Rack & pinion slide leaving mark on carpet and floor normal?

[Cate&Rob]

I might add to my previous response that I spoke to GD yesterday and was told the ski marks at one end of the slide indicate that the slide should be adjusted even though the dealer says it's "normal" and nothing can be done. GD suggested we go higher up to the Distribution Manager for Mike Thompson's RV to get it done or take it to another repair place. If I ever get my RV back I'm inclined to take it elsewhere for adjustment because obviously Mike Thompson's service department is too incompetent and would probably do more harm than good. Until then we'll try the slide slickers.

I will be interested to learn what "slide adjustment" the GD rep is referring to. I looked at the slide/floor interface for this system during a plant tour and would agree with what I was told by the GDRV Service Center Manager (JD Adams) that there is nothing to adjust in this non-roller slide system. With enough cycles, the plastic-to-plastic interface will wear to the point where parts need to be replaced, but there is nothing to adjust. I suppose . . . the plastic edge could be shimmed to lift it further from the main floor level. Our slide has always left more of a mark on the carpet at the back end . . . even with the slide slickers. It seems that this carpet sticks up further than the plastic edge piece that the slide is running on.

Rob

[dennysbabe]

I will be interested to learn what "slide adjustment" the GD rep is referring to. I looked at the slide/floor interface for this system during a plant tour and would agree with what I was told by the GDRV Service Center Manager (JD Adams) that there is nothing to adjust in this non-roller slide system. With enough cycles, the plastic-to-plastic interface will wear to the point where parts need to be replaced, but there is nothing to adjust. I suppose . . . the plastic edge could be shimmed to lift it further from the main floor level. Our slide has always left more of a mark on the carpet at the back end . . . even with the slide slickers. It seems that this carpet sticks up further than the plastic edge piece that the slide is running on.

Rob

We picked up our RV yesterday rather than argue any more with the dealer about it. If we end up taking it to someone else for assessment I'll definitely report back if there actually is a "fix". In the meantime I'm ordering the slide slickers to avoid additional damage to the floor.

Phyllis

[dennysbabe]

I will be interested to learn what "slide adjustment" the GD rep is referring to. I looked at the slide/floor interface for this system during a plant tour and would agree with what I was told by the GDRV Service Center Manager (JD Adams) that there is nothing to adjust in this non-roller slide system. With enough cycles, the plastic-to-plastic interface will wear to the point where parts need to be replaced, but there is nothing to adjust. I suppose . . . the plastic edge could be shimmed to lift it further from the main floor level. Our slide has always left more of a mark on the carpet at the back end . . . even with the slide slickers. It seems that this carpet sticks up further than the plastic edge piece that the slide is running on.

Rob

Rob I spoke to Jerry Weaver at GD yesterday and he said their tech suggested two things: 1) check to see if the ski that is leaving marks on the flooring has worked loose and needs tightening; and 2) pull back the rubber and measure the distance from the opening to the top of the slide and measure the same distance at the bottom; if they're not the same make a slight adjustment on the bolt at that end. It's the same bolt you move if the slide is not closing evenly top and bottom so don't move it much. Dennis wasn't able to get enough rubber out of the way to measure the top distance but he tried adjusting the bolt about 1/4" and it seems a bit better. We're gonna try that for a while and see how it does.

Phyllis

[dennysbabe]

Dinette slides do not usually have rollers underneath. They slide plastic-on-plastic because they are relatively lightweight and this keeps the slide floor as close to the main floor level as possible. We had these same marks on our 303 floor and discussed this with the GDRV technicians at one of the early rallies. Their recommendation was that they indeed could not do much about this, but recommended a product called "slide slicker". https://www.lci1.com/slideout-slicker It is a bit of a pain to place these at each end of the slide (where the black marks are on the carpet) whenever we bring the slide in . . . but our main floor remains unmarked . . . so this is worth doing.

If you decide to get these, be aware that there are two kinds . . . one with nibs on the underside for protecting carpet and one with foam strips for protecting vinyl flooring. You want the latter.

Rob

Rob I called Lipperts to ask about the slickers with the foam for vinyl but the parts guy says they only have one and it has carpet nibs on it. When I look at zoomed in images on Amazon.com for the Slide Out Slickers it looks like nibs on the first 5-6 inches then two long narrow strips that could be plastic or foam. It's hard to tell. You said to be sure to get the ones with foam but do you know where I can get them and do you know if the one on Amazon would work? If the strip is plastic instead of foam I'm afraid it would scar the vinyl.

Phyllis

[Cate&Rob]

Rob I called Lipperts to ask about the slickers with the foam for vinyl but the parts guy says they only have one and it has carpet nibs on it. When I look at zoomed in images on Amazon.com for the Slide Out Slickers it looks like nibs on the first 5-6 inches then two long narrow strips that could be plastic or foam. It's hard to tell. You said to be sure to get the ones with foam but do you know where I can get them and do you know if the one on Amazon would work? If the strip is plastic instead of foam I'm afraid it would scar the vinyl.

Phyllis

Hi Phyllis,

The slide slicker strips that we have also have (had) nibs for the first few inches. I cut all of these off except for the last two pairs, to make sure the nibs would be over the carpet and not dig into the floor. The long narrow strips (on ours) are foam . . . I can't think that LCI would have changed this.

Rob