Free Standing Table Came Loose

jgfprralt

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Joined
Aug 18, 2022
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9
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Hollidaysburg, PA
We have a 2022 303 RLS. It has a free standing table which is screwed into the floor. The table along with the theater seats are in a slide out where the floor of the slide out is flush with the main floor of the unit when the slide out is extended. The four screws holding the table in place ripped out while traveling. We were fortunate the table did not hit the large window by the table and break the window. It appears the floor of the slide out flexes a lot when the slide out is retracted for travel, so much that it pulled the screws out of the floor. Has anyone else has this issue and if so how did you correct it? I tapped some dowels into the holes the screws were in and reattached the table, but is came loose again.
 

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We have a 2022 303 RLS. It has a free standing table which is screwed into the floor. The table along with the theater seats are in a slide out where the floor of the slide out is flush with the main floor of the unit when the slide out is extended. The four screws holding the table in place ripped out while traveling. We were fortunate the table did not hit the large window by the table and break the window. It appears the floor of the slide out flexes a lot when the slide out is retracted for travel, so much that it pulled the screws out of the floor. Has anyone else has this issue and if so how did you correct it? I tapped some dowels into the holes the screws were in and reattached the table, but is came loose again.

Wow, I agree that you were fortunate that the loose table didn't do more damage. We don't have that coach, so I can't comment directly, but have you considered other ways to secure the table while traveling until you are able to find a more permanent solution? Have you reached out to GD Customer Service yet? Often they will authorize a mobile tech who could do repairs on your site.

BTW, it looks like you're new here, welcome to the forum.
 
Soundsailor - thanks for the response. I have contacted Grand Design customer service. Their response was

"The floor/table will have to be diagnosed by a tech before I can answer your question. We’ve not been told about an “issue” with other floors so there isn’t a “fix” already set by our engineering/production teams."

In the meantime we are turning the table upside-down for travel since the table surface is much larger than the footprint of the legs. If there was a force violent enough for the legs to hit the window we would probably have other damage to the unit. There are a few other things where I will probably be taking the unit back to the dealer so will see what they say. I thought of putting something up through the bottom of the floor from the exterior of the slide out, but would have to be very careful nothing protruded that could damage the main floor of the unit when the slide is retracted.

And yes, am new the forum. Signed up to see if anyone else has reported an issue like this. To me is seems like the root cause is the amount the floor of the slide flexes when retracted for travel. Since it fits flush with the main floor when extended there is no reinforcement along the edge or under the floor. When the slide is retracted you can easily flex the floor by pressing on it with just one or two fingers. The legs of the table attached to the pedestal are very rigid, the floor bows underneath the legs and in time it pulls the screws out. Forgot to mention, the theater seats are in the same slide. The head of one of the screws holding the theater seats actually snapped off before the screw pulled out of the floor.
 
Soundsailor - thanks for the response. I have contacted Grand Design customer service. Their response was

"The floor/table will have to be diagnosed by a tech before I can answer your question. We’ve not been told about an “issue” with other floors so there isn’t a “fix” already set by our engineering/production teams."

In the meantime we are turning the table upside-down for travel since the table surface is much larger than the footprint of the legs. If there was a force violent enough for the legs to hit the window we would probably have other damage to the unit. There are a few other things where I will probably be taking the unit back to the dealer so will see what they say. I thought of putting something up through the bottom of the floor from the exterior of the slide out, but would have to be very careful nothing protruded that could damage the main floor of the unit when the slide is retracted.

And yes, am new the forum. Signed up to see if anyone else has reported an issue like this. To me is seems like the root cause is the amount the floor of the slide flexes when retracted for travel. Since it fits flush with the main floor when extended there is no reinforcement along the edge or under the floor. When the slide is retracted you can easily flex the floor by pressing on it with just one or two fingers. The legs of the table attached to the pedestal are very rigid, the floor bows underneath the legs and in time it pulls the screws out. Forgot to mention, the theater seats are in the same slide. The head of one of the screws holding the theater seats actually snapped off before the screw pulled out of the floor.

Definitely sounds like a warranty issue, hope your dealer can help you.
 
We have a '21 303RLS. The table sits on a carpet floor. Around 10K miles towing since we purchased it new. No issues with th table. No movement at the table base. Push Grand Design to authorize a mobile tech to evaluate and correct the issue. It's a safety issue. Broken window when the trailer is moving. Hot pot of whatever spills on your lap because the table tips over. Just keep pushing them until they recognize the correct answer. I’m confident that GD will support you in fixing this properly.
 
Looks like Grand Design is declining to take any action. They are also not accepting there is a design issue without a tech looking at the trailer, but they are not sending a tech. Fortunately, the dealer is supporting what they have sold. The fifth wheel will be going in for servicing one week from today.
 
We have a '21 303RLS. The table sits on a carpet floor. Around 10K miles towing since we purchased it new. No issues with th table. No movement at the table base. Push Grand Design to authorize a mobile tech to evaluate and correct the issue. It's a safety issue. Broken window when the trailer is moving. Hot pot of whatever spills on your lap because the table tips over. Just keep pushing them until they recognize the correct answer. I’m confident that GD will support you in fixing this properly.

Ours also sits in the on carpet. Our never came out but did loosen and caught it before it broke loose. Tighter then and new issues after.

Maybe you can glue a threaded bushing into the floor and supplement with some double sided tape?

Bill
 
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I would look to see how thick the wood floor is. I suspect it is not very thick. If it is, I suspect the screws were over tighten and were somewhat stripped. If the floor is thin, then threaded inserts would be something I would look into. Maybe even a metal/wood spacer between the floor and table. That way the spacer could be secured by more than 4 screws that hold the table.

If I recall, that flooring material is just laid on, no glue. Not certain why double sided tape would help in that situation.
 
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We just had this problem on our 2022 337RLS with vinyl flooring. Found the table completely loose with all screws out. We have the same table as the OP. The floor is unsupported when the slide is in and flexes a lot going down the road. I think the combination of the heavy table, vinyl floor, and the floor flex contributes to the problem. The screws do not go into the floor very far. I tried reinstalling the screws, two with toothpicks to get them to grab, and the table pulled all the screws out again in 400 miles. So far no broken window!

I am going to try a couple different things to correct this issue. First slightly larger (not longer) screws along with some non slip under the legs. I am also going to place a couple of fabric covered boards under the floor edge to support the middle of the slide when retracted to stop some of the flexing. Hopefully this will solve the problem.
 
Tony,

Sounds like you have exactly the same problem. The flexing during travel certainly does not help but on closer inspection I found the floor has a permanent sag in it. The worst part of the sag is directly under the table and it looks to be enough that it pulled the screws out. It now looks like the root cause is the OSB used in the floor of the slide is not strong enough to support the weight of people sitting at the table and also sitting in the theater seats. The floor is of the slide is about 3 feet by 11 feet and and the OSB has no support underneath. The OSB is not strong enough to take that kind of weight without sagging. The sag under the table is over 1/8 of an inch, which is enough to loosen the screws. (Please see the attached photos taken from under the slide.) Also, you can see the bottom of the slide is scraping on something when the slide is extended and retracted. It does not appear to be scraping on the vinyl floor. The scraping could eventually weaken the OSB even more if it starts to wear away. I took the unit back to the dealer and he immediately saw the problem and contacted Grand Design. At first Grand Design was not willing to acknowledge that there is a problem and refused to do anything. The dealer contacted them a second time and was apparently much more forceful this time around. Grand Design has agreed to replace the floor, but the concern of the dealer is that in another six months or a year we will be right back where we are now since Grand Design will not approve any engineering changes. Incidentally, the RV dealer has seen this type of issue on other units, both Grand Design and several other manufacturers. Will keep you posted, but at this point between this and several other issues with the unit I am not impressed with how Grand Design is standing behind their product. Customer testimonies is one of the big reasons we chose Grand Design, but I have not seen that level of support.
 

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Glad nothing broke when you table came loose not once but twice.
While I cannot comment on your specific coach, before we got the new 2023 310Gk, we had a Montana High Country that had a table in it that looked just like the picture in the first post. As you mentioned in your post, your table was only screwed to the floor with four screws. So was ours.
My solution was to make an 'L' bracket out of oak. The longer part of the 'L' was screwed and glued (with silicone) to the wall and the shorter part of the 'L' was screwed and glued underneath the table. The "L" bracket I made was probably 2/3's the width of the table.
After everything dried the table, anchored to the wall and underneath the table, became solid as a rock.
Hope what you finally decide what to so works for you.
J.J.
 
No issues with the table base coming loose but it did develop a wobble. There is a threaded rod that runs through the table pedestal and sandwiches the top to the base. It had worked it's way loose. I was able to tighten the nut on the bottom of the pedestal and that removed the wobble. To do this I unscrewed the base from the floor. Yep, pretty short screws but I understand why. My table sits on carpet so I was not able to re-use the original holes.

Gluing in hardwood dowels and then pre-drilling new holes in them sounds like a good way to fix the problem.
I have fixed a lot of doors this way.
Hopefully the dowels fit snugly in the pre-existing holes. If not you could drill out the holes to whatever diameter dowels you can find and then glue them.

Your challenge will be to make sure you don't drill all the way through the flooring. They make stop collars for drill bits to help prevent that very thing or you could use a scrap piece of wood thick enough to keep the bit from penetrating too deep.

Good luck and I hope you find a solution that works well for you.

Safe travels.
 
I had a previous fiver from another manufacturer with the same slide floor setup, flexing included. On that one I made up a couple of 2 x 4 blocks covered with old fabric and slid them under the lip of the slide floor when the slide is retracted. This protected the vinyl flooring and slide bottom fabric. They fit perfect and kept the floor level. This stopped all the flexing. I attached a piece of rope to aid in removing the blocks before extending the slide. That is what I am going to do here, but it will be months before we take a trip where I can see if this stops the table from coming loose. I will measure the current gap from the slide floor to the trailer floor at each end of the slide and use that measurement for the blocks, which will be placed along the front edge of the slide floor when retracted.

Anyone know how long the current table has been provided by GD? It's surprising that more folks haven't had this issue with the table coming loose during transit.
 
Here is an update on the table and slide issues. At first Grand Design would not authorize warranty repairs, but Ansley RV, the dealer we bought the trailer from persisted and Grand Design eventually authorized the repairs. The floor in the slide was replaced, which was a major project. The folks at Ansley did a first rate job and all is good. This really emphasizes how important it is to buy from a good dealer that gives good service for what they sell. The one caveat is that Grand Design would only authorize OEM repairs, no modifications. Ansley could not guarantee that the same issue won't happen again. Incidentally, is sounds like this is a problem that is not limited just to Grand Design but is not all that uncommon across manufacturers for slides with a flush floor design. But for now all is good.
 

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