Underside of slide rust issue

[John St Maur]

Hello, looking to buy a 2008 Phaeton, and inspector took picture of underside of slide. What would cause this rust mark? And should I be scared? Thanks. Also included is pic of outside tv compartment on that same slide. Shows lots of rust at door frame. Again, should I be scared of this? Thanks!

John

[John St Maur]

Originally Posted by john st maur

hello, looking to buy a 2008 phaeton, and inspector took picture of underside of slide. What would cause this rust mark? And should i be scared? Thanks. Also included is pic of outside tv compartment on that same slide. Shows lots of rust at door frame. Again, should i be scared of this? Thanks!

John

[garykk]

The marks in the 1st picture appear to be from the slide roller. The second confirms the presence of water in the slide compartment. I would be concerned.

[John St Maur]

Originally Posted by garykk

The marks in the 1st picture appear to be from the slide roller. The second confirms the presence of water in the slide compartment. I would be concerned.

Ok. The RV inspector didn’t find any evidence of water penetration anywhere inside coach. But still concerning with that rust. Tiffin and a body shop thought that trim would have been aluminum. Weird how it rusted like that.

[garykk]

Originally Posted by John St Maur

Ok. The RV inspector didn’t find any evidence of water penetration anywhere inside coach. But still concerning with that rust. Tiffin and a body shop thought that trim would have been aluminum. Weird how it rusted like that.

Easy enough to tell, just put a magnet on that piece of trim. Did anyone pull the rubber seal back and take a look? To get much rust, there has to be a pretty good amount of water sitting in there.

[vettenuts]

Look inside the lower slide seal with a flashlight and see if the roller brackets are rusted along with the rollers. I would be concerned with moisture under the tile. Is this slide the kitchen? If so, also check the flexible drain hose from the sink. If it is smooth it may be cracked and leaking. If it’s corrugated it was likely replaced due to a leak.

Personally, if you can’t identify the source and the type of repair, I would walk away.

[DeWat]

Wasn't 2008 part of the Tiffin "Big 3", roof rails, wet bay floor, and driver's side front slide floor?

[vettenuts]

Originally Posted by DeWat

Wasn't 2008 part of the Tiffin "Big 3", roof rails, wet bay floor, and driver's side front slide floor?

Yes. OP didn’t identify which slide, but front driver’s side would fall into the Big 3 issue.

[pete5016]

The second picture appears to be from the TV compartment on the slide. If that is that case, then it is not related to the rust shown on picture #1. WRT picture #2, I had some slight bubbling around the trim on my TV compartment. It was an easy fix at the paint shop. I wouldn't worry about picture #2. I have no comment wrt picture #1.

[swduns]

I have a 2008 Tiffin Phaeton 40’ QDH
In general is one of the best motor homes made
Big plus is its pre-def
-big 3 #1 - curved edge of Filon roof cracks - doesn’t happen to all of the 08’s mine doesn’t have any cracks - if it does they cut off the curve and install a metal curved piece
- big 3 #2 - floor of wet bay rots out this happens to pretty much all 08’s. I had the wet bay floor replaced with 1” plastic sheet
- big 3 #3 - a soft spot developes in the dinette slide front outside corner, mine seems ok
- the 360 HP Cummins engine can require a full rebuild if the coolant isn’t regularly changed. The cylinder sleeves rust out
- if you have the electric leveling jacks those caused a lot of problems, mine has HWH hydraulic jacks
- the dinette slide is electric & the 4 mounting bolts loosen, they go into pot metal , if they loosen too much. The entire gearbox twists & snaps in half. You need to order & install a cheap stage 8 bolt locking kit.
- the kitchen slide can have a bow downward in the middle due to cabinet weight. It’s fixed with putting spindles on the end of the counter up to the underside of the cabinets
- my unit has a Xantrex inverter # RV2000GS. This model wasn’t widely used, is rare & near impossible to find an identical replacement. I have a magnum 2012 & will replace mine within a month, you have to replace the control panel as well
- most of my windows were double pane & the seals failed, I had windows pulled. & seals rebuilt
- the Filon roof gel coat oxidizes, I paint mine every two years with Dicor fiberglass roof coating
- the absorption refrigerators give trouble, with previous owner mine was replaced due to a fire. There’s a unit you can install to preclude a fire.
- the 2 passenger side slides are HWH hydraulic type, they are a scissor mechanism of each end of the slides, nothing above or below but the scissor mechanism uses a large chain to move the slide in and out. Mine are currently fine. If the chains break they
Are extremely difficult to access & replace. I am very careful with those two slides.
- the 3 Panasonic TVs are not smart TVs & don’t have cable tuners built in. But otherwise are good TVs
- I replaced the ceiling 18” fluorescent lights with designer LED units
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. If I were you I’d check the things above closely.
If you buy it, I’d be happy to provide info on any of the repairs or upgrades.

[swduns]

Again I have an 08 phaeton
If you open any basement door, the basement frame the doors shut against, the paint was curling off and there was rust underneath. I scraped & wire brush all the flaking paint off and repainted with POR-15. It looks great & has held up fine. I’d say that is the rust around the outside TV compartment. Likely you’ll have to similarly have to scrape & paint that basement exterior frame. It’s not a big deal. Took me several days but only because of waiting between actions.

I removed the outside tv, painted the frame & pan. Then I installed some auto engine compartment insulation behind the tv. Reason why is there’s a large round hole behind tv where wiring goes thru and it opens into inside lower kitchen cablinrts. You’re usually watching tv outside in the afternoon or at nite & bugs can fly in behind tv into the lower kitchen cabinet. I didn’t want that hence the insulation. Also I added a fire TV stick to make the tv a smart tv

[John St Maur]

Originally Posted by vettenuts

Yes. OP didn’t identify which slide, but front driver’s side would fall into the Big 3 issue.

Hello, the rust is on passenger front slide. The way the roof and underbelly look and bottom of drivers front slide looks, it appears the big 3 was done so that’s a relief.

[John St Maur]

Originally Posted by swduns

Again I have an 08 phaeton

If you open any basement door, the basement frame the doors shut against, the paint was curling off and there was rust underneath. I scraped & wire brush all the flaking paint off and repainted with POR-15. It looks great & has held up fine. I’d say that is the rust around the outside TV compartment. Likely you’ll have to similarly have to scrape & paint that basement exterior frame. It’s not a big deal. Took me several days but only because of waiting between actions.



I removed the outside tv, painted the frame & pan. Then I installed some auto engine compartment insulation behind the tv. Reason why is there’s a large round hole behind tv where wiring goes thru and it opens into inside lower kitchen cablinrts. You’re usually watching tv outside in the afternoon or at nite & bugs can fly in behind tv into the lower kitchen cabinet. I didn’t want that hence the insulation. Also I added a fire TV stick to make the tv a smart tv

Hello and thanks for tips. Well, it’s sitting at home now, I bought it! The rust on tv box frame doesn’t appear as bad as in pictures but still annoying. I also plan on scraping and repainting the baggage compartment openings. Not much rust at all but will look better and prevent more from starting.

John

[John St Maur]

Originally Posted by swduns

I have a 2008 Tiffin Phaeton 40’ QDH
In general is one of the best motor homes made
Big plus is its pre-def
-big 3 #1 - curved edge of Filon roof cracks - doesn’t happen to all of the 08’s mine doesn’t have any cracks - if it does they cut off the curve and install a metal curved piece
- big 3 #2 - floor of wet bay rots out this happens to pretty much all 08’s. I had the wet bay floor replaced with 1” plastic sheet
- big 3 #3 - a soft spot developes in the dinette slide front outside corner, mine seems ok
- the 360 HP Cummins engine can require a full rebuild if the coolant isn’t regularly changed. The cylinder sleeves rust out
- if you have the electric leveling jacks those caused a lot of problems, mine has HWH hydraulic jacks
- the dinette slide is electric & the 4 mounting bolts loosen, they go into pot metal , if they loosen too much. The entire gearbox twists & snaps in half. You need to order & install a cheap stage 8 bolt locking kit.
- the kitchen slide can have a bow downward in the middle due to cabinet weight. It’s fixed with putting spindles on the end of the counter up to the underside of the cabinets
- my unit has a Xantrex inverter # RV2000GS. This model wasn’t widely used, is rare & near impossible to find an identical replacement. I have a magnum 2012 & will replace mine within a month, you have to replace the control panel as well
- most of my windows were double pane & the seals failed, I had windows pulled. & seals rebuilt
- the Filon roof gel coat oxidizes, I paint mine every two years with Dicor fiberglass roof coating
- the absorption refrigerators give trouble, with previous owner mine was replaced due to a fire. There’s a unit you can install to preclude a fire.
- the 2 passenger side slides are HWH hydraulic type, they are a scissor mechanism of each end of the slides, nothing above or below but the scissor mechanism uses a large chain to move the slide in and out. Mine are currently fine. If the chains break they
Are extremely difficult to access & replace. I am very careful with those two slides.
- the 3 Panasonic TVs are not smart TVs & don’t have cable tuners built in. But otherwise are good TVs
- I replaced the ceiling 18” fluorescent lights with designer LED units
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. If I were you I’d check the things above closely.
If you buy it, I’d be happy to provide info on any of the repairs or upgrades.

Thanks for all the info! Appreciate it! It appears that the Big 3 was fixed which was a relief.

John