Newbie here

nanaof4boys · 07-20-2009, 07:22 PM

Hello, we are from South Arkansas. We just bought and have just made our maiden voyage in our 2008 Keystone Hornet. Our TV is a 2009 Ford F150 5.4L, 3.55 ratio transmission. We love camping and love our new Hornet but we had a leak in the superslide the very first trip after a driving rainstorm. It has to go back to the dealer in the next day or two to find the leak. Is this common with new TTs? Thanks

antiqfreq · 07-21-2009, 04:16 AM

We camped once where it was raining about 10 hours straight, really pouring down and really just slaming the bedroom slide.

We saw some water soaking up near the carpet area near our mirrored closet.
We later realized that the trailer was not 100% level and this caused the
leak.

We figured this out after we got home and did a little testing ourselves. So now we always make sure it is absolutely level.

When we arrived at our campground it was raining then, so we must have been a little slack when setting up - our fault!

Jo a/k/a AntiqFreq

Festus2 · 07-21-2009, 10:59 AM

Another "level" thing to check for....
Once you get set up and and check to see if your TT is level, you might stick a level on the top of your slide-out to make sure that it is not sloping toward your unit. In fact, there should be a slight slope away from the TT allowing rain water to run off away from your unit.
When levelling the RV, some people even have it ever so slightly off level - tilted slightly so that the slide is angled downward a hair.
I am assuming that the leak you had came when you were camped and not while travelling down the road.
Also, you might want to make sure that you coat or spray your seals with a compound to make them pliable. I use Aerospace303 Protectorant but there are many other similar, good products available on the market.
When you do take your unit in to your dealer to have him look at it, and if he ends up "repairing it", you might want to have a hose turned on the slide, give it a good soaking, and inspect for any further leakage before you drive away.

nanaof4boys · 07-27-2009, 06:18 AM

Good ideas! Thank you both! We didn't know about having the slides tilted just a hair away from the interior of the camper! My husband just delivered it to the dealer. I will tell him what y'all have said and we will certainly insist on the "water hose" test when we pick it up. Thanks again! I'll update when we find something out.

nanaof4boys · 07-27-2009, 06:20 AM

One more quick question though...how do you set the camper up with the slide slightly unlevel when you have a slide on opposite sides? We have the super slide on one side and the bunk house slide on the other side. By the way, the wind was really blowing during that storm and just about everyone who had slides in their campers that night had leaks. So, I guess it could have been wind blowing??????

antiqfreq · 07-27-2009, 08:13 AM

Good question........

I don't know the answer though.......

Hey, how about leveling it 'unlevel' from front
to back???

That will probably cause a whole set of new problems -
don't listen to me -
someone else will chime in!

Jody

Firecapt · 07-27-2009, 09:21 PM

Slides should "out slope" slightly when the trailer or 5er is level. This usually keeps the rain on the outside of the coach. Make sure that the slide is all the way out as far as it will go and that all the seals are "pooched out." Sometimes the seals don't reverse when the slide goes out or in.

You may also like: