Professional repairs

[creeper]

Just for fun. I had my slide seal repaired. A few times. Sometimes you just need it done correctly and professionally. Can you guess which repair was done by me and which repair was done by a professional shop.

Extra points if you can guess the repair shop and their work.

Photo A? Me or the repair shop?


Click For Full-Size Image.

Photo B? Me or the repair shop?


Click For Full-Size Image.

[creeper]

dougrainer wrote:

It sure looked like the Metal finger gasket. As to 10 hours, NO OEM has any gasket that would require 10 hours to do the job. In your case, You would remove the inside upper wood Fascia and back support(about 1.0 hour total r&i) and that would give you access to clean off the old gasket and install the new gasket. IF you have a Slide cover, you remove it(1.0 total to remove and reinstall), That gives you outside access to facilitate removing and installing a new seal. probably 4 hours total but the OEM probably pays no more than 3 hours if even that. Most will not go over 2.0 for just a top wipe/gasket seal. And, YES, I have probably replaced at least 200 slide seals in the past 20 years on all various makes and models. Doug

But you're wrong. I suggest you look at the pictures full size. I only have an inch and half to 2 inches to work my hand through and tools through.

Removing the inside upper fascia reveals nothing more then an aluminum one piece frame. So no there is no access in the method you describe. The wood facia is actually glued to the metal frame.

You second method would require removing the slide topper and then the slide wipe seals. About 17 feet long. But THEN the place you have to scrape off the residue of glue is ABOVE the opening, above the wipe seal. With the slide open you can't see the seal. Again you're wrong. The seal actually touches the inner frame above the seals. You can see the metal frame to the right of the photo it touches when the slide is open. I think you don't realize what this seal does or how it's located.

You replaced 200 seals, but you can't see that there is no fingers. That line on the aluminum is that just a line which is just part of the manufacturing process. I think it was there just to hinder my scraping of the gasket.

I've built cars from only frames So I think I might know something. And sometimes the job just sucks.

Of course no one is going to devote that much time to it and that's why they did it incorrectly 5 times.

[femailyetti]

I prefer to do my own work. The little things a owner will do can cost a ton of labor at any rate. Sometimes I have to do it over, but I may learn something.

[femailyetti]

I prefer to do my own work. The little things a owner will do can cost a ton of labor at any rete. Sometimes I have to do it over, but I may learn something.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

WNYBob wrote:
You all know what professional means someone that gets paid to do a job
where as an Expert knows what he is doing.

I'm always a little suspect of people who claim to be an Expert: An Ex is a has-been; a spurt is a drip under pressure. :B

[mike_brez]

dougrainer wrote:

creeper wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
I think the OP is mistaken. I would NEVER call most of the people that work at a CW in Service, Professional or Experts. You get what you pay or go to. Doug

PS, THAT type seal can NEVER be reinstalled. Once the metal fingers have pulled loose like the pic, it will never lock on the metal track again.

There is no metal fingers to lock into. It's simple flat surface held in place with 3m tape. The key is to removing ALL the old gasket, which is also the hardest part.

The 2nd problem is that they did not use the correct seal. The correct part is a triangle seal, so when the slide open all the way and drops down the triangle point is the only thing that moves. They used a bulb seal and when the slide drops down the whole seal moves and pulled loose. The 3rd problem is the correct seal actually sits on top of lip and because of the correct parts size you have no option other then install it straight and it then has support. Their roller coaster install was because of their incompetence of using the wrong part. There is no substitute for using the CORRECT parts, rather then some

It sure looked like the Metal finger gasket. As to 10 hours, NO OEM has any gasket that would require 10 hours to do the job. In your case, You would remove the inside upper wood Fascia and back support(about 1.0 hour total r&i) and that would give you access to clean off the old gasket and install the new gasket. IF you have a Slide cover, you remove it(1.0 total to remove and reinstall), That gives you outside access to facilitate removing and installing a new seal. probably 4 hours total but the OEM probably pays no more than 3 hours if even that. Most will not go over 2.0 for just a top wipe/gasket seal. And, YES, I have probably replaced at least 200 slide seals in the past 20 years on all various makes and models. Doug

I bet a Foretravel or Prevost slide out bladder gasket would take 10 or more man hours.

[dougrainer]

creeper wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
I think the OP is mistaken. I would NEVER call most of the people that work at a CW in Service, Professional or Experts. You get what you pay or go to. Doug

PS, THAT type seal can NEVER be reinstalled. Once the metal fingers have pulled loose like the pic, it will never lock on the metal track again.

There is no metal fingers to lock into. It's simple flat surface held in place with 3m tape. The key is to removing ALL the old gasket, which is also the hardest part.

The 2nd problem is that they did not use the correct seal. The correct part is a triangle seal, so when the slide open all the way and drops down the triangle point is the only thing that moves. They used a bulb seal and when the slide drops down the whole seal moves and pulled loose. The 3rd problem is the correct seal actually sits on top of lip and because of the correct parts size you have no option other then install it straight and it then has support. Their roller coaster install was because of their incompetence of using the wrong part. There is no substitute for using the CORRECT parts, rather then some

It sure looked like the Metal finger gasket. As to 10 hours, NO OEM has any gasket that would require 10 hours to do the job. In your case, You would remove the inside upper wood Fascia and back support(about 1.0 hour total r&i) and that would give you access to clean off the old gasket and install the new gasket. IF you have a Slide cover, you remove it(1.0 total to remove and reinstall), That gives you outside access to facilitate removing and installing a new seal. probably 4 hours total but the OEM probably pays no more than 3 hours if even that. Most will not go over 2.0 for just a top wipe/gasket seal. And, YES, I have probably replaced at least 200 slide seals in the past 20 years on all various makes and models. Doug

[creeper]

dougrainer wrote:
I think the OP is mistaken. I would NEVER call most of the people that work at a CW in Service, Professional or Experts. You get what you pay or go to. Doug

PS, THAT type seal can NEVER be reinstalled. Once the metal fingers have pulled loose like the pic, it will never lock on the metal track again.

There is no metal fingers to lock into. It's simple flat surface held in place with 3m tape. The key is to removing ALL the old gasket, which is also the hardest part.

The 2nd problem is that they did not use the correct seal. The correct part is a triangle seal, so when the slide open all the way and drops down the triangle point is the only thing that moves. They used a bulb seal and when the slide drops down the whole seal moves and pulled loose. The 3rd problem is the correct seal actually sits on top of lip and because of the correct parts size you have no option other then install it straight and it then has support. Their roller coaster install was because of their incompetence of using the wrong part. There is no substitute for using the CORRECT parts, rather then some

[dougrainer]

I think the OP is mistaken. I would NEVER call most of the people that work at a CW in Service, Professional or Experts. You get what you pay or go to. Doug

PS, THAT type seal can NEVER be reinstalled. Once the metal fingers have pulled loose like the pic, it will never lock on the metal track again.

[WNYBob]

You all know what professional means someone that gets paid to do a job
where as an Expert knows what he is doing.

[jfkmk]

It's not limited to Camping World, or even RV repairs. Sloppy work abounds all over. I needed to repair a very small leak in the trans line leading to the auxiliary cooler I had installed years ago. This required pulling the front bumper fascia.

The last time the bumper was pulled was by the dealer who replaced the AC condenser. I noticed they didn't reinstall all of the bolts, they had broken a clip holding on the grille, they didn't tighten one of the bolts holding the battery hold down and the other was missing, they left one of the bolts holding the trans cooler and the other was not tightened.....it goes on and on.

Bottom line is, these guys figure out of sight the customer will never know.

[Goldencrazy]

My Camping world did a poor install of a rear sway bar. I had it tweaked by a suspension garage when having other work done. Camping World immediately refunded double the cost of the install. I am hoping they are improving. Irony is that as much as we criticize them they are booked solid and it takes a month to get an appointment. Having nationwide store devoted to our world is important. I hope we can build them up rather than destroying them. Obviously the work in the picture was not acceptable and the person (s) should be held accountable. Insist on being made whole.

[gbopp]

Well, you got it done correctly and professionally.
You did it yourself. 🙂

[creeper]

darsben1 wrote:

Bruce Brown wrote:
Picture A, Camping World.

Picture B, you.

99% chance I'm right, yes? :B

I agree with you
Now I wonder if there are extra points for guessing which Camping World.

Well I guess that was too easy. The was the handy work of Camping World Pooler Ga. It was the 5th time they did it, warranty work.

Mike the service manager there is a habitual liar. He claimed that they ordered the seal 5 times from the manufacture. After checking with the manufacture, they informed me that no seal was ordered for my coach EVER..

Their problem was self inflicted. It was only about a foot that needed to be repaired and they decided to pull off about 17 feet of it. Only to discover you could not easily get your hand behind it to remove the old seal. Even the manufacture told them to remove all of the old seal to the bare metal or it would fall off again. They ignored that, slapped some cheap off the shelf seal over the top and said it was fixed and the only problem was that I, "didn't like the way it looked". Their repair didn't even last a day.

I have about 10 hours and a couple of custom tool in getting this done. NO room to get my hands back there it was tedious and annoying going inch by inch.I ordered the correct part and installed it properly. Hasn't moved an inch so far. I guess they didn't want to invest 10 hours to do it right. It amazes me that they are still in business

Bonus prize you can have the old seal, barely used in like new condition. :W

[Aridon]

Crazy, people actually pay $120/hr for that kind of work.