Dangerous loose trim on slide-out
HI,
We were travelling with our 2018 Cougar Half-ton 25RES 5th wheel thru East Texas and Louisiana where the roads were somewhat rough. When we stopped we found that the long, leather-covered trim above the living-room slide-out had detached from the top of the slide-out and fallen down. This left a lovely gouge in the front of the TV, and tore some of the PVC on the trim.
The trim was held to the slide-out frame by six #8 x 1¼" sheet-metal screws. (See photo) These are screwed into some for of lightweight pressed-board which is not very strong. The trim is made of 2 pieces of ½" ply stapled together in the middle and then covered with PVC cloth. There is a decorative trim block on the front. When it is not attached to the frame this trim is very fragile and the two halves will almost certainly separate unless handled very carefully.
To repair this:
1) I drilled all the existing holes in the frame to accept plastic dowel plugs so that the screws through the existing holes would have something to bite into. I glued these plastic dowels in place using wood glue.
2) I took a steel repair plate and used #8 x 1¼ screws through the metal plate, through the plywood and into the decorative square block in the middle of the trim. I also glued the plate to the ply for good measure. This held the trim as a single, far less fragile piece. (See photo)
3) The existing mounting screws were approximately 30 inches apart. I drilled 2 extra holes through the trim between each existing screw hole - a total of 8 extra screws. I used blue masking tape to mark the approximate position of the new screw-holes, then used a sharpie on the tape to mark the exact spot to drill the clearance holes through the PVC and the ply.
4) Three friends held the trim in place while I used #8 x 2" wood-screws to replace the original 6 shorter screws. I also used 8 more of these longer screws for the additional holes I had drilled.
5) I was able to use the same screw-cap bases and screw-caps that I had removed, but I purchased new screw-caps for the extra screws.
Whilst my situation was a repair, I would strongly suggest that other owners buy some #8 x 2 inch wood-screws and replace the existing sheet-metal screws (one-at a time). This will prevent a very costly repair.
Happy Camping!
__________________
F150 XLT with 3.5L Turbo
PullRite Hitch
Cougar Half Ton 24RES
|