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Tequila's avatar
Tequila
Explorer
Jul 24, 2015

Slide underside wear with schwintek system

On my Snowriver, the white rollers are starting to wear through the coating on the underside of the slide. Not serious yet, but I can see the writing on the wall. This has been an issue with Lance Trailers and Lance apparently is sending out metal strips to alleviate this. I am going to do the same to my Northwood. I asked Dave Mann at Northwood, if putting them under will affect the gearing. He thinks there is enough play in the motor shaft to handle it up to about 1/4 inch. I went to an aluminum shop today and determined that 06y mil aluminum will be good enough and that is less than `1/8th. 6 inches wide will do it and allow enough space to put screws along the sides, I will use stainless. I probably cant get to this until late next month but I will report back. In the meantime here are 2 photos of a Lance that has been done:



  • My FunFinder has the Schwintek slide. One of my rollers was so impacted with caulking that it never turned from day one. I, of course,didn't realize this until a piece of dark colored veneer slipped out from under the sofa. Since nothing in the trailer was this color I began searching for it's origin, and discovered the problem. It had seriously damaged the plywood floor of the slide. I had to reinforce the damaged floor and then apply a sheet of aluminum to the underside. I also managed to free-up the roller so that it would rotate. I've been monitoring it ever since and now the aluminum is beginning to crack so I will need to replace it with something a little thicker. I recommend that anyone with this type of slide check the underside of the slide periodically to catch any problem before it does significant damage.
  • nope not water, it just the rollers wearing at the coating.
  • those plates help a lot, we put lots of them on. However, (most of the time). the problem is not dirt or even wear. The problem is a water leak somewhere, and the bottom of the slide is rotting out. Be sure to check all seals. Roof and Slide. I bet water is coming in somewhere
  • I have not gotten any under-side wear on my Schwintek slides (about the only problem I haven't had). I think keeping the slide out bottoms clean is key. If theres no dirt/debris, the rollers shouldn't cause wear. But... if wear starts, I think those plates are a great looking fix.
  • we used front door kick plates from Home Depot under one of our slides.