Sheared off slide out trim screws

[Two2Go]

2016 337, kitchen slide, outside trim on the rear. The bottom 7 screws (they appear to be #8s) are sheared off. I found this when i noticed two were missing but after closer inspection it showed the heads were broken off. I checked others and the tops of the screws were still there and i thought they were just loose but actually the heads were hanging on and easily fell off when i wiggled them. These are painted to match the slide color. There is no indication that these touch when the slide is extended or retracted. This seems like they were just over tightened at the factory. Has anyone else see this?

[TucsonJim]

Yep - it happened on my '14 337 too. I think it's too much torque on a less than stellar screw.

Jim

[st2rv]

Yup, maybe about 10% so far, GD will send you new ones but a real bear to change out.

[Two2Go]

Sounds like they weren't using a torque setting on the drill/driver. Purchased some #8 1" screws, happened to have a spray can with a matching color (how lucky is that?). Drilled new holes just above the old ones. Will fill in the old holes with some matching sealer.

[trama1]

I had 8 screws that were sheared off and did the same. Just like new[emoji3]
Trama


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[TyeeMan]

I just found 2 broken off screw heads on the curb side slide on our brand new 3 week old 2970. I thinks it's a combination of things, cheap screws, over torquing, and temperature. Still plenty cold here in Mn. My trailer sits east/west in driveway, so however cold it gets at night, then if its a clear day, it may be 40 degrees outside but with the sun beating down all day on that side of the camper the surface of the skirt is way warmer than that. Aluminum expands and contracts A LOT in temp extremes so I'm guessing that plays a big part too.

No way in a month of Sundays your going to extract the broken screw. Instead of using the self drilling function of the black headed tech screws, I'm going to drill a hole in the aluminum skirt slightly larger than what the tech screw would drill in, then just snug up the screw. Hopefully this will allow for some temp expansion and contraction movement.

I used to have a 3 place enclosed snowmobile trailer with black bonded (instead of screwed) aluminum side walls. It could be 30 degrees outside on a clear sunny day and mid afternoon I could see waves in the aluminum it grew so much do to expansion.

[Steve7]

No way in a month of Sundays your going to extract the broken screw.

It is very difficult, but it can be done. I bought a reverse drill bit made for this, and was able to get 2 or 3 out of seven broken screws out. I looked on YouTube first for tips. The ones I couldn’t get out, I was able to either put a second screw in the same hole next to the original, or drilled a second pilot hole for the new screw. GD sent me two bags of screws, two separate colors. I now have a couple hundred extra screws.

[DMWestoby]

We replaced over 100 screws on the slide outs. Grand Design knows about the issue...hopefully on the new models they have tightened up their quality assurance and hopefully those on the assembly line have been trained to not over torque stuff.

[TyeeMan]

I have a hole set of left handed drills at work that I specifically purchased for removing snapped screws. But at work I can usually clamp the item in a milling machine or drill press, no sweat there. If the head breaks off and you have a perfectly flat surface to drill into you probably have a pretty good chance, not so much of the surface is angled or jagged.

[Second Chance]

We have just had repairs made on our '16 337. Screws at the joint between the slide wall and floor at the back of the curb-side (dinette) slide had broken, allowed the floor to sag, the trim to pull away, and some water to leak into the area. We still have a few months left on the structural warranty and Grand Design is working with our mobile tech here in Las Cruces, NM. I hope this fix holds... a year down the road without a structural warranty and possible removal of the slide for floor replacement and repairs (I would have to pull it back to the factory) would be a VERY big deal for us!

Rob