Slide pulling out of the wall

[sammonilla]

I have a 2012 Cherokee 280BH. The issue that I have is the slide is starting to pull out of the body. I took it to the dealer last year for the same fix. They told me that the screws broke off and that is not covered under warranty. My issue is that it is now happening again. The dealer is NO help at all and I refuse to give them any of my money due to poor service. My question is has anyone put is support brackets on the inside of the TT and thru bolted the slide?? I looked at the back side of the slide on the inside of the TT and did not see any screws or hardware. I would like to reinforce the corners so this does not happen again. Any suggestions?? I would also hope that someone from Forrest River will contact me about this concern. I have limited access to dealers around my area and few of the will work with FR warranty. I'm pretty handy guy so I think I might be able to fix this myself just wanted to test the waters and see if anyone else has had some issues like this and what you did to fix it. Here are the pic's!!!

[AquaMan]

I think the fact that your dealer told you it wasn't covered under warranty was simply a way of telling you, "they didn't want to fix it". This is definitely something that would be covered under a manufacturers warranty, if you still have one. Not so sure about an aftermarket warranty though, those can be fickle.

[OldCoot]

I would replace all the screws with 1/4" ss hex bolts and ss nyloc nuts and thru' bolt it after re-caulking it and forget the dealer. To bad you can't get to the Goshen Rally and let the factory fix it, but ...

[sammonilla]

The manufacture warranty has expired and the aftermarket one that I have is not worth the paper it was printed on. The aftermarket would not cover hardware and that is what the failure is. I was thinking about putting a backing plate on the inside and thru bolt it?? Would this add too much stress to the side walls or would it spread out the load and make it more secure. I know the manufacture builds them as cheap as possible so that is why they don't do this. Is there a link to a FR rep on the forum?? I would love to tell them about Poulsbo RV and how poor their service department is. They told me not to blame them for the poor workmanship from FR and what did I expect for how much $$ I paid for it??? It is sad for FR to have a dealership represent the product is such a negative light. When I go to the automotive dealership it is like a whole different world, they lay out the red carpet for you these days and when you go to the RV service you get pushed off for weeks and never get any level of service or quality of service. Sorry I got off track and was ranting. Back to the repair, is the sidewall a wood stud and can I just drill thru the flange on the slide and install a backing support on the inside of the TT??

[OldCoot]

Thru bolting is just a more secure way of holding the flange than the wood/sheet metal screws. If they screwed into the framework, you can bolt thru it. I would just drill a 1/4" hole thru one of the screw holes, measure what length bolt I needed and get ss bolts and ss loc nuts and some flat washers and with someone on the outside, have the job done in probably 30 minutes excluding re-caulking.

[sammonilla]

Thanks Old Coot! I just needed a little encouragement before I started to drill holes into my TT. Think I should do just do the side/area that is bad, or go all the way around the slide? I probably will just do the affected area. I will send pic's of the repair as I go. Thanks again for your input!.

[VinceU]

I think the slide mechanism is over driving that side before the torque switch is operating. Try to learn the mechanism and reduce the overload. Hyd or elec., it's overdriven.

[sammonilla]

It is electric slide and it seems to go in and out evenly and smoothly. I have found no obstructions/ blockages or any part of the system binding up. But I should get a good look at the limit switch and see if it is just simply out of adjustment. Great info, Thanks for the input VinceU!

[wana65stang]

Sammonilla : I had the excat same thing on my 2014 3051s c class. The factory fix done at dealer was to drill new screws inbetween striped ones and reseal ( if I knew how to attach pic's to this reply I could show you)so far its holding, do I have faith in it ???? keeping fingers crossed good luck on yours

[silver]

on my slide there is an inside seal that presses against the inside wall to keep water out when slide is extended. Before putting in nut and bolt you might want to check this and make sure there is nit a interference issue.

[Brother Les]

Good suggestions. If this was my unit, I would only put the 4 screws to through bolts for now and make sure of the clearance inside when running the slides out. Please keep us posted.

[BigBaron]

If those screws are the same ones they use at Viking/Coachmen, I can believe that they broke.
The screws that hold down the roof on our popup broke on the second trip!

[sammonilla]

Thanks for all of the input. Im currenty working on the repair for the slide. I have thru bolted the affected area and am now in the middle of replacing all of the broken, missing and normal screws with new stainless hardware. I should be done this weekend and I will post all of my pic's from start to finish. Sofa the hardest part has been trying to extract the broken off screws that are still in the frame. I would have had this done sooner but only have a few extra hours here and there to do the repair. Sofa I have about two hours into the repair and it is going good. Two hours and about three beers!!!!

[Displaced2]

Had similar problem on 2013 Lexington dinette slide.
They talked to FR and was told the current spacing is too wide. To install hex head screws closer and readjusted slide stop. Have not used it yet but TRUST my guys completely.
Call and ask. Can't hurt.

[sammonilla]

OK, I got the slide modified and fixed yesterday. Thanks for old coot, and brother less for your input. I just needed a little shove into the right direction before I started to drill holes into the TT. So far I have replaced 8 broken screws from both sides of the slide out. I thru- bolted the lower left corner with 1/4-20 SS nuts and bolts and replaced all of the other screws with larger SS screws. The total repair took about three hours and about six beers!!!. The pics are from before I cut off the excess from inside of the TT. The slide now is quiet and smooth when operating. here are the before and after pic's. Notice all of the broken screw heads on the tool cart.

[Brother Les]

Very good job on the inside. Grind or cut off a little more of the bolt sticking through and then cap the bolt end off with a cap.

Vestil - Plastic Bolt Caps