Slide Out Rollers

Ofdmic

Member
No kitchen slide under frig
Hopefully I can make this clear as mud. LOL. The roller that wdk450 is talking about and recommended, I believe is for a bedroom slide where the the actual roller is mounted to the frame of the slide opening. It stays stationary while the slide moves. The slide rollers on my kitchen slide are mounted to the underside of the slide itself and they move in and out with the slide. The mounting brackets are made from cheap cast aluminum by Lippert. The repair facility doing the work actually found 3 broken brackets and are replacing them with the same brackets from Lippert. I searched high and low for another manufacturer that could have made them from steel, but no such luck. Guess I'll keep my fingers crossed! I believe I have the same rollers as travlin2 ( 10" white or gray) that run across the front of the kitchen slide. Hope this helps.

Michael & Cindy Kerns
2014 Ram 3500 Dually Mega Cab SB
2015 Landmark 365 Newport
 

Ofdmic

Member
Well I guess we all have our own skill set but me, I'd be removing that facia trim piece. Likely able to access the roller for replacement. then I'd reattach the wood trim


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I spoke with the tech at Giant RV in Montclair CA. They are the outfit that is fixing my 3 broken roller brackets under warranty. They are going to remove the facia and then tilt the top of the slide inward therefore exposing the underside. I have not seen a new or broken bracket to see how many screws are used. My unit is only a year and half old and my fear is that the "new" brackets are going to break within the next couple of years and then we're back to square one! Heartland needs to use a new vendor who uses steel for the brackets or request Lippert to start using steel. There are far to many customers who are having this problem!
 

Piperflyer

Well-known member
I spoke with the tech at Giant RV in Montclair CA. They are the outfit that is fixing my 3 broken roller brackets under warranty. They are going to remove the facia and then tilt the top of the slide inward therefore exposing the underside. I have not seen a new or broken bracket to see how many screws are used. My unit is only a year and half old and my fear is that the "new" brackets are going to break within the next couple of years and then we're back to square one! Heartland needs to use a new vendor who uses steel for the brackets or request Lippert to start using steel. There are far to many customers who are having this problem!

If it's the 10" roller bracket it has (3) screw holes. Heartland denies having a problem with their roller brackets, they told me the bracket breaking was due to over loading the kitchen slide or improper alignment of the slide.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Hopefully I can make this clear as mud. LOL. The roller that wdk450 is talking about and recommended, I believe is for a bedroom slide where the the actual roller is mounted to the frame of the slide opening. It stays stationary while the slide moves. The slide rollers on my kitchen slide are mounted to the underside of the slide itself and they move in and out with the slide. The mounting brackets are made from cheap cast aluminum by Lippert. The repair facility doing the work actually found 3 broken brackets and are replacing them with the same brackets from Lippert. I searched high and low for another manufacturer that could have made them from steel, but no such luck. Guess I'll keep my fingers crossed! I believe I have the same rollers as travlin2 ( 10" white or gray) that run across the front of the kitchen slide. Hope this helps.Michael & Cindy Kerns2014 Ram 3500 Dually Mega Cab SB2015 Landmark 365 Newport
If this was my rig, I would buy what is provided by Lippert/Heartland and take it to a machinist's shop to have a strong steel frame(s) built copying the cast aluminum roller frame.Or maybe build a strong frame myself with steel stock. Since I now have a J38 roller (which my online research indicated was the roller needed) I would be curious about the roller height dimension on the rollers used on the kitchen slide, to see how the J38 roller differs (or if it could be used for this application). I guess I will start removing the lower front facia on the kitchen slide to inspect this.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
A couple of observations:

There are thousands of trailers that use these brackets with a small number of failures.

Any part can fail as a result of a manufacturing defect.

A failure where there isn't a manufacturing defect might be the result of excess forces being applied to the part.

If excess force is the underlying problem, putting in a strong part may just cause the problem to manifest as damage to another part of the overall system.

While it's possible there was a run of bad brackets, I'd be looking for an underlying cause. A call to Lippert might be helpful.
 

Piperflyer

Well-known member
Replaced my broken roller bracket assembly today on my kitchen slide. While replacing the broken one, I noticed the other identical roller is breaking at the same spot the one I just took off broke at. Going to have to remove the frig and more wood to get to the screws to remove and replace this roller assembly. There is also a spot under the frig. for a third roller assembly that was never installed. Did heartland forget to add this assembly or what? Enclosed pictures so you can see what is involved to replace a roller.

View attachment 48545View attachment 48546View attachment 48547View attachment 48548
 

wdk450

Well-known member
If it's the 10" roller bracket it has (3) screw holes. Heartland denies having a problem with their roller brackets, they told me the bracket breaking was due to over loading the kitchen slide or improper alignment of the slide.

And how much load did Heartland specify for the kitchen slide when you bought the unit?? THERE IS NO SUCH SPEC.

I just finished an all day repair on the slide rollers. As was said, I was replacing the 6 inch J38 floor mounted roller. I noted that these rollers were screwed to the floor with #8 self tapping metal screws. I replaced those with 1/4 inch lag screws, with the added benefit of being able to install/remove the roller with an end wrench instead of a right angle crosshead screwdriver. My big top mounted rollers were fine (although the mounting screws needed tightening). My Bighorn is vintage 2008, and the roller frames I have for the upper rollers have are plenty beefy steel. I think mine are an earlier design as they attach to the top of the deck board with 3 screws. Having the roller support the load directly like the bottom rollers makes more sense, though What seemed obviously wrong to me about the roller system is that 2 of the 3 big overhead rollers were supporting the lighter weight oven area, while the really heavy refrigerator area had only 1 overhead roller (and the J38 floor mounted roller which had previously pulled out its mounting screws. Even the 1 big roller under the fridge was under the left side of the fridge. I moved that roller to where it is more centered under the fridge to support the weight better.

I found that jacking the ends of the slide with a bottle jack and a 2x4 stud outside worked well. I re-worked the attachment of the bottom horizontal trim board with a bunch of small metal angle braces instead of all of the wire staples. I screwed the angle braces into the black decking wood. I still have some trim to re-install, but the new roller is securely in place, I am tired, and Monday Night Football is on.
 

Piperflyer

Well-known member
I knew you could do it. Nice job.

Peace
Dave
Still have to take the time today to replace the 2nd roller assembly under the frig. I shouldn't of had to undertake this repair, if heartland used better parts or design. I'm sure I will be doing it again down the road in the future.
 
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