Living Room Slide Plywood

[red4re]

We are getting ready for our two week trip to Florida. Started packing gear this weekend when we noticed the carpet was damp under the dinette storage. It rained alot on Saturday. So I started investigating windows etc... Then I looked under the slide room. I noticed the plywood was exposed from the side of the slideout and was dripping water. It is also partly rotted at the edge and the black coating on the bottom is coming off - I guess during the slide in and out process. But the edge of the plywood is not coated and is below the bottom of the slideout edge - which allows water to soak in the plywood when it rains. See pictures...

The bedroom slide has some sort of wrap around all the plywood - even the edges so water will not penetrate it. But the living room slide does not have this wrap on the part of the plywood that is exposed. Just the coating on the bottom. I believe the coating is coming off due to water penetraing the edge of the plywood and making the coating come loose.

My unit is a 2009 model and is out of warranty. Is anyone else having this problem? For now, I have taped off the edge so it will not get wet when it rains, but it will need to get fixed.

Thanks

Red

 

[JohnDar]

Others have had this problem and posted it. Contact Heartland for their repair kit.

 

[2010augusta]

here is my solution.

//heartlandowners.org/showthread.ph...slide-floor-de-lamination?p=119376&viewfull=1

 

[red4re]

here is my solution.

//heartlandowners.org/showthread.ph...slide-floor-de-lamination?p=119376&viewfull=1

Wow - after reading your post, it appears Heartland was aware of the problem. Why don't they notify owners of impending failure? It would have been easy to fix before the plywood rotted out. Now - not so easy.

 

[red4re]

Just returned from my two week trip in Florida. While there, I took a clipboard around to several different RV sites to take a poll about slideout Plywood. Of the 72 RV owners I talked with, 100% of them had some sort of drip edge on their slideout plywood. Some were wrapped with some sort of plastic and some had the plastic drip edge installed - some had metal drip edges. Some of the drip edges went under the slide an inch or two and some went up to six inches under the slide to prevent water from getting to the plywood. A couple had floor plywood that was higher than the edge of the slideout, so no drip edge was needed. The plywood was coated though on the bottom. The oldest model I looked at was a 1997 Hitchhiker and the newest was a Wildcat fresh off the lot (1 day old).

To my surprise, I could not find one Heartland product at Fort Wilderness. There was a couple in Destin though. Both of them had a drip edge installed.

I will have an update on my situation when all the info is sorted through.

One question I did have is:

Could one chip away all the rotten wood and either fiberglass or epoxy over the good plywood that is left to form a smooth surface? Then install the factory kit for fixing the problem (drip edge and plastic runner)? Has anyone thought about doing that or have done it? I know the kit has some epoxy for filling in gouges in the plywood. Why couldn't you just use something like that?

Red

 

[red4re]

Update: Go here http://www.rotdoctor.com/

They have a product that you spray on what is left of the plywood - after you have chipped away the rotten stuff. It is called CPES - it soaks in and makes the exposed plywood very hard. Then they have a fill it epoxy that you use to fill in where the rotten plywood was. Works great. I had a lot of rotten plywood due to Heartland not installing any type of drip edge or protection on the slide. The end of the plywood was just exposed to any water dripping off the slide. After I chipped away all the rotten wood on both ends of my living room slide, I estimate about 3 sqaure feet of wood was chipped away. Took a lot of fill, but it worked.

I did talk with Heartland when I noticed the flaw in design. At that time, I felt they should step up and fix the floor - especially since it was a design flaw - which is corrected on all the newer models. They were not too concerned about helping. They told me to order and pay for a kit that fixes their flaw. I said ok - but how does that fix all the rotten wood? After a few hard emails back and forth, they finally agreed to fix my floor at the factory for free. But it would cost me $2800 shipping to get it there and back. Yeah - I guess a half hearted effort - but when you have a design flaw - in my business - it would get taken care of - no cost to the customer. Or I would go out of business. So, I was not paying $2800 for something I should not have to pay for. So I did some research and fixed it myself. $250. May not look too professional when you look under the slide. But it is fixed.

Of course, it appears there are not very many people responding on the forum. Maybe no one will ever read this - I don't know. The major Heartland dealer in Houston dropped out of selling Heartland and another dealer picked up a few models. I will probably get out of the Sundance once the kids grow out of the bunks. Based on this experience and all the issues I had when new, I will probably not be a repeat Heartland customer.

Go to the Rot Doctor - he can help.

Thanks

Red

 

[fjspinelli]

Red,

If you look back at some of my posts and others you will see that we have all had the same problem and response from Heartland. I was actually surprised to hear that they offered to fix your floor. I would have driven out there the next day if it was me. They had no interest in fixing mine and I purchased the fix kit from them. The members of the forum are listening but sometimes are slow to respond - don't give up hope. Would you post some pictures of your final fix?

Thanks! FJ

 

[HappyKayakers]

I have the same problem with my slides. I'm currently working on repairs to the bedroom slide. Scraped out all the rotted wood. Treated exposed edges with wood restorer after letting it dry for a few days. Next step will be to glue in small pieces of wood, then fill in remaining cracks with wood filler. When this is done I'll try to get the laminate screwed in tight enough so no wood is exposed or caulk any exposed parts.

 

[red4re]

Here are a couple of pics after I did some poking around on the wood. Yes - that is the underside of the carpet in the kitchen area you see. I have not sanded the epoxy and made the final touches on the repair. Should be done this weekend and I will post the finished pictures when I get done.

red

 

[lmcclure]

We had a problem with the floor in front of the main slide with the floor rotting to the point of my foot going through it. When we took up the carpet and lineolum we found out that the insulation was wet and that the chip board had rotted away. We had to replace the 2x4's, insulation, and floor with laminate flooring. Before replacing all of this I sealed the black plastic on the inside with waterproof caulking spread evenly on it with 6 mil plastic and then new insulation, 2x4's 3/4" real plywood and then the laminate. Total cost almost $500.00 and it took myself and a friend 4 1/2 days. It came out great. Customer service worked with us over and beyond the what I considered reasonable. The 3200 was out of warranty. I will try to post pics.

 

[JohnDar]

That's a bit different, getting water damage inside like that. Was the slide floor damaged, too? Putting caps on the slide bottom, like some of us have, wouldn't have prevented that. Did you determine how the water got in there?

 

[lmcclure]

No damage to the slide floor. Not really positive how water got in but we feel that it came in through the staples that had been put in at the factory. We found somewhere around 30 holes where they were and there was a bolt that went all the way through that was holding the slide wires that was rusted all the way to the top. I also sprayed the outside with a sealer after we were finished. So far so good. I really do like the flooring and we put the carpet piece in but I think that we will tak it out eventually. I had to check the slides for anything that was sticking through so that it didn't scratch the floor when they came in. Had to remove a lot of staples that were holding the carpet down and were through the bottom. Also had to remove 2 screws and shorten them that held down the kitchen table. They also were through the slide floor. Sealed all of them also.

 

[fjspinelli]

Lee,

I am speechless. I have never seen something like this occur and will have nightmares until I check my floor again! Thank you for sharing. To quote my kids...OMG...WTF?!

 

[Birchwood]

I noticed the black fiber plastic layer separating from the plywood so I gooped all the edges to stop any further separation.
Its important with an RV to notice the little things that can develop into a big problem.I am retired now and have time to repair these seemingly little things.

 

[Seabee RH]

I know this is years later than your origional discussions, but I have a 2014 bighorn 3570 that has rotten slide on drivers side under the fridge. so much is rotten that I am going to have to cut out about a 12"-18", splice a piece above and then fill in the bottom. I though that water might be running down the side and dripping underneath. Can some tell me where the drip edge is placed. Thank you.