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LarryGodby · 04-06-2008, 07:49 PM

Ok everybody put on your mechanical engineer hat and lets come up with a solution.

Spent the better part of this weekend in the basement of the rig, no I was not a bad boy, well maybe I was, but Patty didn't send me out there.

The problem was that I was working behind the sliding doors in the basement. They worked fine all day and then within an hour they would not slide. They were bound so tight that I could not move them and I also had a screw starting to poke throuh the carpet in the basement, that was not there an hour earlier either.

Any thoughts?

LarryGodby · 04-06-2008, 07:49 PM

Ok everybody put on your mechanical engineer hat and lets come up with a solution.

Spent the better part of this weekend in the basement of the rig, no I was not a bad boy, well maybe I was, but Patty didn't send me out there.

The problem was that I was working behind the sliding doors in the basement. They worked fine all day and then within an hour they would not slide. They were bound so tight that I could not move them and I also had a screw starting to poke throuh the carpet in the basement, that was not there an hour earlier either.

Any thoughts?

rockintom · 04-07-2008, 03:15 AM

Larry,

I had the same thing happen the other day and noticed a small object (I don't remember - maybe a small screw that wedged between the wood floor base for the slide and the basement floor itself.

Neither slide would budge. I simply put a screwdriver between the base and floor and lifted/pryed up to remove the object. I then had to take a hammer and a piece of wood and tap the slide base back down to the basement floor....all is well now.

How did the object get between the slide base and basement floor? Don't know, but things must flex pretty good while travel and the object got under it. Then when you set up and level up it causes a wedging effect. It took quite a bit of prying to release it. Just my thought. Your mileage may vary!

rockintom · 04-07-2008, 03:16 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rockintom:
Larry,

I had the same thing happen the other day and noticed a small object (I don't remember - maybe a small screw that wedged between the wood floor base for the slide and the basement floor itself.

Neither slide would budge. I simply put a screwdriver between the base and floor and lifted/pryed up to remove the object. I then had to take a hammer and a piece of wood and tap the slide base back down to the basement floor....all is well now.

How did the object get between the slide base and basement floor? Don't know, but things must flex pretty good while traveling and the object got under it. Then when you set up and level up it causes a wedging effect. It took quite a bit of prying to release it. Just my thought. Your mileage may vary!

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

ChiefJohn · 04-07-2008, 03:46 AM

Larry,
'Rockin' is ahead of us all this AM. I also expect it's due to something wedged into the track.

On the subject of the basement sliding doors, I saw where an owner had replaced the solid doors with peg-board, providing ventilation between the basement areas.

KramalotInn · 04-07-2008, 04:19 AM

I have also had the sliding doors bind. Come to find out it was the black water tank. The tank was SO full, that it was putting upward pressure on the floor just enough to cause the doors to bind. I drained the tank and the problem was solved.

Rick

Workshop · 04-07-2008, 04:22 AM

Larry, I have a hinged door on one side and fixed panels on the other. Briefly saw Tom's unit with the slides last week. He didn't let me touch anything though.

Been my experience with sliders when a problem exist that it ends up being an alignment problem or something in the tracks. With the alignment, this could be either a horizonal or vertical problem. When you mention a screw beneath the carpet, assume the 'head' of the screw. With the problem affecting both doors and working within that area, something could have been wedged between them. Have you counted all your screw drivers.

If one door would not slide, maybe something in the track..both doors..both tracks?

What is the spacing between the top of the slide panels and the track. Without seeing them and a screw head up, might think the tracks have shifted up or left/right causing a binding problem if the spacing is narrow. Have you checked the flooring in that area which might be 'pushing up' the tracks.

Might want to consider the environmental cause. Change in temperature and moisture. With the outside compartment doors being closed and then opened allowing a change in conditions, things swell and bind if spacing is tight. Have a doors on a closet in the house that does it when the temp changes, drives the DW crazy so I leave it that way.

Hope something helped.

D and J · 04-07-2008, 05:06 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ChiefJohn:

On the subject of the basement sliding doors, I saw where an owner had replaced the solid doors with peg-board, providing ventilation between the basement areas. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

ventilation, yes!

more storage options, YES!!

I like that idea!

rockintom · 04-07-2008, 04:43 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Workshop:
Larry, I have a hinged door on one side and fixed panels on the other. Briefly saw Tom's unit with the slides last week. He didn't let me touch anything though. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ok Chris.....now looky here....this just isn't true......you were afraid of getting your hands dirty or snake bit in my nasty and ill kept ol' rig!

Don't get me started...Like Larry finds out. I gets cranky lates in the day!

LarryGodby · 04-14-2008, 11:01 AM

Sorry I didn't get to post the reason, I had to fly out to michigan last week.

Come to find out, it was the gray water tank. Patty says I am full of S--- but it was the gray and not the black.

When the tank gets full it must flex up and bind the doors and push that screw up also. As soon as I opened the drain valve everything worked fine again.

Who woulda thunk.