Slide “shoe” detached

[OldJarHead]

Putting out the kitchen slide this morning on my 8328BS signature ultra light, the plastic shoe came off the bottom of one side nearest the door. Pictures are attached. There’s no way to lift up the slide to reattach this. It appears that it wasn’t attached correctly at the factory to begin with. My camper is a Rockwood 2018 model manufactured June 2017 - out of warranty of course. Any help or ideas reattaching this would be great. The other two pictures show the opposite side of the slide and you can see that the rail or shoe is attached correctly. The slide still works normally. Thanks.


Detached from this edge.



Note that the screw holes mostly missed when installed originally.


This is the other edge of the slide. This rail looks good.



Looking underneath the other edge. Looks good.

[OldJarHead]

Another photo that didn’t attach properly. This is the 'shoe' or plastic rail that came off of the edge of the kitchen slide.

[Excalibur73]

We are having 2 of these replaced under warranty, scheduled for june (2019). One had already failed previously and had been “replaced”. Seems its not an isolated problem, since there is so much weight on these slides, causing a grinding action on these skis. they can also catch on the nylon? glide that the slide runs up and over. Talk to yr dealer with your hat in your hand and and see if there is anything that can be done to fix it permanently. Most service departments would like to help, but cant because the defect will not be recognized by the manufacturer. Somebody has to pay for it.

[hshaynes]

I have something similar on my 18, 268RKS Vibe. Mine split at the 90 degree and is showing lower edge of subfloor. I am checking for warranty with dealer. If nogo, I have some thin alumn angle I purchased from Home Depot that I may be able to attach using existing screws and strong glue on the bottom.

[Excalibur73]

We’ve been assured that no damage is likely with these, shoes(skis, runners,etc) removed. They are just an aid to smoother slide function. However the wood underneath must be protected from the elements. Duct tape or similar product should seal off the subfloor from moisture. If it rots there is nothing to keep the integrity of the slide intact.

[Excalibur73]

To hshaynes, keep us up on yr repair, it may be the go-to in case the service fix is a flop.

[hshaynes]

Talked to dealer this am and showed a pic of the separation. First thing he asked, "had anyone stepped on raised portion of floor when slide is in". That is main cause of the separation. Yes I did. There is no apparent subfloor damage to my slide. Learned a lesson this morning. We have rain scheduled the next day or so and I will postpone repairs until after that. I will be adding 2 x 2 x 1/16 alum angle to lower edge. This will also give me time to locate proper glue to be used with screws. I will try to remember to take step by step pics.

[Excalibur73]

Sounds like u have it under control, looking forward to updates,thx. A little comment about dealers, tho, these same slides have refers sitting on them on a kitchen slideout where constant bouncing on the road seems to have little effect on the shoes operation in most cases. Interesting that stepping on one could be so critical. Just a thought!

[hshaynes]

I agree. Only thing I can think of is the potential for breaking the ski. My slide has no ski that I have found. I am pretty sure the dealer was wanting to take advantage of making some out of warranty money. And usually I dont have a problem with that as long as gouging is not part of equation. My biggest concern at this time is whether I fix both sides or do I let a sleeping dog lie?

[Excalibur73]

U may have the best solution here with the aluminum angle. Since we may be kicking a dead horse on dealer service, prob should just wait to see what shakes out. Can only hope that original post can benefit as well.

[Excalibur73]

Just thought of something else. These slides may be balanced to a certain extent, with weight “somewhat” equalized between the ends, per manufacturer. When we took out our sofa to install cabinets we may have upset the overall weight on one side. Again just thinking off the top, but poss lopsided operation, especially in campgrounds where level is not always maintained, could b a factor.
Cant explain the other slide tho. Thoughts?

[hshaynes]

We finally have some decent weather. I looked online for different adhesives to use and found the prices to be out of sight. My plan tomorrow is to measure 2 or 3 times to get correct length of angle to cut. Once cut I will screw it in place then run slide in to insure there will be no binding or scraping of the angle as it retracts. If everything is good, I will apply adhesive then go for broke. The adhesive I am using is JB WELD from Home Depot. Pics galore tomorrow.

[tom39]

Originally Posted by hshaynes

We finally have some decent weather. I looked online for different adhesives to use and found the prices to be out of sight. My plan tomorrow is to measure 2 or 3 times to get correct length of angle to cut. Once cut I will screw it in place then run slide in to insure there will be no binding or scraping of the angle as it retracts. If everything is good, I will apply adhesive then go for broke. The adhesive I am using is JB WELD from Home Depot. Pics galore tomorrow.

Just reading this thread so sorry for the late reply. Anyway, the ski on one end of my large slide failed and I was able to purchase a new one from FR at a reasonable cost. Installation of the ski was fairly straightforward and a little more than 2 camping seasons later I have had no issues. If I remember correctly, the worst part of the job was cleaning the area of old sealant and gum tape before the new ski was installed. Additionally, the job didn't require any special tools that I didn't already have.
For what it is worth, IMO replacing the ski with an OEM part would be my suggestion.

HIH,
Tom

[hshaynes]

Tom, I may not have been very clear in the beginning. My slide has no shoe or ski. I do have nylon slide on floor inside camper that may do the same thing. What I am attempting is to correct a failure along bottom edge of slide where bottom rubber has pulled out of its bracket causing potential for floor failure during rain. If I could replace with an OEM part I would. Thank you for your input.

[hshaynes]

Finished, well very close any way. Worst part was gathering to the slide where I needed to work. Several pics are posted, I hope, to show various stages. Removing the black rail was the worst part. FR used lots of putty to cover up a short cut of rubber on under side of slide. I should have trimmed the bad cut away but I simply added a little more putty to cover holes. I had to add flat head wood screws to that area to help hold the miscut material to the side of slide. Also found I had to cut a notch in angle so it would fit. As I said I should have trimmed, would have gotten a more flush fit of the angle. I used 2 slide stabilizers to ass some tension to the angle till the JB Weld set up. Removed after 15 min. The only thing left is to continue packing putty along top edge to ensure waterproof and the smoothe it out. I will probably paint the angle showing white. Second pic is back side of now discarded rail. Because I didn't trim, I didn't get a really flush finish. But the slide works and does not drag on carpet. I probably spent less than $30 on the whole venture.

[modaholic]

How is this aluminum ski holding up ? Do you have to glue the aluminum ski to the bottom of the slide ? Or could you just screw it on the side ? Does the aluminum slide into the trailer over the nylon easily or do you have to raise the slide out up ?

[hshaynes]

Its holding up well. I did use the JB Weld on both side and bottom. Then screwed it in place from the side. One thing I failed to do was get all the original putty off the slide. The only real affect was the angle did not fit flush on side. I simply added more putty around top and noth ends for waterproofing. I had to remove a rail that was supposed to hold the bottom rubber in place. That rail gave me about 1/4 inch to play with. The slide travel seams to be smooth moving in either direction. Hope this helps. If anyone goes this route, be sure and get angle that is 1/16 inch.

[IAm4Elk]

Tom39 can you share the contact information for Forest River? All I can find is them saying to go through a dealer. My dealer claims they have had the slide “shoes” on order for 3 weeks.

[OldJarHead]

As the OP of this thread, I wanted to report back that I finally got my slide ski replaced. A shout-out to tom39 who shared a write-up and photos of how he went about replacing a slide ski on his camper.

To get a replacement ski, I contacted rockwoodcustomerservice@forestriverinc.com. Shortly afterwards, Ryan Taylor with Rockwood & Flagstaff Customer Service contacted me. His direct phone is: (574)642-8922. Ryan was very responsive and helpful. The part number, description and cost for the slide ski (not 'shoe' as I had originally posted) is: F100097551 - SLIDE OUT FLOOR PART - PFL: SKI ONLY, TRIM - BLACK - 2 1/2" X 43" - 1 1/2" LEG – Retail Price: $20.49 including NC sales tax. The ski's come as a pair - a left and right. You may need to cut the ski to fit the slide as I did. The total charge with shipping ended up being $33.69. The shipping charge was a little high. I should've ordered 3-sets for future repairs.

The first thing I noticed in comparing the old and new ski's was that the edge that fits along the side of the slide was taller. This tells me that FR modified the ski's due to failures like mine.

I used a length of 4x4 and 2x6 screwed together to lift the side of the slide of interest using a bottle jack. Just be aware of the amount of 'slop' available above and along the side of the opening. I lifted the slide side about 1.5-inches.

I removed the 5 screws holding on the metal molding, then used a razor knife to carefully cut through the putty between the slide wall and the molding. This was the hardest part. One of the attached photos shows the amount of putty/glue the factory uses and I cleaned it out using a screwdriver and a chisel. It was soft, so it cleaned out easily.

I cut the new ski to the required length, checked and rechecked the fit. I already had a roll of butyl tape, so I placed a length along the slide's edge. Next, I removed the tape exposing the sticky side of the adhesive tape that comes attached on the ski's. I carefully lined up the ski to the edge first and pressed gently to adhere the ski to the butyl tape. Once I was satisfied with the edge placement, I pressed the bottom of the ski onto the slide's bottom.

I then applied another strip of butyl tape to the edge of the ski, then using the 5 original screws, reattached the metal molding to the slide's bottom edge. Finally, I ran a bead of clear RTV along the top edge of the molding.

The whole process took about 1.5-hours.

I decided to lubricate all the slide ski's (6 total on my camper) with 3-IN-ONE RVcare Slide-Out Silicone Lube, which is available at Walmart for $6.99.

Hope this helps if anyone else runs into this.

PS: Sorry for the one rotated photo.

Dan