2007 Inspire Slide Cracks

[moandsam]

Has anyone found a way to repair a crack in the passengers side living room slide? My Inspire has been repaired twice but the crack has returned. I have been told it is impossible to repair by CC and that a new slide out ($12000) is the answer. The crack is located at the lower right corner of the furnace which is located in the left corner of the slide. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[dons2346]

I suggest a call to Oregon Motorcoach and pose the question to them.

[moandsam]

Do you have a telephone number for Oregon Motorcoach? I'm on the east coast and maybe they can refer me to someone in my area. Thanks for your time.

[patty98311]

You also might try Premier Coach They are right next to CC and have several old CC techs there as well. We just left CC and were very pleased with their work, just as a side note.

[dons2346]

http://www.oregonmotorcoachcenter.co...hp?/contact/C5

[TQ60]

You are East coast, so think outside the box...

It is cracked, and repaired twice...by WHO?

Since there is not a bunch of noise about poor quality relating to CC, we can ASSUME the overall design may be OK, but somehow this ONE may have an issue with the weld, or loading or something else.

What you need is a good welding shop who ALSO manufactures structural steel type assemblies.

Get out the yellow pages and start calling the mom&pop machine, welding, steel fabrication and other like shops.

You are looking for one that provides in-house engineering so they can look at your unit, take measurements and design the repair.

With the current slow season most shops are looking for work, call a few, visit a few, the right one will be obvious.

If someone just welds it back up, it will crack again, you need an engineer, or someone who at least fully understands the structure and what needs to be done to make it strong enough to not have the high stress in the area that failed.

You will need to have your weights and any other documents handy, make dimensioned drawings to save some time.

They will be able to determine why the crack started, how to stop it vis cutting and drilling, then to add proper materials at the correct places to properly support the structure.

It may be as simple as adding "doublers" to the steel and properly welding,or replacing much of the structure, the engineer will be able to determine this.

It will not be cheap, but considering a trip to the west coast and 12K for a new slide, a thousand or two does not look to bad.

You may need to enlist a local RV shop (or you) to tear down the area to allow access, but that can be worked out after the folks evaluate the repair.

[num1dgh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moandsam Has anyone found a way to repair a crack in the passengers side living room slide? My Inspire has been repaired twice but the crack has returned. I have been told it is impossible to repair by CC and that a new slide out ($12000) is the answer. The crack is located at the lower right corner of the furnace which is located in the left corner of the slide. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I would seriously doubt that it is impossible to repair . . . you should have seen our slides before Oregon Motor Coach got ahold of them. If you can get out to OMC, by all means do so. Even if you can't, call them for advise . . . tell them the Lamb's suggested you call. You may need the fiberglass replaced, which is certainly not cheap but I seriously doubt it's $12,000. I agree with other posts that a simple repair of the crack is temporary and the source of the crack needs to be explored. Again, there is no better place to go than OMC. (541) 762-1505 Good luck!

[moandsam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TQ60 You are East coast, so think outside the box... It is cracked, and repaired twice...by WHO? Since there is not a bunch of noise about poor quality relating to CC, we can ASSUME the overall design may be OK, but somehow this ONE may have an issue with the weld, or loading or something else. What you need is a good welding shop who ALSO manufactures structural steel type assemblies. Get out the yellow pages and start calling the mom&pop machine, welding, steel fabrication and other like shops. You are looking for one that provides in-house engineering so they can look at your unit, take measurements and design the repair. With the current slow season most shops are looking for work, call a few, visit a few, the right one will be obvious. If someone just welds it back up, it will crack again, you need an engineer, or someone who at least fully understands the structure and what needs to be done to make it strong enough to not have the high stress in the area that failed. You will need to have your weights and any other documents handy, make dimensioned drawings to save some time. They will be able to determine why the crack started, how to stop it vis cutting and drilling, then to add proper materials at the correct places to properly support the structure. It may be as simple as adding "doublers" to the steel and properly welding,or replacing much of the structure, the engineer will be able to determine this. It will not be cheap, but considering a trip to the west coast and 12K for a new slide, a thousand or two does not look to bad. You may need to enlist a local RV shop (or you) to tear down the area to allow access, but that can be worked out after the folks evaluate the repair.

Thanks for you for your reply. The crack is in the fiber glass siding which is backed (I'm told) by a foam material and is a sandwich construction. Just talked to OMC and they say it is not repairable. Any suggestions.

[moandsam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by num1dgh I would seriously doubt that it is impossible to repair . . . you should have seen our slides before Oregon Motor Coach got ahold of them. If you can get out to OMC, by all means do so. Even if you can't, call them for advise . . . tell them the Lamb's suggested you call. You may need the fiberglass replaced, which is certainly not cheap but I seriously doubt it's $12,000. I agree with other posts that a simple repair of the crack is temporary and the source of the crack needs to be explored. Again, there is no better place to go than OMC. (541) 762-1505 Good luck!

Jusrt talked to OMC and they said the type of construction (sandwich construction with foam core) is not repairable. Thanks for your help. Not sure what we will do now.

[Francesca]

It'd be interesting to see a picture of the crack-
Is it bigger than this one?

This picture is from a current thread here by an Excel owner that seems to be making some progress with his problem.
Here's a link to that discussion:Crack in Fiberglass

Good Luck

Francesca

[num1dgh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moandsam Jusrt talked to OMC and they said the type of construction (sandwich construction with foam core) is not repairable. Thanks for your help. Not sure what we will do now.

Is it possible to replace a section of fiberglass and have them do some body work? They had to cut some of our fiberglass, fix the damaged wood behind it, and put it back together, and you cannot see where they did the body work to put the fiberglass back on.

[moandsam]

Hi:
According to CC there is no wooden backing just foam sandwiched to an inner wall hence the problem. If the foam is cracked the substructure apparently can not support the repair. Repairing the substructure is just part of the problem. I'll keep you posted, Thanks, Sam

[moandsam]

AS explained to me there is no wood in the walls of the slide out. I am going to LazyDays in a couple of weeks and will talk to the body shop manager and find out if this will work. I have suggested placing wood behind the crack as a backing plate but I'll have to see what the "experts" say. Almost everyone we have talked to seem to think a repair is not possible. Will let you know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by num1dgh Is it possible to replace a section of fiberglass and have them do some body work? They had to cut some of our fiberglass, fix the damaged wood behind it, and put it back together, and you cannot see where they did the body work to put the fiberglass back on.

[TQ60]

Others have suggested body shops, I suggested a fabrication shop as I was thinking about crackes in the steel.

All is still the suggestion, the source of the crack needs to be evaluated.

Stopping the crack is as simple as drilling the correct size ROUND hole in the path of the crack, and it stops there.

BUT, and it is a big one, the reason for the crack needs to be determined, then the solution needs to be created and put into place.

Once this has been done, most Corvette body shops could work with what you have to cut out the cracked area, properly add supporting matting to the back side, then repair and paint to where it is simply not visible.

The sandwich would be different in this area, but who cares what the inside looks like.

YES it can be fixed with the proper people evaluating the structure.
1. A steel fabrication shop with an on-site engineer, they can look at the structure and likely identify the weak areas that are allowing the structure behing the fiberglass to flex causing the crack and develop a process to repair the structure.
2. A marine or auto body shop that has great experience with fiberglass bodywork that can work with the steel fabrication shop to restore the fiberglass panel.

YES it is going to cost some bucks, but it may not be as bad as you think, and probibly far less than the amount quoted above.

OMC may have suggested it is not repairable due to a lack of resources, or it is in their best interest to replace the slide, I cannot speak for them or their drive.

It costs you nothing to make some calls to local or near distant shops and possibly stop by for them to look.

Pass along that you belong to this forum and there may be other buisness for them if they can do a good job.

Once you do that, they will give you some options to think about, post them here as we all would like to know, and the information may be good for others who have same types of damage.