Community Forums

97residency · 05-22-2020, 08:05 PM

Hi everybody, hope your enjoying your rigs!

(Pictures rotated to the left for some reason when uploading, sorry, will re- upload..)
I noticed my living room slide-out was stopping about 4 inches short before fully extending. I took a look underneath and saw the shocking carnage.. Haha..
Please see pictures..bracket bent, seems like it didn't auto cut off when something was in the way of slide inside of RV when retracting, and middle track tried to keep going.. just a guess..

Point #1: it has been this way for many months now, but the slide has been used many times with no problems, works the same everytime.. It looks bad, but it has still worked good.

Point#2: My impossible dream is that somehow I can fix this on my own, or with a few hours of help from metal worker/welder etc. Can't afford shop rates right now.

I am including pics. It's a class A 97 Thor Residency by Ford, 35', with only the one side out. I looked at a lot of you tube videos and forum posts, did not find exact similar issue..I will update with info on identifying slide out info, as I saw requested in the forums... THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP!!!! I'm currently living in it.

bhammond1980 · 05-22-2020, 09:00 PM

Looks like a straight forward repair. Straighten the steel brackets, weld any cracks and reinforce if required. Biggest part of the job is removal of the furniture in the slide so you can fix the floor where the carriage bolts pulled through. Once you get that fixed you can reassemble. I would check the timing from one side to the other, did it jump a tooth on the rack or some other issue.
If you are patient and mechanically inclined this should be a job for a do it yourselfer.

Skip426 · 05-22-2020, 10:04 PM

Unfortunately , I believe you'll find that the slide floor has water damage that weakened it allowing the lag bolt to pull through.

Unplanned Tourist · 05-22-2020, 10:37 PM

Yep, strip it down, repair the floor, straighten out the brackets, and you will be back in buisness.

153stars · 05-23-2020, 04:20 PM

Maybe make the plate bigger for moved/more bolts. Possibly thin 1/16" ish backup plate top of floor . If if it can be hidden by carpet.

Ilvmygt · 05-23-2020, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 153stars

Maybe make the plate bigger for moved/more bolts. Possibly thin 1/16" ish backup plate top of floor . If if it can be hidden by carpet.

I would repair the floor and any water damage (find leak) and put plates on both side of the floor. I would use 1/8 or bigger and make the plate 2 of 3 time the current area of the bracket. Bolt at the edge of the backing plate.

Had a similar problem with a slide on a 5th wheel. Made a new bracket out of 1/4 thick 6" angle. They were about 12" long. Then bolted with a 3/16 backing plate on the back (floor) side. The original brackets were like 4" wide by 2" and the attached with 2 bolts. The bracket was only 2" wide where it The bracket would rock out when the slide was extended and pull in when retracting the slide. The bigger brackets with the backing plates solved the problem.

egwilly · 05-23-2020, 05:11 PM

Agree with the rot issue. Carriage bolts are pretty stout in good wood.

Many good ideas here to permanently fix it....as long as you find and repair the cause of the water entry.

153stars · 05-23-2020, 09:10 PM

Elevator bolts have larger flatter heads than carriage bolts might help as well any way you decide to repair. If you use a backing plate you will need to make holes squared a bit or just big enough to get the corners to lock in . Pull them in with nuts or hammer them in a head of time.
https://www.mcmaster.com/elevator-bo...d-size~3-8-16/

153stars · 05-23-2020, 09:23 PM

Forgot to add if you go with doubled plates and more area and more bolts you could down size the bolts to make it easier . 4 to 6 medium strength 1/4" elevator or carriage bolts will give a lot of strength. Maybe 4 @ 5/16 or 6 at 1/4.

97residency · 05-29-2020, 04:07 PM

You guys are amazing. I got so many immediate replies to my post. I got it to work! There's still some work to do, but basically I hammered out the one bolt that had been pulled halfway through the floor, as well as the second bolt that was bent. The third, shorter bolt was fine. Of course once I pulled the slide in a bit, the outside metal bracket sort of bent back to normal, only about a fourth of the bracket showed a I chance for breakage, but it's almost as though they designed it to where most of the bracket wasn't held down anywhere and didn't have any type of crack or tear. Hopefully that makes sense ..haha..From there I just got large mounting washers used for homes, put the new bolt in, and tried it. It was a really exciting moment to see my slide go all the way to the wall.
I actually wasn't able to get the other bolt back in, the bracket is about a fourth of an inch away from the original hole. I know I shouldn't operate the slide too much without that bolt in. The second thing to work on is: checked the floor area after wards, and clearly that area of the floor is weak, although it looks and feels normal, because about a half a foot of area was slightly pulled down and warped. So I will get something large to cover and reinforce a lot of that area.
Not sure what yet.

Don't think there is a leak, but seem to remember a water spill in that area a while back, with the carpet ripped out and subflooring exposed. Smooth move 🤓🙈

And we'll see how to get the bracket to line up over 3rd bolt hole.

I REALLY APPRECIATE THE HELP!! it really touched my heart. You never know what someone is going through, and in this case, fixing this was a really big deal for me right now..it had been that way for a while, without the forum I wouldn't have had a clue. It's amazing how much four inches or so of extra space can make the area feel so much bigger. And probably a better seal now.

I'll may post a few more items at some point, I'm renovating it and living in it out in a southern California desert..

Again... THANK YOU!!