ideout.
My storage bay under my bedroom slideout does not have a hook to hold it up so I have devised a hold open using an old mop handle. Today I tried a new method of hooking the mop handle hole over the lock lever. It worked real well. Too well.
Inside the 5th wheel we went to get it ready for our upcoming trip. I needed the slides in so I could more easily get to the port side hub to replace a missing grease cap. So in the slides went. Unknown to me, my home made storage bay door mop handle caused the bedroom slide to compress the mop handle and caused the trim on the slide to separate from the slide box.
After much cussing I took a look at the damage to see if I could do a repair and I discovered that the 3/4" chip board on the bottom of the slide box was wet, moldy and crumbling for about 10 inches from the edge. So after more cussing I proceeded to remove the trim and at this point I have cut out to about 12 inches of the bottom chip board. At the 12 inch mark the chip board has very good integrity. Right now it is a ragged cut. Tomorrow I will attach a saw guide and get a good straight honest 12 inch cut so I can replace the chip board.
The chip board on the bottom of the slide is a few inches below a plywood base which is intact so the slide appears to be solid. I'm sure the 3/4 inch chipboard provides some integrity for the slide box so I will be sure to replace the 3/4 inch chipboard with in kind material.
The moldy, wet chipboard was covered with a thin paper like material approx. 1/4 inch thick laminated to a fiberglass sheet on the outer layer. There were no weep holes or breathing holes. I'm thinking that this water tight envelope is partly the problem that contributed to the wet environment that degraded the chipboard.
Hopefully I have seen the worst of the corruption in the slide.
So my thinking is to forego the fiberglass laminate and skin the chipboard with something like 1/4" luan plywood for breathability.
Thoughts?
My storage bay under my bedroom slideout does not have a hook to hold it up so I have devised a hold open using an old mop handle. Today I tried a new method of hooking the mop handle hole over the lock lever. It worked real well. Too well.
Inside the 5th wheel we went to get it ready for our upcoming trip. I needed the slides in so I could more easily get to the port side hub to replace a missing grease cap. So in the slides went. Unknown to me, my home made storage bay door mop handle caused the bedroom slide to compress the mop handle and caused the trim on the slide to separate from the slide box.
After much cussing I took a look at the damage to see if I could do a repair and I discovered that the 3/4" chip board on the bottom of the slide box was wet, moldy and crumbling for about 10 inches from the edge. So after more cussing I proceeded to remove the trim and at this point I have cut out to about 12 inches of the bottom chip board. At the 12 inch mark the chip board has very good integrity. Right now it is a ragged cut. Tomorrow I will attach a saw guide and get a good straight honest 12 inch cut so I can replace the chip board.
The chip board on the bottom of the slide is a few inches below a plywood base which is intact so the slide appears to be solid. I'm sure the 3/4 inch chipboard provides some integrity for the slide box so I will be sure to replace the 3/4 inch chipboard with in kind material.
The moldy, wet chipboard was covered with a thin paper like material approx. 1/4 inch thick laminated to a fiberglass sheet on the outer layer. There were no weep holes or breathing holes. I'm thinking that this water tight envelope is partly the problem that contributed to the wet environment that degraded the chipboard.
Hopefully I have seen the worst of the corruption in the slide.
So my thinking is to forego the fiberglass laminate and skin the chipboard with something like 1/4" luan plywood for breathability.
Thoughts?
