Damaged Vinyl Sheeting Under Slide

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Urban Hillbilly

Urban Hillbilly

Active member
Joined
Jul 7, 2017
Posts
30
Location
Pikes Peak Region, CO
I was poking around the TT with the slide out and discovered the vinyl sheeting on the bottom of the slide has some wear where it slides on the rollers and is kind of torn up where it sits on the rollers when it's retracted. Any ideas at least for a temporary fix? Maybe wide duct tape along the damaged area until I can get it all replaced? I don't want it to get hung up in the rollers, may be the only problem with the tape.
 
A photo would help us understand.  I'm not familiar with a slide mechanism that rides on rollers like that.  It seems doubtful that duct tape or even "100 mph" tape would hold up to that sort of wear/pressure. Maybe glue a sheet of thin gauge metal to the wear areas?
 
I've seen strips of delrin/acetal or similar plastic used to prevent damage from slide rollers. But it does require sufficient space &/or sufficiently thin plastic. Otherwise, Gary's suggestion of thin gauge metal might be better.
 
Great minds same answer! I was thinking aluminum sheet, right over the plastic and only in the wear area, held in place (depending of course on surface) with 1/2" panhead screws, placed where rollers would not contact them.

I am flying blind, though, just a guess without seeing the problem.
 
Sounds like the same issue I recently had with the slide out on my prior MH.

Forest River recommended 1/8" thick aluminum that was wider then the roller.
 
I would go to a sheet metal shop and have then shear a piece of stainless steel about .032" thick. Make it about 2" overall wider than the roller and use pan head screws every 4" to keep it in place.
 
Trim off any loose material.
Don?t use duct/gorilla tape, it will move and fold on itself as the slide moves over the rollers.

I took some measurements and had a sheet metal shop cut some 1/16 thick galvanized metal to my measurements. Then I drilled some holes down each side for some #8 Pan head sheet metal screws. If I remember correctly the metal was 2? wider on each side than the rollers were wide and about 1 1/2?  beyond the marks of slide travel on each end.

To raise the slide out to get the necessary clearance required to insert the metal between the bottom of the slide and the top of the rollers, I cut a length of 2x4 to length to wedge between the bottom of the slide and the ground and then very SLOWLY lowered the 5W until I could slip the metal in place. Check the clearance on the upper part of the slide before raising the slide in i its opening!




 
Got it fixed. Thanks for all the ideas. Some were right on track.

Here's what happened...This is what I call a Design Error. I called Lance and they had a fix, 6" wide sheet metal strips and rivets. They said take it to a dealer, dealer said they have fixed a bunch of these. Lance now makes the slide with fiberglass underneath. Too bad for me there wasn't a recall.

The rivets are the important thing so screws might damage the seal underneath. So far so good. We'll see how it does.
 
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