Bedroom slide destroyed my basement storage door

Just curious if anyone else has had the same problem in aLandmark or any other model. My 2012Landmark Rushmore bedroom slide destroyed the basement storage door whileclosing the slide. The door was openoutside and I heard a loud crunch while closing the slide. Observed that the open storage door rests justbelow the slide, so when it closed it smashed the door and frame of the storagecompartment. Entire frame, door andbottom of bedroom slide will need replacement.<o></o>
I was waiting for my first scratch or dent, but didn’texpect this. I certainly take full blamefor my actions, but didn’t realize the door could be damaged as bad as it wasby closing the slide. Just wondering ifanyone else has the same issue with their Heartland. Thanks all, now I can go back into a fetal position and continue crying!

Good friend bought a 2012 Key Largo and had the same thing happen. Apparently the door can be opened slightly too far and is in the path of the slide. On his I don't think his door frame was damaged. Heartland Customer Service refused to cover it under warranty but as a compromise, since the rig was 2 weeks old, sold him the door at half-price and he replaced the door himself. My opinion, if it was properly engineered, it wouldn't be possible for this to happen. Between that and the mess he found behind the basement wall, he's sour on Heartland now.

Thr first time I had the basement door open when I closed this slide I said wow this was engineered properly
as it clears the top of the door when closing.
Heartland should recall the Rushmore or any other unit where the door could be destroyed and add a circuit
that would not allow the slide to operate if the basement door is open.

I think the fix might be as simple as mounting the lift assist struts an inch lower so the door cannot rise high enough to get hit. I think that's what my friend did when he installed the new door.

I have often wondered why there is not an auto-stop or auto-reverse circuit in the slide circuits that if is encountered any obstacle it would either stop or reverse, similar to many garage doors. Just think if a child was standing there. On a previous sob 5er I squashed a folding chair that was leaning against the slide. It is not just the Heartland brands that have this issue.

Engineered controls to prevent damage while slides are opening and closing is a great idea, but to what extent would re engineering be reasonable from a manufacture's point of view? I've heard of people smashing cabinet doors, pushing slides into trees, power poles, and even crushing chairs. Are manufactures expected to anticipate all these--and many other--potential points of damage? Our litigious culture encourages consumers to point a finger, whenever possible, towards manufactures for failure to warn, or even compose a warning that allows for "improper" interpretation, in a manner that allows personal injury or damage to property, regardless of the consumers involvement. I strongly admire Markie5150's admission of blame in this instance, and particularly the "heads-up" to others who may have similar potential situations with their RVs. I believe this is the manner in which accidents like this should be handled. I will learn from this posting, and perhaps Heartland, in this case, will learn something too. I'm sorry about your misfortune, Markie5150.

All:
If there isn't a SPECIFIC warning about this hazard in the written documentation that comes with the RV, I would think that Heartland SHOULD honor warranty claims on this design deficiency.

Sounds like the door struts are mounted incorrectly.

The ODS basement door on the Cyclones have "staged" struts. When opening the door the pistons will push the door up about 3/4 of the way. This is well clear of the bedroom slide.
If I push the door all the way it just contacts the bottom of the slide trim.
It is obviously designed this way to prevent what the OP had happen.

I can open or close the bedroom slide with the basement door fully open, which is not vertical against the trailer side.

Sounds like the struts are either the wrong units installed or installed to allow the door to open too high.
All the other ideas of safety stops most likely would not be practical with the amount of force necessary to move the slides.

So if this is unique to Rushmore's due to door/bedroom placement, all you Landmark RM owners ought to network to let each other know of the potential damage.

I would also think, safety features aside, leaving he basement doors up is a quite common practice, you shouldn't have to worry about crushing the door.

Now, if you leave a cabinet door open and rip it apart - your on your own, and don't bother asking

OK I guess I will say it. I do not think Heartland is at fault here. If you were to leave your car door open and someone else drives by and rips it off do you expect the manufacturer of the cars to replace the door? The better scenario is what porthole alluded to with reagards to the cabinet doors inside the unit adjacent to a slideout. Not trying to be the bad guy here but .......

Mark

Guess we Grand Canyon owners are luckly in that our basement door on the Bedroom slide side opens hinged to the left and not up. And I agree with Porthole on the cabinet door scenario - don't even ask about that, or the infamous Pickle Jar incident!

I too feel for those that have made critical errors, we all have. But to hold a manufacturer responsible for those errors are the same reasons that our country is in the shape it's in right now. WE, all of us, need to stop trying to play the blame game and step up....like the OP did. Cry a little, fix the problem, learn from it, and move on. Ok, I'n ranted out now...

Steven

boatto5er said:

Guess we Grand Canyon owners are luckly in that our basement door on the Bedroom slide side opens hinged to the left and not up. And I agree with Porthole on the cabinet door scenario - don't even ask about that, or the infamous Pickle Jar incident!

Click to expand...

Did the cabinet door thing on an SOB...almost wiped out the entire kitchen counter. Almost had the same issue in the Bighorn in an over head cabinet...and like the "pickle jar indicident"...don't ask about the water bottles...LOL! I too have to agree...can't fault the manufacturer when we do something to our rigs. Our ODS storage door also can come up too high when open...we just try and make sure it's closed when bringing in the slide...in fact, we don't bring in any slides without doing a visual check inside and outside the rig...JMHO.

I just checked our 2011 Rushmore and the basement door on the off door side doesn't raise high enough to come in contact with the bedroom slide. Must be a design change for 2012. Sorry to hear this happened, but thank you for reminding everyone to do a visual before closing the slides.

After all the comments I still maintain this should not of happened .Go after Heartland for the design flaw and pay for your repairs!

Leaving the basement door open on the ODS side should not be a cause of concern. It is too easy to leave it up. Like I mentioned above, with the Cyclones you cant crush the door when open - unless the props were installed wrong.

How about pictures???

This isn't operator error. The door just opens too high and is in the path of the slide. It doesn't have to be this way and it's hard to believe anyone would argue that it's ok for it to be this way. Until the 2012's came out with this new design, I doubt anyone in Heartland history ever had a basement door damaged by a moving slide.

And it's probably an easy fix: probably as simple as mounting the struts correctly (and very likely as the design engineer specified).

How many doors have to be ruined before Heartland acknowledges the problem and fixes it?

Btw, acknowledging one's mistakes cuts both ways. Users should do so and so should manufacturers. Step up Heartland!

It most likely states in the owners manual to make sure the slides are clear before operating them.

I almost crushed a cabinet door in our older 3055 bringing in the slide. I made a "flap" that said "Check Doors" and screwed it over the the slide switch. You have to lift the flap to push the switch. Never came close to crushing a door since.

Shortly after we got our Rushmore, at a rest stop, I found the left-hand refrigerator door open. I latched the door and made a sign to remind myself to latch the door. Then later I found the door open again and I was sure I latched it. I inspected the mechanism and found the latch was not a very tight fit and figured it must be vibrating into the unlatched position during travel. I put a piece of cardboard in the latch to provide additional friction. That worked, but one of those times the door had come unlatched, it had hit the counter leaving a large crease in the door panel. The wife was unhappy.

The next time at the dealer, hoping to get rid of the cardboard workaround, I asked about whether the latch could be tightened so it didn't vibrate to the unlatched position. The tech called Dometic and they said the latch is supposed to stay latched because it's electrically activated. The tech traced it back and found out it had not been wired correctly at installation. Heartland covered getting the wiring corrected and door panel replaced, because they had set up the failure through their installation error.

Our first 11 months with the Rushmore we had problems with flushing the black tank. I developed several techniques to workaround this situation. Last August I realized the root cause was a leaky gate valve. Got it fixed and now it works as it's supposed to. Turns out the workarounds were just covering up the real problem.

My point is that workarounds can make up for manufacturing defects and errors, but fixing the real problem is the better answer. When manufacturing gives you a 1/4 - 1/2" overlap between basement door and bedroom slide, you can post signs, look for warnings in the manual, blame yourself for forgetting, etc. But isn't the better solution to get rid of the slight overlap instead of using a workaround?

Is there anyone who thinks the slight overlap is intentional and that there's a reason for it? If you were able to ask the engineer responsible for that door design change if he intended it that way, do you really think he would say yes? If the Heartland President asked him why it's this way, do you think he would have a good reason?

Jim Beletti, I think you may have one of these 2012 Landmarks. Does yours have an overlap? Have you posted warning signs for yourself or are you hoping you'll always remember to close the hatch before bringing the slide in? I'm guessing that if your basement door got crunched, you might have a word with that engineer.

As I see it, having a KL. If the slide is operated and the hatch is open and might get torn off, then don't operate the slide with the hatch open. If you do then it's your fault. You don't run down the road with your steps out while driving because they could get ripped off. If you did and they were damaged, you would not blame the manufacturer. You would feel bad and get them fixed. Just like the OP said he will do. It's time to start taking responsibility for your own actions and stop trying to find blame else where. Not trying to upset anyone but there are too many of us not taking the blame for our own faults. JMHO