Slide leak

[darlenedeemer]

Hello!

Well, we are new to the forum and looking to you experienced owners for information!

We purchased our 2950 RK Big Country last month. It has been parked outside while we've been loading essentials and testing everything out. Yesterday we noticed the carpet was soaked in the bedroom slide. We checked all the seals and everything looked great, we made sure the 5th wheel was completely level, but it still continues to leak. We live in the Pacific NW where we receive plenty of rain. Any ideas on a fix?

 

[jimtoo]

Hi Larry and Darlene,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share.

If your unit is level, make sure the slide is going out all the way and your getting a seal around the inside trim. On the outside, make sure the wiper seal is to the outside, top and sides. Also check at the lower corners to make sure the bottom seal is not sticking out past the side seal to actually catch and funnel the water to the inside.

Some others will jump in here and give some more ideas.

Jim M

 

[jmgratz]

You said your bedroom floor is wet. It is water or hydraulic fluid?

 

[darlenedeemer]

It's water. Mainly on the closet side of the slide, a little on the bathroom side. Under the bed, middle is dry. It almost looks like the side seal is too short. It does not go over the bottom seal that runs horizontally across the bottom .

 

[jmgratz]

There are several things that could cause this. First, it could be your slide is out of adjustment. Another, it could be the "little dam" at the bottom corners of the slide could need to be fixed. If you are in warranty I would get it to a dealer for warranty repair.

 

[darlenedeemer]

Thanks Jim for the quick reply. We will be calling Customer Service tomorrow.

 

[2010augusta]

Is the slide in or out? Our did not seal very well while in, but would seal great while out. I adjusted the hydraulic ram a bit and made it pull in a touch further and now it seals right both ways.

 

[aatauses]

Another area to check: If you have a piece of angle on the bottom of the slide it may?? be acting as a funnel to bring water into your unit. The water runs down the slide, hits the top of the angle, then travels into your unit. You can check if this is happening with a water hose. If that is the issue, try putting a small glop of caulking near your slide seal forcing the water to the ground before entering your unit
al

 

[darlenedeemer]

Did not notice any angle at the botom. What it looks like is they cut the side slide seals too short enabling water to flow into the bottom of the slide at the corners. There is an outside wiper seal across the bottom and the water is allowed to run inside that seal. We are experimenting with adding rubber strips affixed with rubber cement to the bottom of the side seals overlapping the bottom wipe where it's allowed to run in. We've dried the carped and kept it covered, we are expecting rain tomorrow so we will see how that goes, also calling Customer Service. It would be nice to have this fixed before we go on our first outing.

 

[darlenedeemer]

Well Jim, Here we are 2 months later and the Big Country is dry. We did call Heartland Customer Service and was advised to take it in for warranty work. We made the appointment, took it in for the repair and when we brought it home, next rain that came through, we had a wet floor again. I then called Heartland Customer Service again and told them I was sure I knew what the problem was and if they would send me the material I would do the repair myself. The side seal did not come down all the way to the bottom seal and it was wicking along the bottom then into the slide. I received the molding, did the repairs. We've had a few rain storms and the floor remains dry. My hats off to Gary @ Heartland Customer Service. He was more than accommodating, helped me resolve my problem.
Thanks again for all of the input. Great forum.

Larry D.