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Note: There was a thread on this topic were I posted a picture a couple of weeks ago of the dimensions of the replacement plastic slider (slide ski) sent to me by Grand Design. I planned on tacking this post on to the end of that thread, but that post appears to have disappeared.
The rack and pinion slides in Grand Design models appear to put a lot of the slide weight on a plastic ski on the outside short edges of the slide. My opinion is that this is designed for failure right from the factory, due to the extremely thin plastic slide ski which bears the weight of the slide.
I found that on the dinette slide that has the table and the two reclining chairs, that plastic ski was damaged through normal use after less than one year of owning my Reflection 315RLTS travel trailer. Unfortunately, the damaged slide ski ripped the interior linoleum, so I'll do a post in the future of how to repair that torn linoleum. Note that it appears that the side of the slide with the lounge chairs is the one that commonly fails. So I advise to check your slide skis on a regular basis and to use a product like the "Lippert 134993 RV Carpet Protection Slide-Out Slicker" to keep your floor getting damaged. (Use this product only if you have carpet on your slide, as it has sharp points to dig into the carpet to keep it from moving.)
When I received the replacement slide ski from Grand Design, I was shocked that it's paper thin. I thought that if the original wore out in about a year, I'm sure the placement would not last much longer. In the other thread on this forum that I can't find, one of the people posting showed a picture of how he made a replacement slide ski out of metal. I made one myself shown in the pictures below. I order the following from McMaster-Carr online:
Item: 89015K76 - Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum Sheet, 0.063" Thick, 4" x 48" - $29.67 The width of 4" eliminates the need to trim the piece lengthwise. Note that I ordered the .063" thickness which is 1/16 of an inch. I think that this was a bit of an overkill and I probably should have gone for the next thinner size that they sold.
Note that for aluminum, you usually get to make one bend of about 90 degrees before it breaks, so you only get one shot at making the bend. So proceed carefully, and do a small practice piece first. To make the bend, I did not have a "brake" tool to bend metal. I laid the sheet aluminum on a metal work bench, and clamped a large piece of angle iron over it. I simply used to big hammer to make the fold. It took some time, and several practice pieces, but it worked well for the final piece.
Tips on this job:
1) Insert the new ski under the slide from the inside of the RV, sliding it under the slide to the outside. I saw one YouTube video where the guy inserted a replacement plastic ski from the outside. There is very little flexibility on the replacement metal slide ski, so the only way to get it installed is from the inside. (As shown in all of the youtube videos on this topic, you have to jack the slide up from the outside to create a gap to get the old ski out, and the new one in.)
2) I used Scotch Mount double-sided tape (holds up to 30 pounds) to secure the ski to the underside of the slide. (The ski is also held in place with the screws holding the trim in place.)
3) There is a trim piece that goes on the outside of the slide to cover where the top of the slide-ski meets the fiberglass. That trim piece is filled with old butyl tape when you take it off. You need to clean out the old butyl tape and install new butyl tape to keep the junction water resistant. I used some butyl tape I had laying around from a vent install. But if I had time, I would probably order 1/2" by 1/8" thickiness in black color butyl tape to make the job nicer/easier if I were to do it over.
Here are pictures comparing the new plastic replacement slide ski versus the one I made out of sheet metal.
Here is the back of the trim piece with new butyl tape.
Here is the double-sided 3M tape I used:
The rack and pinion slides in Grand Design models appear to put a lot of the slide weight on a plastic ski on the outside short edges of the slide. My opinion is that this is designed for failure right from the factory, due to the extremely thin plastic slide ski which bears the weight of the slide.
I found that on the dinette slide that has the table and the two reclining chairs, that plastic ski was damaged through normal use after less than one year of owning my Reflection 315RLTS travel trailer. Unfortunately, the damaged slide ski ripped the interior linoleum, so I'll do a post in the future of how to repair that torn linoleum. Note that it appears that the side of the slide with the lounge chairs is the one that commonly fails. So I advise to check your slide skis on a regular basis and to use a product like the "Lippert 134993 RV Carpet Protection Slide-Out Slicker" to keep your floor getting damaged. (Use this product only if you have carpet on your slide, as it has sharp points to dig into the carpet to keep it from moving.)
When I received the replacement slide ski from Grand Design, I was shocked that it's paper thin. I thought that if the original wore out in about a year, I'm sure the placement would not last much longer. In the other thread on this forum that I can't find, one of the people posting showed a picture of how he made a replacement slide ski out of metal. I made one myself shown in the pictures below. I order the following from McMaster-Carr online:
Item: 89015K76 - Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum Sheet, 0.063" Thick, 4" x 48" - $29.67 The width of 4" eliminates the need to trim the piece lengthwise. Note that I ordered the .063" thickness which is 1/16 of an inch. I think that this was a bit of an overkill and I probably should have gone for the next thinner size that they sold.
Note that for aluminum, you usually get to make one bend of about 90 degrees before it breaks, so you only get one shot at making the bend. So proceed carefully, and do a small practice piece first. To make the bend, I did not have a "brake" tool to bend metal. I laid the sheet aluminum on a metal work bench, and clamped a large piece of angle iron over it. I simply used to big hammer to make the fold. It took some time, and several practice pieces, but it worked well for the final piece.
Tips on this job:
1) Insert the new ski under the slide from the inside of the RV, sliding it under the slide to the outside. I saw one YouTube video where the guy inserted a replacement plastic ski from the outside. There is very little flexibility on the replacement metal slide ski, so the only way to get it installed is from the inside. (As shown in all of the youtube videos on this topic, you have to jack the slide up from the outside to create a gap to get the old ski out, and the new one in.)
2) I used Scotch Mount double-sided tape (holds up to 30 pounds) to secure the ski to the underside of the slide. (The ski is also held in place with the screws holding the trim in place.)
3) There is a trim piece that goes on the outside of the slide to cover where the top of the slide-ski meets the fiberglass. That trim piece is filled with old butyl tape when you take it off. You need to clean out the old butyl tape and install new butyl tape to keep the junction water resistant. I used some butyl tape I had laying around from a vent install. But if I had time, I would probably order 1/2" by 1/8" thickiness in black color butyl tape to make the job nicer/easier if I were to do it over.
Here are pictures comparing the new plastic replacement slide ski versus the one I made out of sheet metal.
Here is the back of the trim piece with new butyl tape.
Here is the double-sided 3M tape I used:
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