Construction debris under slides and what to do about it

[Stuart W]

Over the weekend I was working on my 18 DS, the work required me to loosen the screws holding the couch in place to the door side slide, while laying on the floor with a flashlight I saw a surprising amount of construction debris, copper wire, wire covering, pieces of metal shavings , and even a small pebble or two.
I got the couch back in place and used compressed air from the kitchen side of the couch, it was surprising how much of the the previously mentioned debris came out on the other side around the passenger seat. I then did the bedroom slide with similar results!
I highly recommend that everyone with slides do this as initial new coach maintenance and as I will now, periodic maintenance. The big concern is this debris being crushed in to the floor tile while the slide operates, potentially causing floor and roller damage.

Stuart

[10 fan]

Don't understand where it is. Is the trash on top of the tile under the couch? Thanks for posting a potential problem.

[Stuart W]

Originally Posted by 10 fan

Don't understand where it is. Is the trash on top of the tile under the couch? Thanks for posting a potential problem.

Yes under the couch and kitchen slide and under the bed on top of floor where roller move

[10 fan]

Thanks, will check mine.

[TJ]

Yep, Newmar needs to run a little training program on "tidiness" for its employees! Both Newmar coaches we've owned arrived with a significant amount of construction debris in the "nooks and crannies." I have used a flat yardstick to sweep some stuff out, and a piece of small, stiff plastic tubing (garden drip irrigation tubing) taped onto a vacuum cleaner hose to suck a bunch of it out. And, as a last resort, a piece of duct tape wrapped adhesive-side-out on the end of the yardstick to pull some larger pieces out.

TJ

[Dutch Star Don]

If you ever need one of the square drive screws for a project, lift the covers under the bed. You'll find a couple of screws, wire ends, sawdust and dirt. Pretty typical stuff in anyplace that is hidden from the final clean crew.

[Stuart W]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

If you ever need one of the square drive screws for a project, lift the covers under the bed. You'll find a couple of screws, wire ends, sawdust and dirt. Pretty typical stuff in anyplace that is hidden from the final clean crew.

This is very true, have some from my Canyon Star, haven’t pulled the boards up under the DS bed yet.

[Blufox]

Sadly, this “debris” from production is not new. I factory ordered my 15 4369 Ventana thru our dealer in Ft. Meyers. After the second outing, I noticed sawdust on the tile at the 1/2 bath. Paying little attention to it, we just vacuumed it up. Next trip, same sawdust at the 1/2 bath wall, inside and out. Additionally, on the floor at the sleeper sofa. We opened everything up. . . Everything and spent an hour cleaning up from production. A week later, the automatic toilet in the master would not flush. I called the mfg. who told me (NEWMAR did not know) the control unit was 6’ from the wall mounted control. Popping of the panel at the floor of rear closet revealed control panel unattached to the floor, a crushed coke can, a crumpled empty bag of chips, wire nuts and a pencil . I took pictures and sent to NEWMAR with my findings . Hmmm, that was 3 years ago. . . guess the “trash patrol” was short lived. Oh, and yes, I followed toilet mfg instructions to jump two wires so my toilet would flush. They sent me a new control box N/C which I installed and secured to the now “clean” floor .

[Jtrving]

I have to say this is truly insane. The fact that this stuff is not cleaned up during production is amazing to me. Big thumbs down in the QC department to Newmar on this one. On par with the poor bundling/labeling of wire. It would take them a grand total of ONE minute to blow that stuff out with compressed air when it was accessible coming down the line...

[TJ]

All it would take, Jeff, is for Newmar to start grading its construction crews on work cleanliness. Having someone walk through each coach at the end of each day and note what debris was left laying around. Then, post the results. It wouldn't take long for the work crews to get the message.

TJ

[tcg]

Boy, have I got stories from my 28 years doing dealer prep on new boats.

You guys do know your rigs are not manufactured/assembled by white gloved employees in a clean room, right?

I've got a nice collection of tools that get left behind and you can't believe what gets used for spacers or shims in areas not meant to be seen by owners.

The crap in the bilges or under things that get bolted down is fun to see as well.

What really annoys me though is when the factory uses plexiglass components for things like cabinet doors or shower doors and they don't remove the protective paper before attaching hardware. It's virtually impossible to remove the paper without removing hardware sometimes. I had one the other day where the backside of the door was covered in protective paper that could not be removed without removing the door tracks to get the door out. The solution was to leave the film, it can't be seen anyhow, well except for you guys.

These are boats that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The million plus boats are not immune either.

So it's not just the RV world.

[Webz]

I also found considerable debris under the bed. But I found more under the FWS. Prior to getting a safety latch installed on the microwave, the door came open and the glass platter fell out, hit the tile and shattered. (I-40 in Tennessee) I removed as much of the glass under the FWS prior to deploying it. Slowly move the slide out and proceeded to get the rest of the glass. I would access the area from inside and outside the coach. I found 2 balls of masking tape, grout from the tile installation, wire ends, screws and sawdust. All this debris in an area that uses hydraulics is not a good thing. The hydraulics will bend structure if something tries to limit it's normal movement.
As long as they have time to do things over, (after you buy) there is no incentive for them to do it right the first time. Increasing production rate without addressing basic housekeeping needs is a recipe for problems.

I took the coach back to Nappanee for two cracked tiles. Not from the microwave platter. After I left, I found more grout under the dining booth seat and under the FWS near the area of the replaced tiles. It appears to be a culture of not cleaning as you go.

[Solo_RV_Guy]

I watched several time lapse coach building videos and the only one were I observed routine cleaning up after themselves was the Tiffin Allegro Bus build for David Botts (the video is on YouTube and on his blog).

IIRC the coach floor was broom-swept between assembly stations at the very least.

[Dav L]

I found about a dozen sharp carpet razer blades underneath my old 2002 carpet. They were old, but still usable
Cut the new carpet with them.