OutdoorsRV Thread
I thought it would be fun to start a thread dedicated to OutdoorsRV TT. A great place to show off our rigs as well as share modification ideas, tech tips etc. August pick-up in Boise, Idaho of o...
Forum Discussion
I've been asked to clarify what I mean by "drip rail" on the bottom side of the slide and the problems with it. Here's a photo.
You can see the drip rail is not really doing it's job on this side. The end of the plywood floor is exposed and collecting drips. Luckily that's marine grade plywood so it can handle some wetness, but really it should be fully covered by the drip rail and have an abundance of caulk covering it.
I didn't move this drip rail down, rather I just cleaned the ends of the plywood and smeared it liberally with 3M4200 adhesive caulk. Now the drips form at the bottom of the caulk and the plastic layer of the floor, but the wood is protected. Maybe I should have moved the drip rail down, I dunno, maybe I will ...
The other side was not as bad as this, only a small amount of plywood edge was exposed. But another problem occurred that was really weird and took me over a year to figure out. The "drip rail" is actually a metal strip, but it's hollow, in a "C" section. In the hollow of the "C" is a strip of putty tape. On this drip rail, the putty tape didn't fill the hollow, it was only up at the top, leaving a gap at the bottom that wasn't caulked and would fill with water. I guess the outside drips forming on the bottom of the drip rail would get sucked into it by capillary action or something. Then, if the open slide was slightly tilted toward the trailer, the water would move down the inside of drip rail and drip, drip, drip onto the main floor of the trailer. The inside rugs and floor would get soaked if the slide was open in a rain storm.
I took this drip rail off and the inside was filled with mold and crap. Obviously it had been filling with water since day one. I cleaned it, packed it *full* of caulk and put it back on, making sure to cover the plywood ends with more caulk where they were exposed.
So far, all is good.
You can see the drip rail is not really doing it's job on this side. The end of the plywood floor is exposed and collecting drips. Luckily that's marine grade plywood so it can handle some wetness, but really it should be fully covered by the drip rail and have an abundance of caulk covering it.
I didn't move this drip rail down, rather I just cleaned the ends of the plywood and smeared it liberally with 3M4200 adhesive caulk. Now the drips form at the bottom of the caulk and the plastic layer of the floor, but the wood is protected. Maybe I should have moved the drip rail down, I dunno, maybe I will ...
The other side was not as bad as this, only a small amount of plywood edge was exposed. But another problem occurred that was really weird and took me over a year to figure out. The "drip rail" is actually a metal strip, but it's hollow, in a "C" section. In the hollow of the "C" is a strip of putty tape. On this drip rail, the putty tape didn't fill the hollow, it was only up at the top, leaving a gap at the bottom that wasn't caulked and would fill with water. I guess the outside drips forming on the bottom of the drip rail would get sucked into it by capillary action or something. Then, if the open slide was slightly tilted toward the trailer, the water would move down the inside of drip rail and drip, drip, drip onto the main floor of the trailer. The inside rugs and floor would get soaked if the slide was open in a rain storm.
I took this drip rail off and the inside was filled with mold and crap. Obviously it had been filling with water since day one. I cleaned it, packed it *full* of caulk and put it back on, making sure to cover the plywood ends with more caulk where they were exposed.
So far, all is good.
