Wave of water coming off top of slide -thoughts?

[Capt. Bill]

Guys- the issue is [B]NOT THE SLIDE TOPPER AWNING pooling water- the issue is water on top the slide. During a blowing rain storm, water blows in under the topper awning at the ends & pools on the top of the slide itself. When you bring the slide in without rocking the coach front to back before retracting you get about 1-2 gal. of cold water gushing down the back of the drivers seat. Been there- done that!!

Happy Trails

[RVStitchy]

Originally Posted by Capt. Bill

Guys- the issue is [B]NOT THE SLIDE TOPPER AWNING pooling water- the issue is water on top the slide. During a blowing rain storm, water blows in under the topper awning at the ends & pools on the top of the slide itself.

Agreed. One engineering solution for future builds might be designing the top of the full wall slide with some slope towards the middle and outside (like a shower floor). Then put a drain in the wall in between the couch and dinette windows similar to the corner roof drains. Now the water has somewhere to go regardless of how it got there.

[Irvwith2]

Originally Posted by deanphil

I saw this very same thing happen in a brand new Dutch Star last summer when I was test driving it at the dealer. It was a new 2022 4369 and the slides were out and it had rained the day before. The sales guy started moving the slides in and at some point a water fall came down toward the driver’s seat. I was shocked but thought, oh this is one of those COVID coaches. Never discussed it because we didn’t buy at that time. Your post makes me think they have a fundamental or systemic problem with this. Seems pretty bad.

Clearly a poor design but why change it if the suckers keep buying.

[Mr.Goodbar]

With my Ventana LE, the 2 bedroom slides and the LR (driver’s side) are all “more floor” slides and have slide topper awnings. I never have any problems getting water inside when retracting them. The kitchen slide (a more floor) on passenger side has no slide topper awning. I was told that there was no room to put one because of the main outside awning which is above it. Usually I put the main awning out and it covers the LR slide and keeps water off of the slide top. Problem is when the wind picks up and the awning automatically retracts, then if there’s rain, it pools up on top of the slide roof. If I forget this, then when the LR slide is retracted, the water comes forward and onto the floor behind the passenger seat. Out come a couple of old bath towels to mop up the water.

I’m going to have to remember by to do the forward tilting maneuver to dump that water outside before starting to retract the slides.

[ArkRVHog]

Wow...I must be living right. Our 30' Class C with FOUR slides has never experienced water pooling on the slide roof and then leaking inside the unit when being retracted. I have had a topper accumulate a little water but it ran off when retracting. Sad to hear of these issues on half of million dollar MH's.

[Mighty_J]

Originally Posted by ArkRVHog

Wow...I must be living right. Our 30' Class C with FOUR slides has never experienced water pooling on the slide roof and then leaking inside the unit when being retracted. I have had a topper accumulate a little water but it ran off when retracting. Sad to hear of these issues on half of million dollar MH's.

I’m in agreement with you. Shouldn’t be happening. Attached is a picture of the top of the slide under the topper while extended. Note the gap. When the slide rises prior to retracting, the gap does close but the single wiper that’s made of the same material as the slide side seals gets easily overwhelmed.

[RVStitchy]

Originally Posted by ArkRVHog

Wow...I must be living right. Our 30' Class C with FOUR slides has never experienced water pooling on the slide roof and then leaking inside the unit when being retracted. I have had a topper accumulate a little water but it ran off when retracting. Sad to hear of these issues on half of million dollar MH's.

And the two shorter slides on the passenger side of the same Newmar coaches do not have the same problem. The slide that has the problem is unique since it slides out and then down a couple inches to make the interior floor level. This up and down travel is what makes this slide a unique problem and an engineering challenge to wipe all the water off during retraction.

[Capt. Bill]

The simplest & most cost effective solution is for Newmar to use a 2' longer slide topper awning on the FWS that overhangs the ends of the FWS but 14"-16" on each end.

Newmar- are you monitoring this posting & recommended corrective action needed on your part??

Happy Trails

[Clemson]

Originally Posted by Mighty_J

We’re out for our first full week in our brand new 2023 London Aire 4586. Most systems are nominal. But we seem to have what I’d call a pretty disappointing problem.

It rained on and off the day we left. Not hard, just on and off for a couple hours. The slides were out and all was good. I brought the coach to ride height, brought in the slides and had a very large waterfall come off the top of the slide into the coach. Enough to soak 6 bath towels.

All cleaned up so we took off. That brings us to this morning. It rained again last night (maybe an hour or so again - I’d call it light rain). It was not a wicked storm. This time I climbed up with a ladder to have a look. The slide on question had a lot of pooled water on the top. The other 3, none. I had my wife run the slide in part way while I watched from outside. Here’s what I observed…

1) this is a “more floor” hydraulic slide (hwh) front driver side. The one that goes straight out, then lowers into place.

2) when the slide is extended, there is no visible rubber gasket or flange touching the roof of the slide. There’s a gasket there that looks the same as on the side walls, but it’s about 3 inches above the top of the slide box.

3) when the slide raises to retract, the rubber flange does touch the slide top.

4) the gasket behaves the same as the side gaskets during retract (it folds in on itself as the slide closes).

5) it sweeps water off about the first 3rd of the slide top. After that the water just passes under it as if there’s too much and it’s overwhelming the gasket.

It’s a lot of water. At least a gallon. This time a took a long pole squeegee and pulled as much of it off as I could but we still ended up with water running down the wall and across the floor (one hand towel to clean it up).

Has anyone experienced this? Is there a secondary flange missing? On the other 3 sides there is a secondary flange, but I’m not sure if the more floor slides should have one.

I’m stumped on this one and will be calling Newmar tomorrow, but if anyone’s got any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

On our 22 DS4369 we have a 23’ gasket that sweeps the entire FWS as it retracts. Never had water on the interior.

[Ann-Marie]

OOoo we've never had that problem, water always runs off outside at the forward end. The roll-up part of the slide extends 2" beyond the forward wall and 1" back from the aft wall so it seems it seems like it should always fall ouside on our Greyhawk.

[lsodi]

I had the same problem with my 21 London Aire. Went back to the factory to have it fixed. They told me it was normal and stated that when I park I should let the front down a little for the water to drain it help a little but still had water.

[GUS2000]

Doest this mean having a perfectly level coach prevents proper drainage of the water that could accumulate on the slide (beneath the slide topper)??

[RVStitchy]

Originally Posted by GUS2000

Doest this mean having a perfectly level coach prevents proper drainage of the water that could accumulate on the slide (beneath the slide topper)??

Yes, on the full wall slide. Depending on rain and what you do when bringing the slide in you can get water on the floor. If there is a lot of water you get a bucketfull down the back of your neck the first time you hit the brakes.

[WILDEBILL308]

Back to what I said before. When you are getting ready to put the slides in retract the jacks in the back and raise the front as hi as it will go. This should drain any water on the top of the slides.
Bill