Material on outside of slide out warping

[mtnman1000]

I have a 2013 Springdale with a single 12' slide out and when it is out I can see the thick plastic material (panels) on the front and back is warping pretty bad. The sealant around it on all sides looks fine and all the screws are tight and intact. It seems to be getting worse and I have no clue what can be causing it.

IS there supposed to be some sort of adhesive behind the panels keeping them flat against whatever is behind them?

[fdwt994]

garysol wrote:
Been there. We had a 2012 Thor Komfort 5th wheel and our bedroom slide had the same plastic external material on the sides of the slide. Our warped terribly but after doing tons of research it appears that it does not hurt anything. Ours was so badly warped that the slide wipers would not make full contact when bringing the slide in or out. We never had any signs of water intrusion. The only “fix” was to remove the slide and replace the warped plastic but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. We sold the trailer and I’ll be honest..... the sight of that warped material just drove me nuts and that was a big reason I sold it.

We were recently looking at brand new Salem travel trailers. I saw this very thing on several BRAND NEW units and when I asked the salesperson, she said it's not unusual and not an issue. To me, it looked like garbage and I couldn't help but wonder how well it would keep water out when parts of the wipers were indeed not making full contact. Needless to say, we purchased a Hemisphere instead that looked much more solid and true on the slide exteriors.

[kennyd63]

mtnman1000 wrote:
I have a 2013 Springdale with a single 12' slide out and when it is out I can see the thick plastic material (panels) on the front and back is warping pretty bad. The sealant around it on all sides looks fine and all the screws are tight and intact. It seems to be getting worse and I have no clue what can be causing it.

IS there supposed to be some sort of adhesive behind the panels keeping them flat against whatever is behind them?

Please show a picture.

[BarneyS]

If you will follow these directions exactly, it is very easy to post pictures on our forums. One of our moderators, 1492, developed this photo posting app to post your pictures. It works for other internet sites also. There is no need to have a separate hosting site for your pictures in order to use it.

It is very simple to use.
1. Upload your picture from your computer to the app.
2. Copy the resulting URL.
3. Paste that URL into your post

without ANY changes

. No additions or deletions.

Your picture will then appear in your post and be properly sized for use on our forums.:)
Barney

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

mtnman1000 wrote:
Thank you everyone and sorry for not posting pictures, I know that would help. I took some but could not figure out how to upload them last night so gave up.

Just like garysol, it is more of a cosmetic issue of me, kind of embarrassing, but also sounds like it happens on some TT's.

I got to thinking this morning, a couple of years ago I think my gear system may have jumped a tooth as there is a 3/4 inch to 1 inch difference where the top of the molding inside of the slide meets the top of the cabin wall. I'll bet the alignment difference over time going in and out caused it to do this.

Thanks for the replies. I'll see what I can do about the alignment and replace the panels, hopefully with a better quality.

I still don't see where to attach a picture. Only a place to create an image that links from somewhere else on the internet.

For future reference on picture posting go here.

Very easy. Even I can do it and that's saying a lot! :B

[mtnman1000]

Thank you everyone and sorry for not posting pictures, I know that would help. I took some but could not figure out how to upload them last night so gave up.

Just like garysol, it is more of a cosmetic issue of me, kind of embarrassing, but also sounds like it happens on some TT's.

I got to thinking this morning, a couple of years ago I think my gear system may have jumped a tooth as there is a 3/4 inch to 1 inch difference where the top of the molding inside of the slide meets the top of the cabin wall. I'll bet the alignment difference over time going in and out caused it to do this.

Thanks for the replies. I'll see what I can do about the alignment and replace the panels, hopefully with a better quality.

I still don't see where to attach a picture. Only a place to create an image that links from somewhere else on the internet.

[sgfrye]

hard to say without photos but sounds exactly like the slide on our previous TT. looked like there was a problem but never had any water intrusion or know problems because of it.

[MFL]

A picture would get more response, but I have seen some slide ends that seem to have waves, or large ripples on the ends. In some cases, just the nature of the material. Hard to say on yours, without picture.

Jerry

[garysol]

Been there. We had a 2012 Thor Komfort 5th wheel and our bedroom slide had the same plastic external material on the sides of the slide. Our warped terribly but after doing tons of research it appears that it does not hurt anything. Ours was so badly warped that the slide wipers would not make full contact when bringing the slide in or out. We never had any signs of water intrusion. The only “fix” was to remove the slide and replace the warped plastic but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. We sold the trailer and I’ll be honest..... the sight of that warped material just drove me nuts and that was a big reason I sold it.