We are in Tillamook so we do get rain during the winter. The right side is facing south and the front facing east. Anyway, we both looked at our cat Boo. Poor girl. I all but put my face into it and said it is not Boo, it is water. So now we have the carpet pulled back and the pressed board is wet. We believe it came in from the slide due to the wind blowing the rain from the rain gutter above right onto the top of the slide mechanism and we feel like it is coming in from there. Right now we have a ceramic heater on it and it is slowly drying. My husband has an idea / solution but we will be calling Grand Design as we just bought this the end of May. We love our Beautiful Behemoth and hope to nip this in the bud.

Anyone else experience this on the 379FL??? If so, what were your fixes or solutions besides the shop? My husband spent 20+ years as an ASE Master Certified Tech and his work was so well loved that doctors not only brought their cars in they begged him to work on their RV's so he is extremely technical and mechanically saavy.

It is now leaking on the other side. Dining area, bedroom and fridge/stove slideouts are fine right now. We shall see...we were in contact this morning with Grand Design.

[DMWestoby]

We have a solitude and love it as well. We have not had any leaks but I have heard of this happening on occasion and it usually the rubber gasket that folds back and forth as the slide goes in and out. Check that to see if maybe a small section is folded under. It hopefully is as simple as that. Especially if you've had no leaks lately or recently moved your slides since the last heavy rain. Anyway I'm sure it's nothing serious. Hope you find it which I'm sure your hubby will.
Rick

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

The forecast shows a break in weather this weekend....so we hope to pull one slide in at a time to see if we can diagnose what is going on. It looks like we will have to pull the couch out on the left side...we took the couch out on the right side and have a computer nook. So we will look at all things that everyone has said. I believe in prayer as does my husband...so we are asking for wisdom and revelation in what is going on so we can get it fixed. Thank you for your feedback. By the way, we do love our rig.

[DMWestoby]

That rubber flapper is mainly a squeegee. The seal comes from the seals inside the unit when the slide open and the seals on the slide edge when closed. The flappers definitely provide some support to stop rain but isn't the main seal. I would look at the seal inside the trailer when the slides closed.

We will be doing just that. Thank you for your feedback. Praying for good weather tomorrow and Sunday.

[DMWestoby]

I have never had water inside, but the curb side front slide has water damage to the floor

We definitely knew slides could be an issue, but were hoping that we skate by...well, we live in Tillamook (Land of Many Waters) which include lots of rivers and water from the sky during the winter. LOL We have the carpet peeled back on the right side with the heater going. The plus side is...I am nice and warm! We are hoping to take care of this ourselves as we are set in place (no truck yet)...we shall see. Did you figure out how the water damage happened???

[goducks14]

It's been a really wet Oct in Oregon. Even though you have a leak, at least you found it quickly. Had it not been raining as hard as it has this month you may have just had an off and on small leak that over time would be worse since it may not have been detected as it is now. You would have had damage done at a slower rate and for a longer period of time.
Good luck.

[DMWestoby]

So, we have discovered on the slides that have the track (front slides and bedroom) that the only wet areas on the outside are at the top and bottom of the bottom tracks. The top of the slide to just above the bottom track between the rubber is bone dry on each of those two slides (on both sides of the slides). So the water is coming in just above the bottom track. We are going to clean it well and only because we are stationary for a while, we are going to use gorilla tape to try to deflect the water in those areas. We have had to pull the couch out on the left side so we can pull the carpet up and in exactly the same place, it is leaking somehow being deflected through the bottom track of the slide. My DH has gone to our local hardware store to see what he can find. We will keep the carpet pulled back and monitor as we are in our rainy season and we want to make sure to nip this in the bud. Right underneath the bottom tracks my DH put his finger up to his knuckle and it is very wet. But he did the same from the top down and it is very dry. We are now pretty sure it is coming in right at the top of the bottom tracks. Wish us the best and we'll even take prayer. We are now looking at taking the carpet out, sealing the wood, putting down 3/8th flooring that has been sealed and then finding the same flooring as in the kitchen to put down. Then we will just use a throw rug. Both sides (the FL living slides will remain carpeted. Oh my!