My slide floor turned to mush

[TG10894]

Found soft spots in the slide floor of my 2015 21RBS on Saturday ; leaving with it for the mountains on Tuesday.
You can see from the pics 2/3 of the floor back from the forward edge was about gone. I am not 100% sure of the root cause, but I inspected the wall and found no leakage coming down at all. The "as found" on the installation had the bottom edge of the darco(?) covered floor panel slightly below the trim piece on the outside. I'm sure water coming down the side was wicked back towards the darco material and found its way to the wood. The darco is worn and had several small tears.
I used 3/4" exterior grade ply to match the thickness of the remaining piece, and bought a thick tarp to cut up to re-cover the ply. The spray adhesives sold at Lowes/Home Depot work very well. The only tricky part was carefully jacking up the wall on the worse side when the old wood was pulled out. Be careful to get on the aluminum frame and under a vertically intersecting member if possible. I was surprised (again) to find out that the whole slide rides on the Dacron cover over a plastic slide riser on the inside. Not a design that will last forever!
As someone on this forum said, if you don't like working on stuff your not gonna be a "happy camper".

[sourdough]

That's a nice looking repair Dan. And no, the darco bottom sliding across the wear bar was never meant to last forever and it won't unfortunately.

[Bill-2020]

That's a heck of a sight to see with the floor cut out. And you 86'd the end piece of the dinette - made some nice room. From my perspective, excellent work.

[ewbldavis]

Check bottom of walls. Often water will "wick" behind the trim piece at bottom of wall where black wrap meets the siding. Common issue on almost any brand with slides.

I sealed our previous unit right away and this unit is already sealed along bottom of the trim.

Nice job on repair BTW

[TG10894]

Originally Posted by ewbldavis

Check bottom of walls. Often water will "wick" behind the trim piece at bottom of wall where black wrap meets the siding. Common issue on almost any brand with slides.

I sealed our previous unit right away and this unit is already sealed along bottom of the trim.

Nice job on repair BTW

Can you give me some details on how you sealed the bottom trim. My trim is at the bottom of the external wall, and leaves about 1/2" of the darco wrapped panel still exposed from the side. It obviously is not installed quite right and makes it too easy for water to get to the wood. I need to lower the trim, or get something bigger, such that the drip line is off the trim and doesn't flow under the floor. Any suggestions?

[mikec557]

Originally Posted by TG10894

Can you give me some details on how you sealed the bottom trim. My trim is at the bottom of the external wall, and leaves about 1/2" of the darco wrapped panel still exposed from the side. It obviously is not installed quite right and makes it too easy for water to get to the wood. I need to lower the trim, or get something bigger, such that the drip line is off the trim and doesn't flow under the floor. Any suggestions?

That's exactly how my 2020 26RBSWE sidewall is. I would say that at the bottom of the wall, below the bottom edge of the metal trim is about 1/8in of what I assume is the slide out floor material (OSB or Plywood?) covered by Darco.

I remember looking at another manufacturer, maybe Outdoors RV, and their metal trim completely covered the floor thickness and even had a rain drip edge manufactured into the extrusion. The intention was water would run down the wall and drip off rather than turn under and run onto the bottom side of the floor. I wonder if we could find something like that and replace what we have.

[TG10894]

Originally Posted by mikec557

That's exactly how my 2020 26RBSWE sidewall is. I would say that at the bottom of the wall, below the bottom edge of the metal trim is about 1/8in of what I assume is the slide out floor material (OSB or Plywood?) covered by Darco.

I remember looking at another manufacturer, maybe Outdoors RV, and their metal trim completely covered the floor thickness and even had a rain drip edge manufactured into the extrusion. The intention was water would run down the wall and drip off rather than turn under and run onto the bottom side of the floor. I wonder if we could find something like that and replace what we have.

Mike - I am planning to improve that trim design, but I have to be sure that I keep it flush across the bottom. I saw a repair pic that showed someone putting an aluminum 90 degree edge piece on the corner and then reinstalling the trim over it that looked good.
Since the floor is the load bearing surface when the slide is moving, anything that protrudes below the horizontal plane (providing the fixed plastic slide on the inside goes all the way over that far) will become a sliding point once the slide is retracted. Good luck, and let me know what you come up with!