Keystone owners heads up

Question

Hey folks,discovered water damaged floorboards in my bedroom slideout. When I called the dealer to figure out an estimate for the repair they seemed to know exactly why and where the leak occurred. There is a bottom piece of trim material that had always looked like it had "slid" down maybe an eighth of an inch from its original position creating a very small gap. It had looked like this since the day I bought it (used) and never really gave it much thought as somewhere water would leak....
Anyway, the dealer made it sound like this was a common issue with my type of rig and something that could potentially be overlooked. Said I'm looking at about a $1200 repair bill which I'm ok with as I don't want to tackle it myself.

A week ago when I went to retract the slides I noticed one edge of the bedroom slide stuck out a few inches from the normal flush position. Got it home and ripped the bed apart wondering what was the problem. The angle iron piece from the hydraulic ram where it attaches to the floor was completely rotted out.
Always kept an eye out for roof leaks and never thought about leaks from that misaligned trim piece....
Lesson learned....
And I guess in hindsight and by looking at this photo,I suppose it's pretty obvious something should have been recaulked...

newman_fulltime · Answer

bottom trim is that away in alot of trailers not just keystone

nv_guy · Answer

Thanks for the reminder, its not just Keystone, every RV has several places for water to get in and do it's dirty work. Good that you found this at $1,200 and not $2,500 or more..

ralph_cramden · Answer

That's every trailer made with a slide. That bottom flange trim has a bulb seal behind it, so when you run in the slide tight it deflects and eventually the caulk cracks at the joint. A maintenance item.

fj12ryder · Answer

I had to replace the floor in my bedroom slide because the caulking on the trim wasn't applied adequately and water got past it. It looked fine, but under closer inspection you could see that the caulk wasn't adhering to the slide.

It's actually not that bad of a job. I wouldn't tackle one of the large slides, but the bedroom slide wasn't an insurmountable task.

Make sure they use good plywood for the flooring, and not the same stuff that was there. That just falls apart when it gets damp.

jrs1871 · Answer

We have a similar problem on our trailer. Although we caught it before the floor rotted, you can still see water stains on the slide floor.  We have recaulked it regularly since new. But it would flex and break loose the caulking almost immediately.  We had a tech work on it while at FROG.  He said that type of trim is notorious for leaking and the screws holding it on from the bottom are not catching like they should.  He took out the old screws and put in 3" screws to get back into the framing.  Time will tell if that takes care of the problem.  But we just got home from a 5,000 mile trip and the caulking is intact.  So the longer screws might be something to consider when you replace the floor.

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