Slide seal leaking

[Richard Higley]

I have a 4 slide 2005 Patriot Thunder.  The driver side bedroom slide seal appears to be leaking as the carpet is very wet in the left forward corner of the slide and the water is working its way out from that point. I'm a newbie.  The slide has been in the last few days and we have had lots of rain. I moved the slide out to vacuum the water out of the carpet and will leave it out until I get this fixed. I assume each slide has 2 sets of seals - inner and outer. So how hard is it to replace slide seals?  Is this something I could attempt or do I need a pro (dealer) to do it. Thanks for your help.

[Steve Humphrey]

I stopped at Alliance in Wildwood for the same problem.  They worked on it for about three days, off and on, trying different things.  The best answer we came up with is the lip attached to the wall of the coach under the slide is not catching the water as it drips off the side channel of the slide. We adjusted the slide to allow it to move farther out so the lip would channel the water out.  It is still getting wet inside under the bed when it rains hard and/or the wind comes from that side. I have an appointment in Bend to pull the slide out and replace the moldy wall board that has bubbled due to the water getting inside it. When the slide is removed I can  install a new longer lip under the slide to keep the water out. There is an adjustment on the slide under the bed, you could check to see if it allowing the slide out to travel to the correct position when it is out.  DO NOT ADJUST IT TO FAR OUT IT WILL DAMAGE THE FRAME AROUND THE SLIDE ON THE INSIDE OF THE COACH!! Good luck   Steve

[Sean Donohue]

There has been previous discussion on this. I followed some of the advice given to divert the water on top away from the slide. I put a gutter (available at Camping world) on and the leaks in the rear stopped completely.

[Richard Higley]

Thanks to you both for your replies. Hope this doesn't turn into a nightmare problem.

Rich

[Bill Sprague]

Richard,

My left rear slide leaked both in and out.  For the in position I bought some cheap weather strip material at Lowe's or Home depot.  It had a sticky back.  I attached it to the slide where it would contact the existing weather strip on the body that may have hardened with age.  

The stripping looks like this:  http://www.amazon.com/Frost-King-V25W-Weather-Strip-Inch-by1/dp/B000B4N3OA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369924918&sr=8-2&keywords=weather+stripping

I've since driven in a few rain storms and it has stayed dry in the bedroom.

[Jerry Carr]

Richard, I had this problem for the first time last winter while we headed down to Bill Sprague's "free" parking pad in AZ. We really got the floor soaked in heavy coastal rain.
I brought the rig into Bend for a full replacement set of gaskets (A major job) covered under our warranty on the rear bedroom slide, but Sean at Bend suggested the we also added a 2"  no skid safety strip to help pull the gasket into position. The 2" tape works great at pulling the gasket fully out and I think this really fixed my problem. So far I have not been out in the weather so I will need to keep and eye on the floor but I am really happy with the simple improvement Sean added to all my slides and would recommend you add these to your slides, the folks at Bend could do this for you or you could do it yourself it's just a double backed tape.  Here is a link www.tapejungle.com/products/Sure-Step-Black.html as you will see its only $11.00 a roll and I think one roll would do all the slides.

[Richard Higley]

Bill and Jerry,  thanks for your replies. Jerry, what did you attach the tape to?  Any pics?  Thanks for your help.

[Jerry Carr]

Richard the tape goes on the side wall slide of each slide. on our rig we have an area about 4-5" that is painted black the tape that BCS installed is applied in this area about 1/2" past the seal. I will take a photo and post it this weekend.

[Richard Higley]

Thanks Jerry.  That would be great.

Rich

[Jerry Carr]

No problem if I had the rig here I would have posted already but I plan to run down in the next day or two

[Robert Mathis]

Richard, also check the sealing tape on the top of the slide. The inside seam on mine has a layer of eternabond tape to seal the join, but it didn't go all the way across the top of the slide. Water could, and did, get into the coach on the edges of the slide when extended. I pulled the slide in, cleaned the entire area with Acetone and put another layer of tape all the way across the top and down the side about 4 inches. I think it must have worked since we were in the Florida Keys last week in a frog-strangler storm and nothing leaked.

[Richard Higley]

Thanks Robert. I'll check that as well. Got to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Rich

[Jerry Carr]

Hi Richard, here are 3 photos that should show you the tape installed on the slides the photos have been reduced in size so you may loose some detail as you zoom in. I can send to your email the large format

[Richard Higley]

Jerry, thanks for the pics.  I see exactly what you are talking about. Going to take the coach to Alliance in Wildwood next week and will have them find the leak and put the nonskid on.  I appreciate your effort to go out and take the pics.

Rich

[Jerry Carr]

The non skid strips work great the pull the gasket back to seal the slide the way they should be BCS told me that Monaco did start adding this to the later models  
glad I could help.

Hope to see you on the road.
Jerry