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Old 04-25-2011, 10:33 PM   #1
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3rd Trip - All Wet!

We headed out thursday to the local state park (about 15-20 minutes away) after I got home from work even though we were getting some rain off and on and the forecast called for rain throughout the weekend. We have had this family camping trip planned for awhile and we were determined to see it through.

While loading the trailer DW noticed some water (maybe a ¼ of a cup) in the bathroom floor. It appeared to be coming from the wardrobe slide. The trailer wasn't level, tongue and street side high, so I concluded that, along with wind and hard rain, caused some water to get by the slideout seals. I sent an email to Brandon York and he also thought that might be the problem.

My BIL and sister were planning on using my late parents MH, but my BIL had to work late on Friday and my sister can't/won't drive the MH. So I drive 100 miles, one way, to get the MH and my sister follows me back in my truck to the campground. 20-25 mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph. That was a fun drive!

Friday evening my niece, her husband and their two kids arrive. My DD and SIL bring out our oldest grand daughters to camp with us. We already have my DS's two girls with us. My brother makes it down with his 5'er. Everything is going pretty good and then the storms hit. We had a tornado go over us and it touched down about five miles later. We were all huddled in the bath house.

Grand daughters and niece's daughter in the bath house.


Saturday was cloudy, cool with light sprinkles off and on. We had planned on a big fish fry and the good Lord provided us with a rain free afternoon. We had some family come down just for the fish fry so we ended up feeding 14 adults and 9 kids. We cooked the fish my DW and I had caught this past 3 weeks. There was more than enough and we still have a couple of bags in the freezer. The rain held off long enough that we were able to sit around a campfire that evening. Somehow with all that wet wood, my BIL got the fire going while I was cooking fish.

Fresh, hot crappie fillets.


The kids did get to color some Easter eggs and had some fun hunting them and playing.

Kids coloring Easter eggs.


Sunday we experienced more storms and hard rain. My DS, his wife and Lil' Dude came down so my wife and the grand kids went to the house. I went after checking with my BIL that he was good to go with the MH, they were heading back that morning because of the rain. I spent the day with my new camping buddy then headed back to the campground. It continued to rain. but I was tired and slept good (weather alert radio beside the bed).

I get up this morning (mandantory work furlough day) and start breaking camp. My brother, whose retired and staying the week, keeps me company with his stories and my coffee while I'm drying things off, packing and hitching up. I load some of the wet items, like the awning mat, in back of the truck.

So I make it back home and unload all the food and dirty clothes. I make a close inspection of the trailer and besides being dirty, I find no issues except a little water around the wardrobe slide. I did keep an eye on it while camping and found just a little then too. Maybe a couple of spoonfulls each time. The trailer was level at the campground, but the wind did blow pretty good a time or two.

Having family down and being able to have that fish fry and campfire was worth every bit of any the problems we experienced. This is one camping trip I'll always remember with smile.

P.S. Sorry about the poor quality pics. I got them from my niece's phone. I stayed busy and didn't take any pics on this trip.
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Old 04-25-2011, 10:36 PM   #2
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glad to see you had a good weekend even though it was a little wet
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Old 04-25-2011, 10:50 PM   #3
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Good looking fish there. Do not think there could have been a worse weekend in okla to camp.
Hope its better in Branson next week. Got our trailer out of storage this afternoon after it quit raining. Gotta get it loaded on on our way Thursday.
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Old 04-26-2011, 06:04 AM   #4
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Remember if its been raining and the top of the slide is wet when u bring it in there may be a little water on top that runs off.
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Old 04-26-2011, 06:11 AM   #5
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Remember if its been raining and the top of the slide is wet when u bring it in there may be a little water on top that runs off.
Excellent point, is there a topper on that slide?

Additionally, do you "armor all" the seals? If so, that is a "Bad Idea".
Use seal dressing (Camping World and such) to keep the seals pliable.

I have found that "Armor ALL" type treatments make the seals "slippery" and they do not flop in the correct direction when the slides go in and out.

If the slide is out, but the seal is curled inward, you will have a leaker.
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Old 04-26-2011, 06:21 AM   #6
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Looks like you had a great weekend ! Sorry to hear about the leaks, I hope it gets sorted out quickly. And that fish looks awesome !!!!I did not have breakfast yet and I am drooling
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Old 04-26-2011, 07:13 AM   #7
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Excellent point, is there a topper on that slide?

Additionally, do you "armor all" the seals? If so, that is a "Bad Idea".
Use seal dressing (Camping World and such) to keep the seals pliable.

I have found that "Armor ALL" type treatments make the seals "slippery" and they do not flop in the correct direction when the slides go in and out.

If the slide is out, but the seal is curled inward, you will have a leaker.
No topper and the slide was out except for when I checked it out at home after our trip. I thought that was probably the cause that time.
I don't use Armor All, usually something along the lines you mentioned a couple of times a year. From the outside all the seals look great. When we were loading the trailer it was not level (high on the tongue and street side) and water was gathered at the outside bottom right corner. Here's a couple of pics;


It's hard to see, but the roller in the pic was wet. You can see the the right end of the roller bolt. There are three more rollers and they were dry.
We did experience some extremely high winds and hard rains. We are having local flooding although not nearly as bad as some folks.

Goomph and Bobfidy, it's hard to beat a good fish fry at the campground. I'm just thankful we had a break in the weather.
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Old 04-26-2011, 07:22 AM   #8
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Your seals appear to be "flopped the wrong way" around the lower track if the top photo is from the outside. The seal seems to be rolled "in" around that track.

Hard to tell from the posted images, "pixel blurr," but was the top seal rolled under as it looks?

That will certainly allow water to follow the tracks into the camper.
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Old 04-26-2011, 07:30 AM   #9
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The seals are laying the correct way. The bottom does not have a flap. The slides are not flush with the inside floor. This slide is probably an inch off the floor on the inside. The large slide has a "ridge" along the opening inside. PT says this is a better way to seal the bottom of the slides. There is no leaks associated with the large slide.
I'll have to go out and make a closer inspection of everything. At this time I'm not sure if the water ran down from the top somewhere or if the hard winds blew the rain in underneath. We did have alot of horizontal rain the last couple of days.
I'll try and take some better pics this evening, but here's a closer pic of the upper right hand outside seal.
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Old 04-26-2011, 07:31 AM   #10
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I have the same side slide actuator on my bedroom slide and that's the way the seals look. The seals on the side are not really long enough to fold in/out but the the one on top does. The other 2 slides have the actuators on the bottom and they do flop in and out.....at least they did until I put spray silicone on them, now I have to do it by hand after the slide is open.
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Old 04-26-2011, 10:15 AM   #11
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WOW......FIVE GIRLS !!!!!!! Had to be a handfull. Glad you had a great weekend...all things considered. And the extra drive to get the MH so that the whole family could be there was worth it. Sounds like Lil Dude is going to get spoiled alot!!

With that much wind and rain, I don't think any seal that is designed to flex and move is going to be able to keep everything out. I had mine home to de-winterize and take care of a few "punch list" items this past weekend. TT was not level (tongue and street side high) and we had rain all day Friday while I worked inside. I saw no water leaks from the wardrobe slide (but, we had little or no wind). The only water I had was when I tried to repair my "no hot water" at my outside docking station. I found the hot hose in the access panel kinked. I cut out the kink and tried to re-clamp the hose to the faucet bib, water squirted all over, cleaned that up, tried a bigger clamp, cleaned up that mess too. Went to Lowes and purchased new "pinch clamps" and a $38 pinch clamp tool and finally got it right . So, now, I have the right tool for the next time. If anyone needs it, pay the airfare and I'll come out and fix it
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Old 04-26-2011, 11:38 AM   #12
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[QUOTE=rracer5;99303]WOW......FIVE GIRLS !!!!!!! Had to be a handfull. Glad you had a great weekend...all things considered. And the extra drive to get the MH so that the whole family could be there was worth it. Sounds like Lil Dude is going to get spoiled alot!!

With that much wind and rain, I don't think any seal that is designed to flex and move is going to be able to keep everything out.QUOTE]

I'm thinking the same thing about the seals during high winds and rain.
The first water I saw was after some hard winds and heavy rains and as I mentioned the trailer was unlevel, tongue and street side high. It might have amounted to a ¼ cup of water in all. The water I found at the campground might fill a thimbel and we had some very hard winds and heavy rain the night before.
I'm not really trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but I know water shouldn't be there and I would rather be safe than sorry.

I have done myself proud when it comes to spoiling my 4 grand daughters. I may just out do myself with Lil' Dude!
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Old 04-26-2011, 08:26 PM   #13
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I took a few more pics this evening. Maybe these pics will give those who aren't familiar with my slide and idea of what I'm seeing.

This first pic is the left corner of the slide inside the trailer. On the floor between the slide and the shower stall is where I found the water. When my wife first saw the water she was loading the trailer and the shower had not been used.


This pic shows how the slide sets above the floor.


This pic is an overall view of the outside bottom of the slide.


This last pic shows the bottom outside right corner. Sorry about the pic being out of focus. In the corner you can see there is no seal. I believe this is where the water is getting in.


The whole bottom length of the slide is recessed couple of inches in order to house the three rollers the slide rides on while moving in and out. I can feel along the bottom and everything is sealed well except in the corners.

As I mentioned we had high wind with 60+ mph gust. Very heavy rain at times. I think the rain entered the "channel" at the bottom of the slide and with the tounge high it drained to the right corner and entered the trailer at that point. It's something I need to be aware of, but it's like everything has to be just right for it to happen.

I think the few drops I seen while camping could have come from shower use rather than a leak and the small amount I found when I got home was from the slide being wet when I ran it in.
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Old 04-26-2011, 08:30 PM   #14
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I had the same problem with my bedroom wardrobe slide in the hard rain. The bathroom floor had about a quart of water on it. I looked at it outside and inside and concluded the water was getting behind the seal by following the side of the slideout down to the tracks that are fastened on the side. The water was dripping on the floor at the bottom toward the rear of the trailer aside of the shower. Today I spent 4 hours installing slide toppers to cure the problem. I do not believe that slide toppers are not needed because of this reason and some others.
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Old 04-26-2011, 08:36 PM   #15
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I had the same problem with my bedroom wardrobe slide in the hard rain. The bathroom floor had about a quart of water on it. I looked at it outside and inside and concluded the water was getting behind the seal by following the side of the slideout down to the tracks that are fastened on the side. The water was dripping on the floor at the bottom toward the rear of the trailer aside of the shower. Today I spent 4 hours installing slide toppers to cure the problem. I do not believe that slide toppers are not needed because of this reason and some others.
Thanks for the info Keith. Maybe I'll have to check into some slide toppers, but how will they keep the rain from running down the side of the slide? Do you think it will lessen the amount of water by diverting what runs off the top over the outside end of the slide rather than the sides?
I have had my slide out during rain before, but this was the first time I found any water on the inside of the trailer. The worst was only about ¼ of a cup.
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Old 04-26-2011, 08:53 PM   #16
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The slide has a flange around the outside and it is 3 inches wider than the actual slide. When you order toppers you make sure the fabric covers to the outside of the flange so the fabric is 3 inches longer than the top of the slide. The topper sits a few inches off the top so it is really hard to get the water to blow onto the top but it will blow onto the sides it the wind is really blowing hard. But the quantity of water will not be flowing down the sideas as it would without a topper. I had a class A Motorhome before this fifth wheel with them on and never had a water problem.
They also keep the sun off the top to keep it cooler and keep all the tree dirt off the top that gets trapped in the seals if you don't go up and clean them off before you leave. Some people complain that they are noisy in the severe wind but I never experienced that and have camped along the ocean many times.
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Old 04-26-2011, 08:57 PM   #17
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Upon re-reading my post a clarification is needed. The flange is 3 inches wider than the actual slide-out on both sides so the fabric is actually 6 inches wider in total than the width of the slide without the flange included. Hope this makes sense.
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Old 04-26-2011, 09:02 PM   #18
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Thanks. That all makes sense.
What brand of toppers did you purchase? I haven't checked into them so I don't know if one brand is better than another.
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Old 04-26-2011, 09:23 PM   #19
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I did my research on the internet by going to the mfg sites A&E, Carefree of Colorado. Then searched online for pricing. Pricing online can be pretty attractive but the toppers are not easily shipped due to the size and the online stores charge pretty hefty freight charges. I then contacted the closest larger RV dealer parts center and asked them to quote me a price to buy them. I went with the Carefree of Colorado as they seemed to be constructed better and they have, if you go with the Carefree Side Kover II (Carefree SideOut Kover II) a wind deflector to help with the flapping. I don't have the exact price and sizes here but If you are interested I can get them for you tomorrow. The total material cost for all three was around $800 and an afternoon of my time.
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Old 04-26-2011, 09:42 PM   #20
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I just checked the catalog I got from my dealer on the Carefree Slide Kover II and with the usual discount they give me, The two I believe that would fit my slides would run approx $650. Maybe I can talk them down a bit in price.
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