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Old 12-04-2019, 07:08 AM   #21
Tbos
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hblick48 View Post
Mine is a 2002. Darco was pretty worn on both ends of the kitchen slide. Then one of the screws holding down the umhw slide bar backed out and the exposed screw head tore the darco.

I purchased 1 inch wide by 1/8 thick adhesive backed umhw tape. Installed it on both ends of slide under slide frame after fixing screw. I left darco in place and taped it up with mobile home flex mend tape. Darco no longer rides on slide bar, it's umhw to umhw and it slides great.

IMHO, they engineer them to outlast the warranty and that's it!

Do you have a link for the tape you used? I can’t find any listed as an 1/8” thick. Thanks.
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Old 12-04-2019, 07:53 AM   #22
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Originally Posted by ROBNPEN View Post
Any thoughts on modifying the wear bar with slide-out rollers?


While at my dealers service center (for a slide problem, with the slides extended) I asked about installing these aftermarket rollers. They advised against them,stating that they would produce uneven wear marks in the Darco material.
I recently had my slides extended for service of the outside rubber seals. I had a can of dry lubricant with Teflon. I sprayed a small area of the Darco under a slide and noticed a difference in surface friction between the sprayed and unsprayed area. So I sprayed all the Darco under my slides (3). They seem to work smoother. A long term solution? No, but Danny is on the right track for this to be addressed. What is the solution? Not sure, but it is a given it will not be an expensive one for RV manufactures. Competitive price point will always be one of the first components in a new RV.
On a similar note (about corporate response). A member of my family is "high on the food chain" of a national retail store. He said that his new CEO accepts emails (sometimes more than 100 a day, presently) from any customers and that he has a team assigned to reply to concerns in a timely manner. A recent quote on a text he sent (on this topic) stated "you spend money, your opinion matters not ours". Maybe Keystone has adopted this principal, maybe not?
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Old 12-04-2019, 09:39 AM   #23
Brantlyj
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Checked mine and I have the rack and pinion style. I didn’t see any wear markings on the darco so I’m guessing it does not have any wear bars... I’ll be keeping an eye on it though
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Old 12-04-2019, 10:17 AM   #24
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This seems odd on my impact the bedroom slide has plastic Matt with 3 roller. The bigger slide used darco with ware bar distroying the darco and slide from water damage. I added UHMW strips that improved the slide a lot and took the stress off the motor. My point is how come keystone stone can install one nice smooth slide and then build one that can selfdistruct on the same trailer. The darco slide with the bal wear bar has been a lot of trouble befor adding UHMW.
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Old 12-04-2019, 12:40 PM   #25
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I've previously posted this fix that I did to my slide. Glad they're looking at it and hopefully will improve it.

I added some strips to the corners of the slide do it now rides on these strips and is sealed to keep water from wicking down and around the bottom edges of the slide and into the floor.
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Old 12-04-2019, 01:32 PM   #26
sonofcy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sourdough View Post
At the moment I don't know where the pics of darco issues are but just look under your slide(s). If it is covered with a mesh looking plastic stuff that is Darco. If it's darco and is a cable slide it has a wear bar a few inches inside the bottom seal under the slide.
My cable slide does NOT have Darco. It's a 2018 Montana.
I do have Darco on the two hydraulic slides and a wear bar inside. This is plastic sliding over plastic so with a little maintenance to the wearbar should last almost forever. I do NOT understand what the issues are, but I am concerned there might be something I need to look into.
I also don't get the wheel well issue, I just looked at mine and when the slide comes in there is a very big steel beam that fills the space above the wheel. Not saying some models don't have a problem, but so far I can't see any issues with mine.
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Old 12-04-2019, 02:23 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by sourdough View Post
I spent quite a bit if time determining if I wanted to post what was going on with my efforts due to the realization I would get responses like this. I decided to do it because there are many here that have issues with the Darco and their reasoning could make sense plus it seemed like it might be a ray of hope going forward. Yes, you can poke holes in it and deride them all you want, and you are entitled to your opinion, but, the folks I talked to were very sincere in their conversations with me and I was uplifted by their interest (and hopefully their willingness to pursue).

As far as your problems with your slides, mine cost around $2400 all said and done to repair so yes, I know that pain and irritation. Unless you have designed RVs I'm not sure how you know the positioning of the rams for the hydraulic slides doesn't affect tank placement - it appears to me it would, and as our conversation went, it is one of the reasons Keystone has some of the best floorplans apparently (and they do). As far as the worm drive rams I've seen several (2 sitting in this park right now) that droop to the outside due to no way to support the slide. If you can't adjust your slide to fit the seals and be level....you need to try again (or have it done), ours are tight and square after 6 years of use. To each his own.

Thanks for your voice upstream on this. Oddly, my slide repair cost $2400 as well, the only time our Canadian dollar felt better.
But as to the issue and VPs not hearing it, I believe it, many organizations get filtered pretty badly, " only push the good news" . Glad to hear that you got an ear.
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Old 12-04-2019, 09:43 PM   #28
Larrylane
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Last year I notice the Darco fabric was wearing on both my living room and kitchen slide. After many hours of searching I found out this is a huge problem on many different models and manufacturers for a number of years.

I finally decided to use the fix from many folks that have Forest River RV's which includes pre-formed plastic pieces that attached to the bottom of your slide at each end. This will also fix issues of rain water running down your slide wall over the trim piece near the bottom where the darco fabric wraps the corner of the slide and under this trim piece. This area has been causing water intrusion into the wood floor of the slide.

These plastic pieces (Left-10F17448A, Right 10F17449A) are sold by Majestic Formed Plastics 269-663-2870. They can be used on both type of floors (flush and raised) with wear bar or rollers.

It takes about 2 hrs per slide and are attached with double sided tape that is included. I purchase two sets per side and cut the flange off two of them so I could use flat pieces equally spaced in the middle of the slide. So far I have not had any issues and the slide seams to go in and out much easier.

Installation steps,
1. Locate slide so it is part way in and jack up slide using 2"X6" boards and jack. You should be able to get 1/4" to 1/2" of clearance under your slide.
2. Remove all screws on trim pieces at bottom of slide at both ends. The trim piece should lift away from darco fabric, but should stay attached to slide siding by the silicone caulking. By not totally removing will save time and the need to re-caulk.
3. Repair darco fabric where needed and clean areas where double sided tape will stick to darco fabric. You can by scrim tape from Amazon.
4. Use a tape measure to determine length of plastic slide pieces before cutting. You should be able to run the tape measure under the slide towards the outside. While someone on the outside holds the tape against the furthest point under the slide then measure to the edge of your slide floor behind your trim or pull up your slide carpet. This will be your length for the plastic runner.
5. I used tin snips to cut the plastic pieces to length and any other obstacles.
and to cut the flanges off two of the pieces for flat runners.
6. Test fit before installing.
7. Pull covering off double sided tape starting from the outside towards the inside. Slide the runners from the outside towards the inside and position properly before pushing tape against the underside of the slide out. Be sure to get the 1" flange up and under the trim piece while installing each piece at both ends of the slide. The two pieces in the middle of the slide should be kept as square as possible.
8. After installing all runners be sure to re-install screws on the trim pieces.
9. Remove jacks and blocking.
10. Use some type of silicone or Teflon type lubricant once or twice a year on the runners.
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Old 12-05-2019, 07:50 AM   #29
Tbos
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LarryLane,
Thanks for posting your fix.
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Old 12-05-2019, 08:04 AM   #30
Hblick48
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Do you have a link for the tape you used? I can’t find any listed as an 1/8” thick. Thanks.

Link for uhmw self adhesive tape:

https://www.interstateplastics.com/D...npk=2244&qty=1
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Old 12-05-2019, 12:10 PM   #31
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I am continuing to work on this since there seems to be a lot of issues with this design and what appears to be an obvious solution.

I was in contact with Norco today (Accu Slide) and I was told that they recommend to the OEMs that rollers be used under all their slides. What the manufacturer chooses to do is up to them in the end. The Darco/wear bar is obviously not the optimal option.

I have forwarded what they say their recommendations are to the folks I have been talking to at Keystone and asked that it is confirmed that they have then forwarded it to the CEO of Keystone for consideration or explanation. We'll see where that goes. As one of the member's of one of the boards I'm on said once..."you're just a bully"; no, I'm insistent and persistent, so I'll keep on plugging to see if there is a remedy.
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Old 12-05-2019, 05:41 PM   #32
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Originally Posted by sourdough View Post
I am continuing to work on this since there seems to be a lot of issues with this design and what appears to be an obvious solution.

I was in contact with Norco today (Accu Slide) and I was told that they recommend to the OEMs that rollers be used under all their slides. What the manufacturer chooses to do is up to them in the end. The Darco/wear bar is obviously not the optimal option.

I have forwarded what they say their recommendations are to the folks I have been talking to at Keystone and asked that it is confirmed that they have then forwarded it to the CEO of Keystone for consideration or explanation. We'll see where that goes. As one of the member's of one of the boards I'm on said once..."you're just a bully"; no, I'm insistent and persistent, so I'll keep on plugging to see if there is a remedy.
Has anybody tried using a lubricant on either the Darco or the UHMW wearbar? I thought I saw a YT video showing that but can't remember where.
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Old 12-05-2019, 06:02 PM   #33
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Yes, I and many others have done so. Norco (BAL) recommended Zep 45 but it is difficult to find and expensive. Some are using a product from WD40 called Specialist dry lube or something like that. I've used several kinds. The use of a lube is simply due to a design not thought out IMO.

If you consider that the Darco (plasticized paper) is used to cover the bottom of the slide BUT it is supposed to "slide" over the wear bar....for eternity. Of course, it won't and will eventually wear or tear. That coupled with the reality that the long slides will probably eventually start to sort of bow with the ends as the main contact points as mine did (watch the Hidden Ridge video on the BAL Accu Slide) the Darco has no chance and we all have to come up with some ad hoc solution at some point.

Be very careful of what you choose to put on the Darc0/wear bar. When mine first started acting up and I took it to the dealer the first option was to grab the "slide lube" off the shelf at the dealership and liberally spray it under my slides. It was like brown goo, coated the Darco and wear bar and my slide almost stopped working due to binding. I, repeat I, had to take it home, thoroughly wash clean and dry the Darco and wear bar (which improved things a lot) then try to find a solution (uhmw plastic strips). All lubes are not the same and they are definitely not a permanent solution - just buy a case of whatever it is you choose.
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Old 12-06-2019, 01:47 AM   #34
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Hi Sourdough
My earlier response was not meant to be a rant rather more to inform prospective buyers that the same frame problems still exist and now new issues like Darco are appearing. I wish I had found this forum prior to buying the Cougar. I did try to find out & thought the main one ( frame) was not occurring after 2010. Unfortunately not the case for many who have spent big $ having it fixed. It's strange that rollers are only used on the bedroom slide.
I haven't used any slippery spray as I think it could cause the screws holding the UMHW strips to work free. Need to keep a watch out for this as will rip into the wear bar.
I appreciate your persistent efforts to bring the Darco problem to Keystone management. Time will tell!
Cheers
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Old 12-06-2019, 03:56 AM   #35
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Hi Sourdough
My earlier response was not meant to be a rant rather more to inform prospective buyers that the same frame problems still exist and now new issues like Darco are appearing. I wish I had found this forum prior to buying the Cougar. I did try to find out & thought the main one ( frame) was not occurring after 2010. Unfortunately not the case for many who have spent big $ having it fixed. It's strange that rollers are only used on the bedroom slide.
I haven't used any slippery spray as I think it could cause the screws holding the UMHW strips to work free. Need to keep a watch out for this as will rip into the wear bar.
I appreciate your persistent efforts to bring the Darco problem to Keystone management. Time will tell!
Cheers
Ok, I am confused. You mention wear bars and UHMW as if they are two DIFFERENT things. My wear bars ARE UHMW and there are NO screws through the UHMW. My Montana was built Aug/Sep 2017 and is called a 2018 model. We took delivery of it in late Sep 2017 and have lived in it ever since.
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Old 12-06-2019, 12:47 PM   #36
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Sonofcy The Darco looked like it was about to tear in the centre of the large slide so after seeing another poster using UMHW I counter sunk / screwed UMHW strips to the underside of the Darco. The slide with UMHW strips runs on the wear bar a lot smoother / faster. Downside floor seams to be soft OSB & screws could work out. May re-insert with glue. I didn't go with the UMHW tape as the Darco scuffing etc looked like it's under a lot of stress & thought it might tear of & rip the Darco with it
The smaller Bedroom slide underside is covered with a different surface that the 3 rollers run on. However it is lifting in places - no problem yet...……..
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Old 12-06-2019, 03:09 PM   #37
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Sonofcy The Darco looked like it was about to tear in the centre of the large slide so after seeing another poster using UMHW I counter sunk / screwed UMHW strips to the underside of the Darco. The slide with UMHW strips runs on the wear bar a lot smoother / faster. Downside floor seams to be soft OSB & screws could work out. May re-insert with glue. I didn't go with the UMHW tape as the Darco scuffing etc looked like it's under a lot of stress & thought it might tear of & rip the Darco with it
The smaller Bedroom slide underside is covered with a different surface that the 3 rollers run on. However it is lifting in places - no problem yet...……..
What width and thickness UMHW strips did you use? Where did you buy them? And if you did the install again you would use an adhesive?
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Old 12-07-2019, 11:49 PM   #38
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Bought them pre cut from a local plastics supplier that supplies engineering & mining industry - used in high metal to metal wear areas. Installed 3" wide for each end, 2" for strip every 18" and 6" over the damaged Darco in centre of slide. I had to do a quick fix as found bad wear area just before last trip. Saw comments by Roadglide & others (thanks) on this forum. I doubt if glue/silicon etc well stick to darco but something will as it's used on the UMHW tape. need to contact 3M & Soudal if any of their products will work.
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Old 12-08-2019, 05:27 AM   #39
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I have the flush floor slides for my kitchen and dining room slides so my slides drop down when fully extended. Can the UMHW be beveled and placed so the strips go up onto the wear bar? If you place the UMHW strips on top of the wear bar the slide will not drop down to create the flush floor. Is this correct, or am I missing something?
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Old 12-08-2019, 10:22 AM   #40
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Thanks for the info Sulphur1.
How thick was the UMHW you installed? And confirming you added nothing to your wear bar? (UMHW,rollers ect..)
Thanks again,
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