Replacing slide ski

[Cate&Rob]

BWSTGDS Jeff

Thanks for taking the lead on a project that many of us are facing. GREAT pictures to help us all understand what we also need to do.
Four deck screws holding a load carrying floor to the underside of the wall !

Rob

[BWSTGDS]

It looks like the existing screws are #14 x 2 1/2" deck screws. I was thinking of replacing them with 1/4" x 2 1/2" washer head screws. Should I go longer as well? Not sure how much meat is in the wall - is the dimension of the wood filled aluminum wall base available? It would be good to have a screw long enough to go through the entire tube, catching two layers of aluminum, if it does not already.



Also looking for an angle bracket to install near the front lip of the floor/wall on the inside and/or outside. I want to use the existing replacement ski for now, so it won't be the nuclear option of a full-length aluminum bracket at this time.

[howson]

BWSTGDS

I'll leave a specific recommendation to Brian ( Country Campers ) as he's much more knowledgeable about this kind of stuff than I am.

The purpose of this post is to give you a visual representation of what's inside of the wall. Below the stuffed tube I've painted in a "floor". The red arrow depicts how the screws are driven in.



Howard

[Country Campers]

I like the washer head screws. The floor thickness should be 3/4" and the wall tubing should be 1-1/2", wood filled. The 2-1/2" screws should get you thru both sides of the tubing allowing for better holding. Howard's picture above is a great representation of what you will be doing. You will want to seal the screw heads on the outside of the floor as they may be subject to the outside elements.

Brian

[BWSTGDS]

Very good, thank you for the pic and dimensions. I will get these screws coming. There will be butyl tape on the ski that will press into the screw head areas. I could put a dab of Geocel Proflex in each screw hole first and then drive the screw home.

[Cate&Rob]

The aluminum square tube is so thin walled that it is almost useless at retaining a screw . . . which is why the factory stuffs tubes that will be attached to, with wood. Unfortunately, this wood is rough quality pine/spruce . . . so, does not have optimum screw retaining properties in the first place.

If you are familiar with IKEA furniture, they use “barrel nuts” that insert crosswise and then a bolt, rather than a screw, would be used to retain the floor. This crosswise hole would have to be sealed, but should be under the side trim that retains the edge of the plastic ski. Or, the barrel nut could be inserted from the inside of the wall.

Rob

[BWSTGDS]

That's a creative idea. I just finished assembling an IKEA cabinet for my wife - always amazing to see what fasteners they use to make the process simple/fast.

[BWSTGDS]

So I replaced 3 of the 4 screws marked in the previous picture with these larger washer head 1/4" x 2-1/2" screws. 2 of the 3 held well, but 1 sunk quite a distance into the floor. I will put one beside it.

Between these 3 screws, I installed 2 more screws, countersinking with a forstner bit just a little so the head sits flush.





I have a bracket I'm attaching inside the slide. I could not figure out how to mount one external and sit safely under the ski. The front floor lip needs something to brace it, so this is what I'm doing for now.

The floor measures 1" thick, so using 4 #10 x 1" pan head screws to hold the bracket to the floor. The wall is 1-1/2" thick, so using #10 x 1-1/4" pan head screws to hold the bracket to the wall and not punch through the outside.




It will need a piece of floor trim or paint to hide the exposed bracket better, but going for function first. Not the best, as this solution still depends on screw threads holding, but we have alot more screws holding the floor to the wall now.

The bottom of the slide facia was loose too, so pulled the decorative wood off, and re-screwed the facia base in place.

[BWSTGDS]

Two of the screws missed the aluminum framing, so drilled some holes further down. Now all 4 wall screws are into some substance.




The ramp on this slide is about 4" long, but the ramp on this RecPro ski I bought is only about 2-3/4". This view is looking at the original ski on the left side.




So decided to hack this one up a bit to fit. I removed some material on the side, then heated and reshaped it.




I had my doubts butyl tape would be adequate to hold the ski, having had some old tape that had dried up in the shop. This new roll is pretty sticky warmed in the sun.



This is my slide lift apparatus.



The modified ski fits pretty well, but it's something I'll have to keep an eye on. Moving the slide in and out presses the ski in place.



Two layers of butyl tape fills the rail.



Will add some silicone along the top and end of this rail and close this repair chapter.

[Country Campers]

BWSTGDS Jeff,

Very well done. Thanks for taking the time to document this repair and posting it here, will surely help others.

Brian

[howson]

BWSTGDS -- super thread and documentation, Jeff. Thanks for taking the time to share your repair with us. Added the Reference Library tag to it!

[Cate&Rob]

BWSTGDS Excellent guidance for others facing this same project. Thanks for taking the time to show us the way.

Rob