Slide wall construction and damage question

[garysol]

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

[garysol]

Finally was able to get her down to the shop today and the body shop manager had a look at it and his opinion was to leave it alone and that it is cosmetic in nature only and caused by heat build up. He also says that many units he sees with aluminum framing and the plastic outer panels have the same issue as mine. His reason for suggesting not fixing it was that they would need to pull the slide out for the repair and he would rather not mess with the factory sealing of the slide. His comment was that once the slide is removed and reinstalled there is a chance that the unit will never seal as good as it does now.

[Aridon]

With no water leakage, assuming that is correct, I'd guess this is simply a manufacturing defect.

I really hope you get it fixed. No reason what so ever for sun exposure to cause something like this. Otherwise ever **** RV in FL or TX etc would have this issue.

[Aridon]

With no water leakage, assuming that is correct, I'd guess this is simply a manufacturing defect.

I really hope you get it fixed. No reason what so ever for sun exposure to cause something like this. Otherwise ever **** RV in FL or TX etc would have this issue.

[garysol]

DownTheAvenue wrote:


X3 or 4
The outside wall is the same as 5er exterior walls, but the end walls are frame and finished differently.

Any sign of leakage on the interior? That one end wall is pretty wavy, does that wall get a lot of sun?

no signs of water leakage on the inside. No bulges, bumps or stains and yes that wall does get a lot of sun. The trailer spends most of its time facing west on Lake Michigan.

[rhagfo]

MFL wrote:

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

X3 or 4
The outside wall is the same as 5er exterior walls, but the end walls are frame and finished differently.

Any sign of leakage on the interior? That one end wall is pretty wavy, does that wall get a lot of sun?

[garysol]

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.

[garysol]

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]

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

[MFL]

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

[Dayle1]

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.

[Lenny_K]

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.

[Bumpyroad]

do you store it with the slides out?
bumpy

[DownTheAvenue]

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.

[garysol]

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.......