Installing Polyethylene Strips Under Slides

I ordered two sets of the polyethylene strips for my living and entertainment slides from Heartland to protect the plywood against the chipping that was occurring. Received them and then read about the angle corner pieces to protect the plywood along the bottom edges. So I followed the advice of several members and installed the angle corner pieces first and then would install the strips butted up against the angle corner pieces. I have two questions relating to this:

1) Will installing the strips next to the angle corner pieces protect the plywood from the chipping that is taking place? The angle corner pieces now cover where the damage was so that is why I am asking.

2) Heartland did an installation of the strips on a member where they installed them as far as possible under the slide without jacking it up. Another board member indicates that the proper way would be to jack up the slide about an inch and run the strip up under the leading beveled area at the front edge of the slide. Want to do this install right so need the factory to tell me the preferred method. Parkland RV Products have instructions with pictures but does not address this issue.

Thanks for hopefully a quick response since I would like this fixed before we go out on our next trip to the rainly west side of the Cascades for two months. Any other forum members are certainly welcome to also answer. Also have this issue in the Big Horn Exterior thread.

Bob

I also am interested in this topic and I hope the factory responds soon to these 2 questions.

I am working with Engineering and production to get you the propper answer. Will have a posting today.

I do not see any delamination in the plywood (hopefully exterior grade) on my 3055. I am wondering if I won't be helped if I "paint" the exposed sides of the slides with some type of sealer. I spent several hours going over this FW before purchase but did not notice these exposed pieces of wood.

patrick1945 said:

I also am interested in this topic and I hope the factory responds soon to these 2 questions.

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I am waiting for Kary Katzenberger from Heartland to come up with the proper fix for installing these polyethylene strips. Was going to attempt yesterday but decided to wait after I saw Kary's email. There are many members with this issue and it is very important to have a standardized fix so we are all not going in different directions and possibly causing more harm than good. So I will be patient and hopefully Kary will respond with answers today.

Bob,

Are you refering to the floor of the slide room? I'm having a hard time understanding your request. Please send pictures if possible. Also, what year is your Bighorn?

Thanks for your input, I just want to get you the correct info.

This is the email with pictures I sent back to Kary today.

Hi Kary,

Passing on this information to you so you know what some of the Heartland owners are dealing with. It is not just a Big Horn issue but carries over to other models evidently with slides made by Parkland Industries.

The first issue: There are some postings under the owners forum concerning delamination of slide bottoms due to water penetration. We have a 2008 Big Horn and evidently in models made in 2008 and earlier and some 2009, the plywood at the bottom of some slides is visible and allows water to penetrate after running down the slides. This causes the plywood to separate (delaminate). My slides have not had this water penetration but some members have. Anyway, Heartland came out with a fix using corner angle pieces to slip under the bottom slide molding and up under the slide itself about 1 1/2 inches. Sealing with silicone caulk, it protects the plywood. The bedroom slide had these angle pieces installed so those were not an issue.

Second issue: The slide rollers are causing the bottom of the slides to flake. Black flakes are found within the RV when slides are extended. You can visibly see the unprotected plywood after the black material flakes off. Parkland came out with a fix with polyethylene strips to run along the sides of each slide which is where the flaking is occurring. They are supposedly going to protect the bottom of the slides from the rollers. I ordered these through Heartland but there were no directions on application other than a few pictures that Parkland has on their website.

I have installed the corner angle pieces so my slides are now protected from water penetration. My question deals with the polyethylene strips. Al (aatauses screen name) explains under the thread "Slide plastic pieces and floor" that he jacked up his slides about one inch in order to allow him to push the strips up under the slide to the front of the tapered leading edge. Using the adhesive that came with the strips from Heartland, he put the adhesive on the strips and applied along the edge of the slide and then installed the corner angle pieces. He then said he wished he had put the corner angle pieces on first since the slide would probably now ride on the aluminum corner pieces versus the polyethylene strips. He then would apply the polyethylene strips butted up against the angle pieces on the bottom. Another member said Heartland installed the polyethylene strips without jacking up the slide, just applied as far in as possible.

I want to know the correct procedures in applying the polyethylene strips.

1) Should the strips be butted up to the corner angle pieces and will that protect the slide bottoms from flaking? Or:

2) Should the strips be mounted over the top of the corner angle pieces and along the bottom edge of the slide?

3) How far into the slide should the strips be applied, up under the leading beveled edge of the slide after jacking it up or just as far in as the strip will go without jacking up the slide?

Parkland shows the polyethylene strips running along the edge of the slide but they are not considering the corner angle pieces in their application method.

I have attached some pictures of my slides. Not sure if the captions will come through with the pictures. The first picture shows where the polyethylene strip would go next to the corner angle piece. Second picture shows one polyethylene strip received from Heartland. Third picture shows the corner angle piece installed. Fourth picture shows the leading beveled edge of the slide as viewed from inside when slide is retracted. I already used the adhesive/caulk to patch the area where the black flaking happened and obviously already applied the corner angle pieces.

Hopefully this information helps. If you need something else, please contact me.

Just found this thread and believe I have the same issue with my 2007 Bighorn 3055RL. When driving on wet pavement, the carpet in front of the large slide gets wet. After taking a closer look underneath, I can see exposed plywood. How do I go about getting this polyethylene strip and having it installed? My local dealer is no longer in business. If it's an easy fix, I can do it myself if I have some detailed instructions, as long as I don't have to jack up the slide. Thanks for any info.

After talking to my dealer, I decided to not jack up the slides. They indicated that a possible misalignment might occur causing a need for an adjustment of the slides but did say they would be willing to look at it and make a firm recommendation. I am sure this all means that a liability could present itself if they told me that jacking would be OK and then something went wrong and also they want the work. Maybe that is Heartland's concern also. When no longer under warranty, owners take it upon themselves sometimes to make these kind of fixes to save money. And no one in the dealer or manufacturer line wants to assume a liability by telling the owner how to make this kind of fix. Not saying this is right or wrong - just people being careful because of the litigious society we now live in.

So anyway, I installed the polyethylene strips as far in as possible without jacking the slides and butted the sides up to the corner angle pieces and the front end right up to the nylon slide edge. Had to make a slight adjustment on one living room angle piece. The front corner edge caught on the end of the slide nylon strip and bent the angle piece. I removed one corner edge of the nylon where the angle piece hung up and replaced the corner angle piece with a new piece and so far everything is working fine. Also installed the strips under the bedroom rollers. By the way, you only need one strip for the bedroom because of the short length of the slide. Just measure and cut and you still have a little left over from the one strip. Now just have to order one more set for the entertainment slide then I will be good.

Thanks Kary for looking into this but just didn't want to wait any longer for a service technician response.

Bob

jdfishing said:

Just found this thread and believe I have the same issue with my 2007 Bighorn 3055RL. When driving on wet pavement, the carpet in front of the large slide gets wet. After taking a closer look underneath, I can see exposed plywood. How do I go about getting this polyethylene strip and having it installed? My local dealer is no longer in business. If it's an easy fix, I can do it myself if I have some detailed instructions, as long as I don't have to jack up the slide. Thanks for any info.

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I called Heartland Customer Service at 877-262-8032. Ordered the strips and a bathroom faucet and received in about 1 week. You might want to also look under your other slides to determine if you need the polyethylene strips but remember, the strips are applied to protect the underside of the slide from the rollers and nylon strips that cause the gouges and black flaking, not from moisture. I applied the strips myself using the adhesive that Heartland sent out with the kits. You might also consider applying to your other slides if you see any gouging or areas where the black has been scraped off under the slide. If you want to protect the exposed plywood on the edges, you will need to either order the corner angle pieces that fit under the molding on the bottom edges of the slide from Heartland or do as I and some other owners did and go to Home Depot and buy the 10 foot long angular roof flashing that comes in white to match the side of the slide. You have to cut to fit. There are many articles on this throughout the forum with pictures. If you don't want to hassle with cutting and fitting, then buy from Heartland.

I have a 2008 Big Horn 3055. I have been having wood chips and black inside th e coach. I took some pictrure of the living room slide. I think I need some help...

Yep, you do. Looks like you need to cap the edges with some aluminum trim and then attach the plastic slide strips. Hopefully, the bottom of the plywood is just worn and it hasn't started to swell from water absorption.

Am I missing something here but I do not see Kary's promised reply? Where are you Kary?

Jim and Ruby,

We reviewed your photos with our production team. Please contact parts and service for the Polyethylene repair kit. I would also think about getting new drip edge for the sides of the slide floor. With these repairs it should take care of your floor.

I hope this helps.

I would agree that 2008 models have issues. Our 2008 3055rl has a water issue also. We have been working through it slowly though. I also have exposed bottom plywood on some slides but not on all along the edges. We have already had a floor replaced in one slide. What are these corner caps you are talking about? I coated with 100% silicone but I do not feel this is a good fix. Only a band-aid fix in my opinion. Do you have a cataloge number and cost on these corner caps, as well as the strip that is for the rollers? We would be very interested in preventing some up front than chasing it from behind. What are your last 7 digits of your VIN #'s so we can compare here people? These are not isolated cases in my opinion. They all may have been built close when a change over was in progress or bad material from a vendor to Heartland. Needless to say my post may be deleted you can PM me please. Thanks

Here's a link to the installation document for the Parkland Plastics Slide Room Floor repair kit. For all who read this post, please note the at the top of all forum pages in the navigation bar is a link called TOOLS. Under that link are sub-links to various tools. One of those is HOM - Heartland Owners Manuals. This is a nice library of documents myself and other forum members have collected over the last year or so. We would love to keep adding to this resource. If you come across a non-scanned PDF version of a manual or document for anything in or on your Heartland RV that you feel is worthy of sharing, please use the link found on the HOM resource to email me the PDF for consideration.

Thanks.

Jim


Jim

HI,
Just to clarify, I put mine on about a year ago and at the time HL customer service walked me through the installation, indicating to do it properly the slides had to be jacked up to get the flat plastics under the bevel so the slide would operate properly. they indicated that if I did not put them under the bevel the slide would hit it whan it was coming in and eventually "bunch it up". Like I said earlier, my learning would be to put the angles on first and then butt the flat plastic up to it.
al
Mine have been on about a year now and no issues

I have installed the edging and the black strips. I jacked up the slide about 1/2 inch put the strip inside where it needed to go. I can't see how that little raising of the floor would put anything out of alignment. All the screws holding the side molding were rusted and the floor was on the way to being bad.
I have had black chipping since day one, dealer said it needed adjustment,which was no help. My floor does not have rollers,it just slides.

I can cross this off my list. I didn't use the poly strips because the rollers had not gouged holes in the floors of my slide BUT I did use the black caulking because the water did a job on the edges of the floors. I hate to think of the folks who are enjoying their Bighorns and don't know awaits them. Thanks to those who brought this up on the forum.

I have pictures of my repair at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rvsnowbirds1971/sets/72157625089767440/

Hi Jim,

Same with mine, no rollers. When I contacted Hearland they had no idea what I was talking about. To me that should be impossible as tons of us have had problems with Heartlands inferior floors in the slides. This is the only trailer I have seen that was left unprotected at the slide edges. Montana has the floors completely wrapped with water proof material. If I did not owe so much on my 2009 35/80 I would dump it and get anything else.

Rick