Adding Slide-out rollers

[Vet4jdc]

Check out this video. I can see these added to my kitchen slide in the near future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3AQDBgJxU

Found the parts here:

https://highskyrvparts.com/rv-parts/...-roller-854304

[Laredo Tugger]

I have considered these as well but have a few questions. It is my understanding that when you raise the slide up and insert these rollers you then have the roller tracking on the darco fabric which creates excessive wear marks in the darco.
I think if I were to do this mod I would consider some material mounted to the slide bottom to receive the rollers "imprint".
Question is, what material? I have seen suggestions of some types of thin plastics.
RMc

[Northofu1]

My only concern with the rollers depends on how heavy the slide is and how much weight is put on the darco and the chip board or luaun(?). I think adding some thin Polyethelene UHMW strips over the roller travel area might be the ticket.
I think maybe Danny (Sourdough) can expound on what he put under his slides as he was not impressed with the darco. I am not sure of thickness or install procedure.
Good luck

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Northofu1

My only concern with the rollers depends on how heavy the slide is and how much weight is put on the darco and the chip board or luaun(?). I think adding some thin Polyethelene UHMW strips over the roller travel area might be the ticket.
I think maybe Danny (Sourdough) can expound on what he put under his slides as he was not impressed with the darco. I am not sure of thickness or install procedure.
Good luck

In my experience with darco (last 7 years) I can only say that IMO that Keystone uses the wrong product in the wrong application. I've expressed that to the Keystone service group and Keystone Montana production management. To what end I don't know.

The trailer I've had all ended up tearing up the darco. The first was wear bar only and the ends of the darco became torn and frayed about 1 1/2 mayb3 2 years in. On that one, since it was out of my pocket (almost 3k) we installed 3 strips of 1/8" thick uhmw down the wear areas (front to back). Doing it the way they did it was probably not the most inexpensive way because they literally hyper extended the slide (pulled it completely out of the wall) to attach the strips. It covered the damaged darco and didn't have a problem, nor could you see any wear, in the next 4 years.

On this trailer the darco started tearing on the first trip. Thankfully I was watching it because it was a know problem to me and you had to get under the slide to see it. This one has rollers and the rollers were compressing the darco, pinching it then causing it to crack and tear - first trip. It caused the adhesive to start bleeding through the darco - you could put your hand under and mash the loose darco and your fingers would stick to it. This time I took it in for warranty. Keystone's solution? Allow 2 hours labor and screw 1/8" aluminum strips (in the bottom of the slide - about 50 of them) down the length of the edges. Now, if one is familiar with a drilled and slotted brake rotor, all those screw holes would have one effect on that wear bar - drag on it and destroy it. Keystone 1) had no idea and 2) could have cared less. I escalated all over the place. In the end they approved completely covering the slide bottoms with 1/8" uhmw to give me a solid surface slide bottom - much better....and I'm much happier.

As far as the rollers, I was inclined to go that way until I saw what happened on this trailer with them - and it was on the LR slide, not the kitchen side which is heavier. I have seen videos of those roller installs but never any long term follow up so don't know the eventual outcome. If I were to do it I would definitely put uhmw strips (or similar product) along the path of the rollers so the daily worry about the darco would be gone.

A couple of things I "think" I discovered on this last adventure looking into the darco situation;

They make things called "slide skis" that might be the way to go.
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=...4dUDCAk&uact=5

My concern with them is that they need to be wide enough to cover any roller if installed.

2) As indicated with the slide ski, and as we did on our new slide bottom install, it is important that whatever is placed on the outside edges goes up around the outside edge and is secured. That keeps whatever you place there from coming loose, sagging etc.

Someday I hope Keystone realizes that they need to put a more functional material on the bottom of their slides. Until then I think about the only way to stop the damage is to place some sort of wear resistant material over the damaged areas to stop it. Remember too that if the darco has been compromised (holes, tears etc.) that when you put something over it that material needs to be sealed to keep water from seeping up under it, through the perforated darco and then sitting on the wood bottom of the slide and destroying it.

[kckettridge]

Fast forward to today and Keystone (other OEM's I presume as well) are still using this failed method of the wear bar and Darco vapor barrier. I just installed Lippert # J36 slide-out rollers and DuoForm slide skis on my living room slide-out. The rollers raised the slide out approx. 1/8" off of the wear bar. I am also considering installing a sheet of UHMW to the bottom side of the slide-out to combat the roller wear marks. My concern is that this will further raise the slide-out room and I am not sure if the rollers were designed to accept the entire weight of the slide-out. I have 5 of these rollers across a 14' living/dining room slide-out.

[sourdough]

BAL makes rollers as well. I think all the aftermarket ones attach on the front face of the wall under the slide...is that how the Lipperts attach? I am assuming you have the cable Accu Slide system so those cables also lend support to the slide.

I would not consider rollers on darco unless I covered the darco with uhmw or something similar. I have seen quite a few slides with rollers on darco and they tend to chew up the darco leading to further, and possibly expensive, issues. I doubt the additional 1/8" of a uhmw strip over the roller would make any difference but you might need to adjust the cables. Watch the top of the slide to make sure the slight increase in height isn't going to cause some clearance issue.

[kckettridge]

sourdough... We have the Lippert Rack & Pinion slide-out on the living/dining room side which is where I installed the Lippert Rollers on. The kitchen slide-out has the BAL AccuSlide which Keystone had an RV shop install the BAL rollers on it earlier this year due to the Darco wearing through to the OSB. Keystone along with all of the other RV manufacturers know this is a failed system yet continue to use it. What could 4 or 5 rollers cost at the time of manufacturing the rig? Maybe another $50 yet they paid the RV shop $900 to install 5 rollers across that kitchen slide. I will install the UHMW in a couple of months when I have more time as we won't be using the rig until next camping season anyway.

[sourdough]

It's more than the rollers; the rollers will destroy the darco just like the wear bar. The issue, IMO, is the use of darco on the bottom of a slide. It's cheap, it's flimsy, it encounters resistance as it pushes/pulls across a wear bar or roller. Once it starts stretching it will start breaking apart and can literally disintegrate, or as I had happen, tear off and roll up behind the wear bar. Not a good solution. I have twice talked to product line managers on two different trailers about the use of it but it seems it is the "cost effective" way for manufacturers to cover the bottom of a slide....not good IMO.

[SargeW]

Hmm, now I will have to check the bottom of my slide out for damage...

[JRTJH]

There are probably as many different approaches to adding "pads between the rollers and the DARCO fabric as there are people who do the job. I wouldn't say that any one approach is better/worse or easier/harder than another.

That said, the price of UHMW material has risen to almost double what it was a couple years ago. That might affect the approach someone considers today, since there are other materials that would protect the DARCO and are a bit cheaper to buy with no significant increase in difficulty to install. Things like aluminum strips, HPDE plastic do a similar job and have about the same installation time/difficulty.

Anyway, back when UHMW was cheaper, here's what I used on my trailer: https://www.amazon.com/Black-UHMW-Po...%2C175&sr=8-16

The rollers are just a wee bit wider than 4.5" and the strips are 1/8" thick and 6" wide, so I didn't feel the need to countersink the screw holes to clear the rollers, although some people do prefer to countersink to remove nearly all the risk of contacting the vinyl flooring inside the trailer as the slide moves in. I haven't had that problem in almost 3 years of use. So, I used "low height round head screws to install my 1/8" strips. The screws are on the outer edge of the UHMW strips and the rollers contact the strips "between the screws, so no issues with the screw heads and the rollers making contact or damage.

The strips that I used have "beveled edges" so there are no sharp edges in the plastic. I've heard that the new ones are "square cut edges" so you might want to sand the edges to remove the "sharpness" if the arrive that way. I don't think it makes a lot of difference either way, but mine were beveled and there's nothing under the slide to catch your hand or fingers when under there, so I'd suppose that means there's nothing to catch anything else as the slide moves in and out as well....

It's not a difficult job, and definitely protects the DARCO on the bottom of the slide.

All that said, if I had damaged or cut/worn DARCO on the slide bottom, I would not attempt to repair it since any tape or "adhesive held cover" would likely pull away and foul (get caught) on the rollers or roll up under the slide and do more damage than the worn DARCO would allow. In that situation, I think I'd install what the "high end RV slides use" which is a complete UHMW bottom cover or a FILON bottom cover.

IMO, a solid bottom cover should be in all RV slides, but in the interest of "weight reduction" (the excuse they all seem to use) it has pretty much become the "standard of excellence" to downgrade to DARCO which is definitely not "excellence" by any standard. YMMV

[jsb5717]

I've done both "repairs" with (so far) good results. On our kitchen slide that had just a wear bar I added rollers. I jacked up the slide just enough to take a little pressure off of the wear bar. The rollers are rolling on the Darco and I'm aware that it could eventually wear and fray. If it does I'll insert some UHMW strips.

I added those strips on the living side where the 2 outer rollers were fraying the Darco...probably just like Danny's. I did the work myself by jacking up the slide, lifting the weight just off of the roller, inserting a 1/16" thick strip with a little silicone backing to help hold it in place. Then I used some small screws and counter sunk them in the strip to lock it in place. So far the fix has held up and solved the fraying problem.

I agree that this Darco material is a lame application. They use a nice solid material (probably the UHMW or similar material) under the bedroom slide and it creates a nice, durable application. That would be a better application under all of the slides. I know...costs more

Here are the ones I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Adding pics:

[jxnbbl]

Although I purchased all the materials to include this on my slides, I decided to delay until our large slide was repaired. I will complete this next year. Here is a source that I found to cut UHMW to the size I wanted at a reasonable price.



https://www.interstateplastics.com/

[Camping family]

Originally Posted by Laredo Tugger

I have considered these as well but have a few questions. It is my understanding that when you raise the slide up and insert these rollers you then have the roller tracking on the darco fabric which creates excessive wear marks in the darco.
I think if I were to do this mod I would consider some material mounted to the slide bottom to receive the rollers "imprint".
Question is, what material? I have seen suggestions of some types of thin plastics.
RMc

There are several videos on u tube on this. Seems they add a thin product for the roller to ride on

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by jxnbbl

Although I purchased all the materials to include this on my slides, I decided to delay until our large slide was repaired. I will complete this next year. Here is a source that I found to cut UHMW to the size I wanted at a reasonable price.



https://www.interstateplastics.com/

Wow. I have reviewed Interstate before but just pulled up a 4'x8' sheet of 1/8" uhmw and it has really gone up. We used a lot to cover the entire bottoms of mine - probably the equivalent to 6? sheets...wasn't near that expensive 2-3 years ago.

As for your slides and working with the uhmw, I have cut remnants of the slide bottom leftovers to make linings in the wheel wells of the trailer. You can use a table saw to rip length/width you want of the uhmw really easy with it if that makes the material cheaper.

[kckettridge]

Originally Posted by sourdough

It's more than the rollers; the rollers will destroy the darco just like the wear bar. The issue, IMO, is the use of darco on the bottom of a slide. It's cheap, it's flimsy, it encounters resistance as it pushes/pulls across a wear bar or roller. Once it starts stretching it will start breaking apart and can literally disintegrate, or as I had happen, tear off and roll up behind the wear bar. Not a good solution. I have twice talked to product line managers on two different trailers about the use of it but it seems it is the "cost effective" way for manufacturers to cover the bottom of a slide....not good IMO.

sourdough - I re-worked the slide-out rollers this weekend and removed the Lippert J36 and installed the BAL 854304 1/2" rollers as I didn't like how the slide-out teetered when going in/out because it raised the slide-out too high and left about a 1/4" gap between the bottom of the slide-out floor and the wipe seal underneath the slide-out. I didn't like that. I also installed ABS "runners" for lack of a better description, underneath the rollers so the rollers pass smoothly over the bottom side of the slide-out. So far so good. If I were to do this again, I may just do it anyway; remove the ABS strips and completely cover the bottom of the slide-out with the ABS.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by kckettridge

sourdough - I re-worked the slide-out rollers this weekend and removed the Lippert J36 and installed the BAL 854304 1/2" rollers as I didn't like how the slide-out teetered when going in/out because it raised the slide-out too high and left about a 1/4" gap between the bottom of the slide-out floor and the wipe seal underneath the slide-out. I didn't like that. I also installed ABS "runners" for lack of a better description, underneath the rollers so the rollers pass smoothly over the bottom side of the slide-out. So far so good. If I were to do this again, I may just do it anyway; remove the ABS strips and completely cover the bottom of the slide-out with the ABS.

Great! I'm glad it worked out for you. I had the entire bottoms of my big slides with uhmw (the bedroom already had a solid bottom). It has worked out VERY well - they should all come that way IMO. If you ever do the entire bottom I used 1/8" uhmw and had it rolled up around the ends then attached under the transition strips (it had to be heated and bent). I also had it extended completely around the front edges of the slide inside the trailer (bent while heated) then attached to eliminate any possibility of it catching on the wear bar.

[kckettridge]

I think next spring I will go that route and cover the bottom of both of the slides with UHMW or ABS (basically the same thing) anyway although I did install the DuoForm Slide ski's and it wrapped around the bottom edges of the slide-out. I silicone the snot out of it and then water-tested it after the silicone dried. Our bedroom slide came with the UHMW on it already as well. I agree 100% with you that the manufacturers need to just do this from the factory to begin with.

[GlasNav]

UHMW has greater impact resistance, commonly used for fendering along berths for ships and guide walls of locks and bridge fendering where ships and barges transit.