You are by far one of the most interesting RV repair guys on the interent. Thank You for showing us how that type of work can and should be done. Excellent job.
I used this video to replace the floor in my camper's slide this weekend. It went just as you said and I felt it was a very easy job. Took about 5 hours and that was with beer breaks. Thank you for making this. Saved me a considerable amount of money.
Just imagine if the whole industry had these kind of people who actually care about doing a good job. I am a 30 yr tradesman, and I appreciate watching you do such fine work, and not cutting corners. You are remarkable Sir. I salute you
I am 100% with you. I am a retired GC and have owned RV's for the past 20 years and still can't believe how crappy the build quality is on these units. I shake my head at how they use a thin piece of nylon/teflon tape for the slide out to "glide" on instead of installing actual rollers.
Thanks for this video!! I just replaced the floor in my bedroom slide yesterday. It was much easier to do after watching your video than it would have been without it. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Awesome work , your experience makes it look so easy , Those legs to hold it up and imprinting the screw holes on the legs was ingenious. Thanks for educating the masses.
@@AZExpert thank you sir, I have to do that on a 28’ big slide and wall that’s been eaten out by red fire ants and my inside wall is so totally eaten out in the corner, my hand went through it when I pushed on it! I’m 73 and I can’t find any one to do it at my site, and the RV repair wants $4000. And me bring it to them. I live in my RV full time and my slide out Motor for this huge slide out can’t be replaced per the RV repair company so you have to manually use a plumbers pipe wrench to move it in and out! It’s a 1993 or 96 CARRIAGE 5th wheel and I love it because it was made with the Amish quality. I’ve had people in my park say wow, they don’t make them like this quality anymore! If you’re ever in Huntsville, Texas I would love to show you my problem and my home. It’s a shame I can’t get it repaired where I sit in this beautiful Sunny Ridge RV park. Again I really appreciate your showing RVers how these repairs can be done if one is willing to go the extra mile. Stay safe and well in these times, I’m praying we all will be safe and our freedoms returned to humanity soon. God bless you and your family.
@@dorothyallen3614 Sorry to hear about your issues. However the reality is that these RV's were never designed to last over 20 years, especially for full time use. You might need to look for something newer. Good luck.
Dang James. Nice job! And mobile. Nobody I know would tackle that job mobile. You made that look so easy. I used to work at a RV repair facility. You sure made that look way easier than what it is. Thanks for sharing. You are a very talented RV tech.
Thank you for this! We replaced our floor and this video was huge in helping us do that. We used c-clamps to hold the stilts to the slide out rather than screwing them in. Saved a lot of time and didn’t introduce any new or larger holes. Thanks again! Probably will be doing this on the rear slides soon.
I just want to thank you for this thorough video, I was able to replace the floor on my Cougar 5th wheel that had the same problem. Followed your steps here and certainly made it a much easier project than I had thought initially. Now to reassemble and get back to camping!!!!
Well I finally got around to replacing the same floor on my 2013 Sanibel 5th wheel. What was different? First big difference was that the old floor and new floor had to be removed and replaced from the inside. I got a 4 x 8 sheer of Home Depot 3/4" "Marine" plywood and coated both sides and edges with black "Pond Armor" 2 part epoxy. The 1.5 Qt kit gave me just enough to do 2 full coats everywhere. The other difference was the carpet, which was stapled and glued in place along with the black plastic tarp type material. Way too much work to try and salvage that so I used 18" carpet squares from Home Depot. 1 box of 10 did the whole job. Finally done and it looks great!
You demonstrate once again the kind of craftsman we all want and and the care every customer should have. No one provides service like this without sacrificing something. You are a good man.
I had to do the slide out floors on my Outdoors RV basket case project. I had to replace all the the blocks and motors on the schwintek system and get them remounted onto the rails and found the rotten bottoms and framing in the box walls of the opposing slides. What a nightmare. My slide bottoms were filon and I went ahead and used the big box FRP being that it is on the bottom of the slides out of the sun and it was so much less expensive (and available). I had to do it parked in an uneven dirt storage lot and I found a 1000lb Harbor Freight hydraulic table cart that was excellent for lifting, holding, and adjusting the boxes while they were floating. I coated everything in 2 part epoxy when I put it back together. You're a saint for doing this. It's not a fun job.
Out of literally hundreds of RV Repair and Maintenance videos; THIS IS #1 ☆☆☆☆☆BEST!!! I'm a Senior widow, just bought a used 2005 KIT Companion 328F 5th Wheel & thus one looks almost identical to mine ( which needs some work & I'm not able to "do it myself"). Great to see this as it's taken apart without having to actually do it ( now I know that slide-out mechanism is the hydraulic type - haven't figured out for sure what the other two are yet.) I just know they're not Schwintek type...Thanks, w/ prayers for blessings < You surely deserve them!
Overall, outstanding. But, you should have sealed the plywood edges since edges wick like crazy. You put in weep holes, so you know water may/will find its way inside. Also, you noted early on the likelihood the sidewalls had some water damage; but then you screwed into the places likely damaged. Longer screws won’t work in damaged wood, assuming there is plywood in there. Nice to see how slides go together. Trusting to silicone is never a good plan. As a Keystone Montana owner, I have SERIOUS issues with Keystone construction (at best).
Thank you for showing us how this jobs should be done. My wife and I have been RV for about 6 months and are always concerned about repairs. I have a similar problem and have a repair guy coming over this week. Hope he is as good as u are. God bless!
You are a great worker. I have watched many of your videos, and been very impressed. The only problem is that you are in the States and I am in Canada. Unfortunately we don’t have your craftsmanship and honesty here. I have a Jazz, 5th wheel with two tip outs. I just discovered the rotten floor in the living room tip out . This video has helped and I hope I will be able to do a decent job. Thank you for the time you take to help us not so smart people
I’ve been watching your videos for about a month of and on, I have learned a tremendous amount. Your knowledge of RV’s is outstanding. And your videos are to the point. Much appreciate all you do. I have to say, this video, although it was not a glamorous fix keeping people on the edge of their seat. I found it very informative. I really like the way you approach different situations. Some RV tech’s might have said, you have to have a fork lift. Or the box has to come off. You did an outstanding job, and I hope the owners know how lucky they are that you did a solid repair on-site and it appears to be in one day. I’ll keep watching, your an excellent mechanic of all trades.
When I replace floors in fifth wheel bed rooms slides I use advantech sub floor works good and also a brand of contact adhesive staput it works great in one of our own I got flat thinner steel cut and folded around the flooring and rapped and inch around it worked great and used white to match everything else I did was fairly similar
I know the feeling. Some shops and independents just won't work on your coach. It's like rolling the dice to see if someone will help. You are one in a million and I know that you are busy, but sometimes shops don't look at the big picture when a person is desperate and needs to get home (like I had to last Summer)or it's their home. Bless you and your dedication!
These are the videos i really like...i love looking at the 500k coachs but the videos like this one are the type of things i would incounter with what i can afford...great video, thanks for giving us your knowledge to help us less fortunate guys and gals!!!
Thoroughly enjoy all your videos. Always learn so much. The biggest lesson that always rings through is just how poorly they are built. I've owned one Tiffin, a couple of Newells and just bought a Prevost. And while the RV part always has it's own set of problems that they all have. Construction is seldom one of them.
Great video...gave me the confidence to tear into the rotted floor of our Silverback that was very similar to this. One thing to pass on that may help others.....when i ran the jacks up to raise the floor off the threshold, the floor still wouldn’t pull out. I found a couple screws on each slide wall at the back corners. I could’nt get access to the head of the screws or even see them but was able to run my sawzall horizontally across top of the floor to the wall from inside the camper. With the screws cut, the floor came right out like in this video. Not sure why it had the extra screws.
To make more money when you need parts to be replaced, or just straight out buying another camper if you rich and bougie. I guess using quality materials that are more resistant to rot would have been too old school american.
So, I've been glued to your channel for weeks now, I am so grateful for the knowledge that you're sharing with us here. I have a 05 Sunrise 33V, and it's given me hope for doing some repairs myself. Would really love some more info on the AS-16 staple and guns you use for them. Thanks for what you're doing here. I am personally grateful to you.
I wish I had seen your way of replacing a slide floor as I had problems with my Fleetwood Triumph as well as another 5th wheel. Thank you you for sharing your skills
Just wanted to say thanks. I watch many of your videos, and this step by step really helped us replace our slide out floor very easily. Can’t thank you enough! :)
The exact same thing happened to our bedroom slide floor on our fifth wheel. We did something different though. I never wanted to replace that floor again so I used pressure treated plywood and painted it with waterproofing ( the same as you would do when prepping a shower wall in your house. The floor is now completely waterproofed. I was surprised that you used regular plywood as you are the most efficient rv tech I’ve ever seen.
Thank you! I plan to keep my 3 slide 5th wheel for a long time, and anticipate having to repair or replace the slide room floors at some point. Your video convinces me that I can likely do these repairs on my own. The "stilts and jacks" idea is especially useful. Wouldn't it be nice if the OEMs could design and build an RV that was actually water impervious - what a concept!
You are a brave man. I would not have thought this was possible. I can't believe there was not at least 2 screws underneath (towards the inside of the room) that you couldn't get to.
Thank you so much for posting this! I was sure I was going to have to pull the slide to replace the floor. You made a difficult job fairly easy and saved our week and our RV!
Little late to the comment section, but why don't they add flashing between the siding and the sheathing. Treat it like any normal house wall, you could do it to your repairs as well. Looks like you would have to pop some staples to re secure it, but we'll worth it. However, nice work, to bad every slide is guaranteed to have this issue.
Fantastic video! I have this same problem with our master slide out. We have done all kinds of "bandaids" so far, and I don't have the capability to pull the slide completely out, but this video shows exactly how to replace that floor in a way that I can do it. Thank you so much for posting this, this is a life saver!
I actually installed the new floor in my slide and then installed the carpet from the inside and trimmed it to fit. I didnt like the carpet sandwiched between the floor and walls. It worked out very well. Also, my floor didnt have that solid avs plastic sheet on the underside. Mine had almost a black tarp like sheeting. I didnt replace that. I applied about 5 coats of black marine paint before I installed it. It made the slide 100% more solid feeling and will last 100 times longer than the original.
Thanks for this video. I have an Outback 210RS with delamination on the rear. It is constructed the same as this slide out. I am now confident that I can remove the trims as you did and access the area that needs to be addressed with adhesive and new materials as needed.
You can do it , I would try myself but I just don’t have the strength anymore. I learned how to check my roof and caulked it, washed it and painted it with the rubber roof paint ever third year since I bought it used , but I can’t get up on the roof anymore! It’s sad to get so frail, but my hearts into it!
I'm in Las Vegas, NV. I need you to put back together my gutted motorhome, I'm having trouble trusting any repair shop to do as good a job as you do. Wish I lived in your area. Thanks for all your valuable videos.
Thank you for the concise and informative videos that you post on RU-vid. You have helped so many of us to repair our own problems, that we could never afford to pay someone to do for us. This video was exceptionally great in my case, except for a small difference. I have a 2013 Sanibel with 4 slides in it. All are in great condition except for the bedroom slide, like the one in this video. The exception being that mine is a Schwintech slide, with the aluminum gear strips along the bottom. Have you ever made a video, or if not, could you make one, on dealing with replacing a floor in one of these? The other difference id that it has 2 floors, the exterior sub floor and the upper floor under the bed, both being rotted out in the corners and along the outside edge. If you don't have anything on this, can you possibly point me in the right direction? Thank you again for all the help you have provided for so many of us:-) Bruce in Florida Correction on this, it only has a single 3/4" plywood floor.. Nothing on the Lippert yet AZExpert?
I will be doing this exact job on a Forest River Salem Light. Floor is completely rotted. Thankfully the walls are ok, they are wood. Shwintek sliders! They have been out of sync from top to bottom, not side to side, and I think that’s where the water has gotten in, mostly when it’s closed. This video gives me the courage to tackle it and save a couple thousand dollars! Thanks.
@@AZExpert I have a question. I assume I have to at least disconnect the Shwintek gear rails from the slider in order to take enough weight off the floor to remove it, does that sound like it’ll work?
A master class of excellence! You sir have incredible skills and the ethics of a Saint. Those working on their own water damage should replace all soft goods such as carpet and wool insulation that was exposed to water or has evidence of mold/mildew (brown or black spots and dots). Hard surfaces such as wood, foam, foil barrier, wall board,, and the like can be sanitized with a bleach solution to kill off mold, mildew, and odors. However soft goods are nearly impossible to clean without considerable effort if at all. The carpet reinstalled here is going to smell indefinitely; particularly during periods of excessive ambient humidity. Attempting to clean the carpet after the slide is reassembled is only going to reintroduce some moisture into the walls and floor. These carpet sections are sandwiched between the floor and walls. The sandwiched bits of carpet is going to suck up liquids used to clean the carpet like a wicked. This moisture will then be wicked up by the wood in the walls and floor. While the amount of wicked moisture would be minimal, not causing damage; it can take a long time to dry. Thus one is left with a return of the offending odor to some degree.
Very interesting. I am curious why manufacturers or repair experts don't use a penetrating epoxy on the plywood especially at least the end grain ( something like west system) to seal and prevent water intrusion into the end grain of plywood? This is done in boat building and I would think it would prevent a lot of rot if a bedding sealant is compromised..
I just bought a beater 2001 trail lite 8263-s camper. Gonna have to do a crap load of work on it in best case scenario. Worst case I'll get rid of everything and it will be a dual axle trailer base of some sort. It was $500 I couldn't pass it up. I have watched several of your videos and other videos as well but you are the RV guru man!!!. I will be contacting you with questions unfortunately. Cheers mate ,🍺
Wow great job!! Nice to know there are still kind humans out there!!! Wife and I just sold our 2005 Excel 5th wheel due to to many problems and I didn't have the know how. Sold it very cheap. Wish you was in our area! Anyways your a good man! Rock on!
It's almost like they build them to leak. You would never put a home together that way. Trim and flashing should be layered like a roof...thanks for the information.
Sure seems like a tiny little redesign of that gutter extension would save alot of people this hassle/expense. Do the topper video. Gonna be having a debate with the wifey on whether or not we tackle ours ourselves...and the awning as well. Saw the video where the pros showed up and did the job. Probably have to glean a bit more from that one before I try doing that job. LOL
Would it have helped minimize future problems by using pressure-treated plywood? Nice to see someone else who uses SPAX screws! Another AMAZING video. Thank you!
You made it look easy...appears to be well within my skill set. I got 3 slides to do myself and it shouldn't cost me no 25k for the dealer to do it. I was thinking about patching it...but this looks better than a patch job. Bravo...
@@AZExpert dealer quoted 12k just for the 10ft middle slide. Only has one corner on bottom that is wonky...said the had to remove entire slide and rebuild it entirely from scratch... Now that sounds like a hell of a jackup job if ive ever heard of one.
That 3M stuff releases when its hot. Grab the Permatex spray adhesive at the parts store. It works great. Its where the other permatex products are. Great job on the floor replacement. You need an easy button to hit once youre done.
Can you give more information on the different tools you used. Size screws you used, size nails you used for slide out facial board, impact drill, and so on. Sorry for all the questions but you videos are very informative but some of the tools I wasn't sure of what you used. Way to go! Awesome Job!
Timely great video.. Have a 2007 keystone raptor.. This exact thing is happening.. So I can probably do this same repair at home.. Thanks for showing the hydraulic valves to isolate the slide operation. I feel confident I can do this same repair. Thanks for this video!!
Fantastic job as usual James. Can you please tell me who makes the staple gun and the AS-16 staples? Also wondering if Geocel would work as well as silicone for the metal trim (and why you prefer silicone). Thanks for all that you do.
good repair, only thing I'd add is a drip edge which the manufacturers finally figured out on newer trailers. A bent piece of metal or plastic on both sides because surface tension of rain drops rolling down and then staying on the underside causes majority of rotten floors on slides. You can also use eternabond under the side trim piece and wrap it underneath to prevent water intrusion
James, IF I have my bearings straight... would the weep holes you drilled allow the water to drip on the interior side of the wall? I don't have a slide out so I am not able to see how the seals would protect the water from running back into/onto the the floor. I could easily sit and binge watch all your videos without stopping to eat/sleep!!! If you live in Oregon I would be knocking on your door for a job!!! Keep up the GREAT job and thanks for being HONEST!!! Wish you the BEST, Hersh
I am not one of your clients, and probably never will be, as we live too far apart in the country for me to be able to hire you. But… Even I appreciate you for the help you provide people in need. They’re living in their 5th wheel, and no one would do the work they NEEDED done - on their HOME. I’ve watched enough of your content to KNOW how much Integrity you have. And I do believe God has graced you with the talent and skill set you possess knowing you would use it to help people like these. Yeah, you’re getting paid, but EVERYONE has got to eat. But it’s painfully obvious to me, and a lot of other people, that you are willing to help folks who otherwise would be up the proverbially creek. THAT is where your integrity comes into play bud. I have a lot of Respect for you because of that. And would like to take the opportunity to say Thank You for that. I thoroughly enjoy watching your video content, and actually do learn a lot from you. I do have 1 question though… Would it be possible to find some form of ALUMINUM to build a slide out floor with ? It would be lightweight, stronger than untreated plywood, and rot resistant. That being asked and said, can I offer a tip ? I once rebuilt an old bass boat that had home made decks. I could not locate marine grade plywood, so instead was forced to use untreated plywood to rebuild those decks. At Menards I was able to locate a 1.5 gallon can of Green Treat and treated the plywood myself. It is the same stuff they use to treat lumber to resist water damage. You just paint it on. I painted on SEVERAL layers as it soaks into the dry wood pretty deeply. I know the guy who bought that boat about 16 years ago, those decks are STILL as good as the day I installed them. It does smell a bit until it dries completely, but, to not have to worry about water damage again for a very long time would be worth it to me. Just a heads up bud.
Nice job, you make it look easy, the way you were talking I think you thought it was going to be much harder !! we as ful-timers really appreciate a guy like you who will step up and help !! The wife and I were working at a large rv dealer and a family came in after hours with only 3 wheels on their travel trailer, I checked and we had all the parts, but because they didn't buy the trailer from us, THE OWNER, said we won't work on it, really PISSED me off !! I had to send the family down the road !!
Excellent. You are amazing. I will be adding those weep holes myself now. I keep sealing but water is still being slowly absorbed on the bottom of the slide outs.
It's good your taking care of it. whatever speed they raced thru building it at the factory, you can clean and do correctly and no more problems for 20 years..good work!
30 minutes or less or it's free right? Nice job! Thanks for that video. What are the reasons for using silicone over sikaflex or geocel sealants? I had to reattach a sidewall that had some moisture in it. After getting it dry I used the 77 contact adhesive and geocell to finish up. I also used a little geocell around my plastic fender flares against the filon. I don't think it's holding up well and think I should just redo it with silicone. Thanks again. Must have been hot in the sun without your shed cover for shade. You'll get good karma for helping those folks.
Thank you. Just found my floor rotted on a 2018 Bighorn.....on the bedroom slide. I'll have to figure out how it got in. I have been re-caulking this thing every year. .
Hi, I wrote you feedback on this video and the great work you put into RU-vid videos, that are a great help to a lot of us. Quoting a comment from my last one. I have a 2013 Sanibel with 4 slides in it. All are in great condition except for the bedroom slide, like the one in this video. The exception being that mine is a Schwinteck slide, with the aluminum gear strips along the bottom and top". The Aluminum gear strips are attached to the side walls of the slide and have a small lip on the bottom, under the floor. There do not seem to be any visible screws holding the floor panel to the gear strips. There are some screws that were driven through the vapor barrier and plywood floor, into the aluminum wall framing. Do you think this floor can be removed, without interfering with the gear slide strips? In other words, doing everything you have done in this video and removing the screws in the underside of the floor, into the frame. Thanks in advance for any helpful comment, as it is time to replace this floor.
The sum of all RV fears "water intrusion" every video I watch gives me confidence that it's fixable. Currently sizing up a full roof replacement and a few slide seal replacements. Vids are a huge help thanks, come to VT please
Thank you for this video. We had the same problem with our 2014 Sabre 5th wheel bedroom slide. After watching your video. We decided to do the fix ourselves. Thanks for showing us the way.
Nice video, thanks for loading it up. Never would have thought to do it that way, actually never would want to do it. Smart way to get it done. thanks.
@@AZExpert I bought those jacks and put under my 28’ slide in the living area and put them under my bedroom too, I’ve been afraid I’d fall out on the ground and that’s pretty high up there to the ground!