Hopefully I can articulate my question properly.....lol. We have our camper on a seasonal site this year. It is a 2012 Thor 5th wheel and it has 3 slides. The front and rear facing OUTER slide walls on all 3 slides have some give to them. In other words if I push on the outer wall it will push in a little before contacting what I assume is the inner luan wall. If not for the fact that all 6 walls in question have some "give" to them I would think I have a delamination problem but I have a hard time believing that every slide wall would be effected. My front facing master bedroom slide wall that faces forward is horribly misshapen but there is no water marking or any signs of moisture inside at all. That wall is in direct sunlight but not sure that has anything to do with what is happening. It will be a few weeks until I can get the rig to a RV center to have them look at it but I would love some educated opinions on this. Again all 6 of my front/rear facing slide walls have "give" but the front one is by far the

Your photo shows classic delamination. It doesn't have to be caused by water intrusion, but that is the most common. As a guess, I'd guess a bad pail of glue during construction, or a new employee. Given the value of the unit, vs the repair costs at a shop, I think I'd be tempted to do the work myself.

Darryl&Rita wrote: As a guess, I'd guess a bad pail of glue during construction, or a new employee. Given the value of the unit, vs the repair costs at a shop, I think I'd be tempted to do the work myself.Which would explain why all of the walls show evidence of some sort of delam.......

It is very possible that the side walls of the slide are not laminate walls, but luan with a fiberglass or some other material skin. In fact, since all of them are like that, I bet they were constructed that way. The one with the most wave, and in the sun as the OP indicated, is just responding to the extreme heat. My money says there is no problem.

do you store it with the slides out?bumpy

DownTheAvenue wrote:It is very possible that the side walls of the slide are not laminate walls, but luan with a fiberglass or some other material skin. In fact, since all of them are like that, I bet they were constructed that way. The one with the most wave, and in the sun as the OP indicated, is just responding to the extreme heat. My money says there is no problem.I had a Open Range that was exactly the same. That is the way it was constructed. No problems with it but I hated the look of it.

Slide wall construction and damage question | Good Sam Community

Darryl_Rita
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
Your photo shows classic delamination. It doesn't have to be caused by water intrusion, but that is the most common. As a guess, I'd guess a bad pail of glue during construction, or a new employee. Given the value of the unit, vs the repair costs at a shop, I think I'd be tempted to do the work myself.
garysol
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
Darryl&Rita wrote:
As a guess, I'd guess a bad pail of glue during construction, or a new employee. Given the value of the unit, vs the repair costs at a shop, I think I'd be tempted to do the work myself.

Which would explain why all of the walls show evidence of some sort of delam.......
DownTheAvenue
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
It is very possible that the side walls of the slide are not laminate walls, but luan with a fiberglass or some other material skin. In fact, since all of them are like that, I bet they were constructed that way. The one with the most wave, and in the sun as the OP indicated, is just responding to the extreme heat. My money says there is no problem.
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
do you store it with the slides out?
bumpy
Lenny_K
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
DownTheAvenue wrote:
It is very possible that the side walls of the slide are not laminate walls, but luan with a fiberglass or some other material skin. In fact, since all of them are like that, I bet they were constructed that way. The one with the most wave, and in the sun as the OP indicated, is just responding to the extreme heat. My money says there is no problem.

I had a Open Range that was exactly the same. That is the way it was constructed. No problems with it but I hated the look of it.
Dayle1
Explorer II
Oct 10, 2017
Those skins are probably not Fiberglas as it will be glued to a lauan backer and remain fairly straight. the backer provider impact resistance. Many brands are using more durable plastics in these areas that don't need a backer. And the skin may only be secured around the edges on small panels like those, I.e. No adhesive securing the skin to the studs. Bottom line, while it looks bad, there may be no failure.
MFL
Nomad II
Oct 10, 2017
DownTheAvenue wrote:
It is very possible that the side walls of the slide are not laminate walls, but luan with a fiberglass or some other material skin. In fact, since all of them are like that, I bet they were constructed that way. The one with the most wave, and in the sun as the OP indicated, is just responding to the extreme heat. My money says there is no problem.

I agree with this theory. That does not look like fiberglass, but more like a type of nylon/plastic. My FW over hang underside looks to be of similar material. If an actual hard foam laminate, like my slide ends, they would be solid underneath, even if the outside layer had separated. It may not be too hard to fix.

Jerry
garysol
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
Bumpyroad wrote:
do you store it with the slides out?
bumpy

Typically yes. We never used to but after seeing the majority of the other seasonals keeping their slides out all the time we followed suite
garysol
Explorer
Oct 10, 2017
Thanks for all of the input guys. I feel better after reading all of your replies. I also have a email into Dutchman and will see what they say as well. Thanks again guys.
garysol
Explorer
Oct 19, 2017
I still have not been able to get my trailer up to the dealer for them to physically look at it but I have spoken to Dutchman who told me the slide walls are a "fiberglass composite". I did notice something odd. The outer surfaces of my bedroom slide, the one with the bulge looks totally different from my other 2 slides. My bedroom slide outer surface is mirror smooth and shines where as the the other 2 slides have a textured finish and looks like a normal fiberglass surface. Any ideas why my slides may be made of different materials or am just seeing things? First picture is bedroom slide outerwall and the second picture is of my living room slide.