Cleaning and Maintenance of Slide Surfaces

[floridarandy]

As we get into the summer camping season I plan to give the Sundance 2900MK a detailed visual inspection. I have a few questions that came up with a preliminary once over today:

1. I'm comfortable with cleaning (Protect-all cleaner and treatment) the roof and inspecting the thru-roof fittings and the edge strip where the room comes over the top along the sides of the trailer. I plan to fill and gaps with Dicor 501 Lap Sealer (for the thru-roof fittings). Is it necessary to remove the old material first or just supplement the Lap Sealer?

2. I'll use Sikaflex 521 for any gaps I can find from where the roof mates with the edging at the top of the sides and elsewhere on the rig. Is it necessary to remove existing material? How much to be removed if needed? Any particularly vulnverable areas to look out for leak potential?

3. What's recommended for cleaning the material on the "roof" of the slides when open? Protect-all too?

4. Where the slide roof mates with the inside edge of the slide (not the sides where it mates with the slide walls) there's a bead of what appears to be lap sealer. Does this need to be cleaned out and replaced? Dirt and leaves seem to be attracted to the bead that's there.

5. Where the slide roof mates with the outside edge of the slide (not the sides where it mates with the slide walls) there appears to be a tape type material and the bond in this tape has give up in a couple of places. Silkaflex seems better here than lap sealer?

As always the wisdom the group is appreciated.


Randy

 

[Bob&Patty]

Randy,

I would remove as much of the old sealer as you could. Inspect all the chalking and if it looks bad...reseal it. Make sure it is clean and dry.

For cleaning the roof of the coach and the slides...I would use DAWN liquid soap. That is what the manufacturer of the roof recommends. In fact I wash the whole coach with DAWN. On the rubber slide seals I use "303" protectant.

Question # 5...Im not sure what you are refering to... maybe someone with a Sundance will chime in here. Maybe a pix of the area might help.

 

[SJH]

As we get into the summer camping season I plan to give the Sundance 2900MK a detailed visual inspection. 5. Where the slide roof mates with the outside edge of the slide (not the sides where it mates with the slide walls) there appears to be a tape type material and the bond in this tape has give up in a couple of places. Silkaflex seems better here than lap sealer? Randy

I would probably put down another strip of Eternabond. In our previous SOB I used some lap sealant on this tape edge and silly me, put the slide in before it had totally dried. The sealant ending up sticking to the rubber slide wipe and the next time I opened the slide it pulled the seal off! Lesson learned!

Good Luck!

PS Where do you purchase the Sikaflex? Seems non existent here in WA.

 

[YaShouldaGotaDiesel]

The silkaflex can be found at your local Home depot or web site here:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...aflex&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[SJH]

The silkaflex can be found at your local Home depot or web site here:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...aflex&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I know Heartland Customer Service said they use Sika 505UV. It is available in gray also! Parts numbers are
10737 and 82257. Just thought it might be more convenient to find it locally.

Thanks for the infor on Home Depot!

 

[ihsolutions]

I would use Eternabond on the slide roof tape surface you mention that covers all the screws.

I've done this job before, once with a repeat of the manufacturers original materials, and then again when that came off and I used Eternabond and never had to worry about it after that.

Just do the Eternabond the first time. All four of my slides will be getting that treatment once the original tape garbage eventually starts to work loose.