Replacing slide ski

[BillinTexas]

Is it a difficult job to replace a slide ski? I had one that had buckled slightly and I was afraid of water getting in so in a genius moment, I decided black eternbond would keep it sealed. I might have been ok if I hadn't wrapped it on the bottom. The easiest thing to do is replace the ski. Any advice? I may get a mobile tech to do the job since I believe there may be an underlying issue that caused it to do that. The good news is, no water penetration. This occurred during the 300 days of living in it and it really wasn't a problem until our triple digit temps this summer. The secondary issue is getting the sticky off the floor inside. Any advice on what to use for that? Thanks.

[Jlawles2]

BillinTexas Bill, can you take a razor knife to the edge just before it wraps around the bottom and at least cut it? After that, removal becomes a labor of hatred. I would think either acetone or https://www.amazon.com/3M-General-Pu...1698166&sr=8-7 (I get it at Walmart (have not grabbed any in a while) or the local Napa) to loosen and remove the grey after you pull it off.

NOTE: I am considering adding a strip of Aluminium between the bottom of the ski and the bottom of the slide. When the slide sits for an extended time, the clutch will not push the slide out, but if I manually extend it about 1" then life is good. I can see a dimple in the ski where the room sits when closed and believe this is the ROOT cause.

[Country Campers]

Bill,

This post may be of interest to you, and there is a link to the original thread.

Slide Ski Installation - Repair - Grand Design Owners Forums (gdrvowners.com)

Brian

[BillinTexas]

Jlawles2, Joseph, thanks for the response. Sliding in on the floor already took care of most of the bottom part. Just a lot of sticky left. We went to Galvestion Island SP the first week in June and it wasn't a problem but as you know, Hell moved to Texas in June and took up residence. The heat has caused the mess. I have been using Goo Gone on it and if I let it sit for a bit, the sticky comes off fairly easily. I may stick with that and see if I can get it off. I do have some Acetone in the cabinet that I can use also. I may be able to salvage the ski. I'll have to get a pic of the problem I was trying to solve after I get it cleaned up and see if folks would recommend a ski replacement.

[BillinTexas]

Bill,

This post may be of interest to you, and there is a link to the original thread.

Slide Ski Installation - Repair - Grand Design Owners Forums (gdrvowners.com)

Brian

Country Campers, Brian, thank you. I will check it out.

[BWSTGDS]

Thank you for this thread - that video is helpful to picture what needs to happen. On my 377MBS, one of the ski's cracked in such a way that it has a sharp edge. I think is has resulted in this cut on the vinyl floor.




I see RecPro has replacements - a bit pricey, but workable.

[Country Campers]

BWSTGDS

Welcome to the Forum. Glad that you found some help here. You will need to get that ski replaced before you get water intrusion. Will you plan on doing this job yourself? If so it would be great to share you experience.

Brian

[Cate&Rob]

BWSTGDS Hi Jeff,

I am going to be following your lead on this. I have a cracked ski . . . not as bad as yours, but heading in that direction. Please post the details of your replacement.
I have been using “Slide Slickers” https://store.lci1.com/slide-out-slicker-134993 for years to protect the main floor.

Rob

[BWSTGDS]

As I was beginning to start the slide ski repair, I removed the rail to get at the ski for removal. No putty behind the rail, but there was a thin seal tape tucked behind the ski. The top of the rail did have clear caulk on it. The ski was stapled in place on the sides, and held on the bottom with doublestick foam tape.



Old and new skis:




As I was retracting the slide just a bit to get at the last rail screw, noticed my dinette slide floor is coming unattached from this same side wall. It hangs somewhat free when the slide is retracted. This view is inside the trailer looking at the right side wall, with the slide ski and rail removed. The slide is mostly retracted, open just enough to let me get inside.

In the upper pic, I'm holding the floor in place. In the lower pic, I'm letting it hang free.



This explains why the slide ski cracked on that side. When retracted, the slide floor is unsupported, sagged, and pulled the ski out of the side rail. When the slide was extended, the floor is pushed back in place, pushing the exposed ski edge up into the rail and distorting/cracking it.

As for how the floor became detached, I'm not sure. It does have a rather heavy set of theater seats on it, but you'd think it would be designed to carry that weight and then some while travelling. It's not possible to sit in the theater seats when the slide is retracted and most vulnerable, as the fully retracted dinette slide blocks access from the main door to the living area on my 377MBS.

Need to figure out how to repair this at home. I'm not willing to take it to a dealer to repair it. Reading so far that they typically remove the slide entirely to re-attach the floor. Since my floor is still mostly attached, would like to figure out some other ways to get this done. I'll begin by removing the theater seats and carpet in the area, and see how it is supposed to be attached. I'd appreciate your thoughts on how to best perform this repair.

[Country Campers]

BWSTGDS

With the slide extended and the ski removed you should be able to see the lag screws that hold the floor up to the side wall of the slide. These screws should go up thru the flooring and into the slide wall lower frame work, which should be aluminum stuffed with wood. Can you get a picture of the bottom where you removed the slide ski?

Brian

[howson]

I'd appreciate your thoughts on how to best perform this repair.

Jeff,
On the last trip to the factory the moderators were given the rare privilege of walking a production line while building was in progress. On my "To Do" list is replacing the dinette slide floor in my 315RLTS as the floor has a significant bow in it. That's why I took the picture below. It's a slide on it's back as it's being built.

Look closely and you'll see the workers are securing the floor to the sidewalls from the underside of the floor into the bottom edge of the walls. Note the rolls of mylar(?) tape on the stand in front of the worker in the foreground -- that tape is ran over the edges to seal out water after the floor is screwed to the walls.



How to fix your detached floor? From my research and questioning GD SRTs for my own project: hyper-extend the slide and then screw the floor back into the wall. (In your case, be prepared to do some repair of the hole in the wall for the floor screw to "bite".) To hyper-extend the slide the interior trim and frame that actually stops the slide from falling out when being extended is removed, the slide then is driven out past the normal stop (I think the stop can is adjusted). The slide must be supported by something to keep it from falling out.

I haven't actually done this work myself so the input above is to the best of my knowledge (without personal experience).

ncitro (Neil) replaced the floor in his FIL's previous SOB trailer, so hopefully Neil will have something to add.

Howard

Edit: Good morning, Brian! You replied while I was typing.

[ncitro]

BWSTGDS It was actually a pretty straightforward process. Keep in mind it was SOB, so the actual construction may vary a bit (his was wood framed not aluminum stuffed with wood). We did not hyper extend it, we put it out all the way, and took the trim off the side of the box. Then using those holes in the box (so we did not make any new ones) we screwed long 2x4 to the box that ran to the floor to support the box at that end. I am terrible with taking pictures while doing a job, but you can see them sticking out the bottom in this photo:



We removed the wall panel on the inside rear side of the wall because thats where his rot was and we wanted to see what was going on. We then removed the decorative trim from the inside of the slide box, and unscrewed the floor and was able to pull it out. We also had to detatch the rams at this point. It might be on a GD that you need to hyper extend it to get the last set of screws out, but I would doubt it. The hardest part was sourcing new plywood for the floor, we could not get anything as long as what he needed, at least in a reasonable time. We used two layers and glued and screwed it and offset the seams. When we put it all back together it was 10x more solid than his original. Obviously if you are just reattaching the floor and not replacing it then it should be much easier.

Here are a few more photos if they help at all, like I say I am terrible with taking them while doing the job.

[Cate&Rob]

This floor to wall connection seems "problematic" from the get-go. Using a few screws to fasten the floor to the underside of the wall frame is just asking for separation. Replacing the skis with lengths of aluminum angle, tall enough to be through bolted to the wall and wide enough to be through bolted to the floor would be much stronger. A similar angle on the inside would reinforce this connection even further. An original plastic "ski" could go over this outside reinforcing angle to provide a smooth sliding surface. Something like the attached sketch . . .

Rob

Slide Wall to Floor.pdf

[BWSTGDS]

Some good ideas and the factory assembly info is helpful, thankyou. Did some more investigation today. The floor material is in pretty good condition, but the fasteners are not.

There are 4 screws holding the floor to the bottom of the slide walls on the right side, marked by blue tape below (one is kinda hidden behind that wire bundle). All of them are accessible from the outside when the slide is fully extended.

They are 2-1/2" long and look like typical deck screws. One near the inside has snapped, and the two in the middle have dug recesses into the plywood, allowing the floor to sag when the slide is retracted.

As you've pointed out, the floor is just hanging on threads from a few screws, no angle brackets, bolts or glue.





A view of the broken screw from inside. I was surprised there were no screws closer to the front lip of the floor. This screw is several inches back.



It does allow me to replace the screws with larger ones (larger diameter is what I'd like to do, since this one snapped), without hyper-extending the slide. Also could add a few more, maybe countersunk with some small washers so the heads are flush for the ski to cover, but hold the plywood better. Or go big and do the angle brackets/bolts.

[Country Campers]

Jeff,

Thanks for sharing those pictures, really helps everyone see the actual assembly. I think you are on the right track with installing screws with washers, a drywall type screw head is just not the right one for this application, and they are not designed for this type of holding. I would recommend a cabinet screw, washer built on to the head of the screw and built for the stresses this screw will face. Of even construction screws, found at Lowes and similar. Adding a single angle on the outside may even be a good idea, if you do not want to add the double with one on the inside. A think sheet of aluminum on the outside bottom would help as well.

It is terrible to see this and makes me wonder how these things stay together.

Brian