Slide out plates

[Campin Cajun]

edgewant,

I Finally got my Berk back. I spoke to the service manager and he told me they jacked up the slide just enough to get the plates on top the rollers. They place a board under the slide at each roller with the jack under the board. Here are a couple pics of the finished product.
I am pleased with the work and the slide operates much smoother and a lot quieter.

[edgewant]

Campin Cajun.

Thanks fro inquiring and sharing. If I ever get a set I think I now know how to install.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by Campin Cajun

edgewant,

I Finally got my Berk back. I spoke to the service manager and he told me they jacked up the slide just enough to get the plates on top the rollers. They place a board under the slide at each roller with the jack under the board. Here are a couple pics of the finished product.
I am pleased with the work and the slide operates much smoother and a lot quieter.

Attachment 73829

Attachment 73831

They look nice, should have been done that way to begin with. Can you tell how thick is that Alum. they used? Or is that stainless steel?

[Campin Cajun]

Regardless of when it should have been done, I'm happy FR stood by their product at no cost to me.

I didn't measure the aluminum plate but I would guess it's 1/16th or 1/8th.

[OldCoot]

Alum should be plenty good either 1/16" or 1/8" thickness.

[edgewant]

Campin Cajun:

Where is the weather seal on this slide? On my 390RB its on the outside and covers the rollers.

[tmmar]

Edge,
FR stopped putting that seal on sometime in '13. My '14 didn't that I picked up in Oct. '13 didn't have that seal either.

[I-RV]

Originally Posted by edgewant

Campin Cajun:

Where is the weather seal on this slide? On my 390RB its on the outside and covers the rollers.

On my 2012 390BH, it had an internal compression seal with a metal spine. My slide started to generate metal particles from the seal. FR was going to pull the slide off; but they fished it out and put an external lip seal. Tom, I do not think that FR goes by years; they will change to eliminate a problem at anytime.
Still waiting 2 1/2 weeks for my plates

[I-RV]

Originally Posted by JTN8

Has anyone had the plates for under our slides installed? My 2014 390BH bunk / wardrobe slide became unaligned. Apparently the bottom of the slides are soft wood and the rollers dig into the wood messing the slide alignment up. Randy and his team at FR know about the issue and sent aluminum plates that will mount under my slide to fix the issue. I just dropped the coach off today to get them installed and was just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or the plates installed. Highly recommend looking under all of your slides when the are out and see if they are doing the same as mine.

Jason

My 2012 BH had problems with the forward end of the slide from when it was new. Back then, FR recommended removing the internal compression seal and it was replaced with a rubber lip seal. The forward end of the slide has continued to give problems and upon seeing the external floor of the slide being ripped open (see picture), I requested plates from FR.

I just finished installing the plates by myself. I decided on both ends of the slide as lift points. The slide is basically a 5-sided box and the strength is on the ends. With the Wardrobe (bunk) slide out, there is still about 12 inches of inside and hence a lot of weight inside. I felt that I needed to find a balance point. I marked the end of the slide and the rubber seal at each end to let me know how much I was lifting. I used a car floor jack and a screw jack as shown and found that I had to lift around 3/8" to enable sliding the plates between the rollers and floor. If I only had one jack, I would have lifted the rear end, placed a 2x4 post under, remove the jack and use it at the forward end.

The five plates supplied by FR where 8" x 26" x 1/8" aluminum with ten counter-sunk hole on each side (only seven per side can be used however). No hardware was provided. Since 70 stainless steel screws would have cost a lot, I used 1-1/4" exterior deck screws. I also determined that this length did not protrude on the inside.

I quickly found out that the rear-most plates where too long and stuck out 3" on the rug inside. Since I did not know what was within the space where the plates go, I was very concerned that the interior end of the plates might jam into something when the slide was pulled in (such as the bedroom carpet or the end of the hallway tile). I decided to cut the rear-most plates to 20.5". I previously done some fishing measurement where the tile was and decided that 26" would ride above the tile.

Screwing the plates in became a bit of a hassle, because some plate rows of holes fell where there was some aluminum frame-work. I had to drill pilot holes in the aluminum using a 9/64" drill bit. The exterior deck screws tapped in very good. I have broken many a screw using a power screw driver, so I experimented with the good old hand Phillips to make sure that the hole wasn't too tight or loose.

Now for the oh-s***, the forward row of screws where the plywood delaminated; the screws would not hold. But thankful that the other row of screws hit on an aluminum frame. Hopefully, one row will be sufficient to hold the plate. Since my compression seal was previously removed, I am not sure if it would present a problem for installing plates.

I speculate that all wardrobe slides of all Berk models are constructed similarly. The BH wardrobe is however much heavier and is the first to exhibit problems.

[mcomer]

The more I look at this and think about it, it should help with putting less strain on the slide cables. Maybe the added drag on the floor makes the slide motor work harder and strain the cables, and now with the smoot plates it should roll easier. That's a lot of good info, thanks Hank.

Mike

[tmmar]

Hank,
nice job. Hopefully this will be the end of the issues with the slide.
Tom

[Neanderthal]

Question.
I just had mine installed last week at the dealer they used round head screws, looking at the pictures I see these plates are countersunk. Should I ask that the screws be changed?

[JTN8]

Mine are counter sunk flat screws. I would work the slide in and out and see if it seems to make a difference. If not they may be fine.

Jason

[Neanderthal]

Thanks Jason,
I'll be going back to Indiana tgo pick it back up this week after the furnaces are repaired. The techs seem to be diligent and the service manager is on the ball so hopefully they checked it.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by Neanderthal

Question.
I just had mine installed last week at the dealer they used round head screws, looking at the pictures I see these plates are countersunk. Should I ask that the screws be changed?

Only if they are being rolled over by the roller, if not it's just cosmetic. If the roller is hitting them, then I would make them change to flat heads.....

[Brother Les]

subscribing to this thread

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Neanderthal

Question.
I just had mine installed last week at the dealer they used round head screws, looking at the pictures I see these plates are countersunk. Should I ask that the screws be changed?

If it's any distance to the dealer AND the screw heads are a problem, just get some ss flat heads and replace them yourself. Less hassle.

[Neanderthal]

Originally Posted by OldCoot

If it's any distance to the dealer AND the screw heads are a problem, just get some ss flat heads and replace them yourself. Less hassle.

Agreed

[Paulie Boy]

To all; be careful in the term Stainless Steel fasteners. Specify 300 series, non magnetic SS. There is technically a Stainless steel( 410 Martensite) that is highly corrosive when in contact with aluminum. The 410 Martensite is magnetic, easiest way to identify.