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BigMac's avatar
BigMac
Explorer
Jun 26, 2014

Slide Top Seal Partially Deploys and Allows Water to Enter

I have a 12' living room slide on my motorhome. The slide has dual seals along the top and on both vertical sides to keep the elements out. When setting up at the camp site, both the inner and the outer seals are made so that when the slide is extended, they lay flat with the seal "knife edges" pointing out from the coach to form a flat seal against the walls of the slide. Invariably, however, they will not fully extend with the slide so that in some sections the knife edge is still rolled or curled inward. On the vertical walls of the slide, it's easy enough to get between the slide and seals to get the edges of the seals to point out and lay flat. The roof seal is another matter, however, because of the slide topper. The result of this curled in condition for me has been that in driving rain storms, the water on the top of the slide works its way along the top seal until it finds the rolled in section, and then starts to drip inside the motorhome.

I'm thinking that I need to affix a slightly angled rubber strip, or series of plastic or rubber "bumps" (for lack of a better description) onto the roof of the slide to progressively nudge the seal outward as the slide extends. I'd use an adhesive of some type to permanently adhere this to the roof. Key is also to not tear up or wear the seals in the process.

Has anyone addressed this problem themselves? Does this sound like a plausible fix? I'd sure like to hear your opinions or different solutions. Thanks.
  • BigMac wrote:
    rgatijnet1 - Are you concerned at all that the abrasiveness of the tape will prematurely wear the seals?


    In the six years that I have used it abrasive tape, I have not noticed any significant wear on the rubber seals. When we travel, which is usually 15,000+ miles per year, we seldom stay more than a few days at a location so our slides are used often. I also feel that the abrasive tape cleans the dirt off and keeps that part of the rubber seal, that actually makes it weather tight, fresh.
    I put the tape about half way out from the extended portion of the slide.
  • rgatijnet1 - Are you concerned at all that the abrasiveness of the tape will prematurely wear the seals?
  • What you are discribing is not the seals. It is a filler piece for the gap between the wall and slide.
  • Sorry, I don't have any pics at the moment. Jut got back from a trip and the MH is at the storage site.
  • I went to Home depot and got a roll of the self stick 2" wide abrasive non-skid tape. I put a strip of this down all sides of my slide. When extending or retracting, this "flips" the weather seal so that it is always pointed in the right direction to give the best weather protection.
  • Depending on the roof material. You can take the Sandpaper type skid tape(used on steps and ladder rungs) and run a strip front to rear that will grab the seal lip and flip it in and out. Monaco used this on some models of their slideouts to flip that wipe seal inward and outward. Doug
  • That's an interesting problem. I wonder if the seal would deploy better if the entire slide was adjusted downward a bit - it sounds like the seal is having to "flop" too much or that it's too tight to the roof.
    How much does the seal lay over when deployed? Pics?