3455 SA moisture/wet bedroom slide

[Ski Doo]

The carpet at the head of the bed in either corner is wet.
No obvious problems with outside sealant. At first thought it might be condensation
With all the rain we've been having, but the windows in the rest of the camper
Are dry indicating this is not the problem.
Driving rain here in the southeast has me wondering about window frame
Sealant. After a few days still soaking up slightly rusty looking water.
Thanks in. Advance for your help.

[Eagleback]

Do you have slide toppers to eliminate the possibility of the seals being the problem?. if not I have designed a topper using corrugated plastic roof panels real cheap to make compared to the price of one topper and I use them on my slides I can take pictures and send them to you and show you how to do it. doing that will take away one possible area that might be leaking. then let it dry out and if it dose then its the seals if not you will be looking else ware and yes I have had the window be the culprit. Assuming you have a slide,i haven't seen a Montana with out one.

[Ski Doo]

I do have toppers for the reason you mentioned.
The slide seals are one thing I'm good about checking, as they often need to flipped.
Just checked under the bed where the slide system is, and everything is dry.
Guess taking out one of the windows is next.

[8.1al]

A common cause is the 4" trim strip that runs across the bottom of the outer slide wall. It may need to be resealed

[DQDick]

Based on ours and others past experience, what you most likely have is water working it's way under the 4" wide strip that runs across the bottom of the outside facing wall of the slide. I caulked across the top on ours and it was good for 2 years. Had a small spot of water this summer, went out and looked at the caulk and it had shrunk due to the heat of spending all our time in Kansas or Yuma. Pulled the old caulk out and put new on and we're leak proof again.

[DarMar]

Exactly as mentioned above. Would bet my dollar it's the calking along the bottom strip, been there done that.

[Irlpguy]

As many have suggested your leak is most likely coming from the strip that wraps around the top, sides and bottom of your bedroom slide, after two years mine started leaking along the head of the bed and in my case in the closet beside the bed. You need to remove the old caulking, clean and dry the surfaces and remove the two lower corner caps and there you will find the problem. The outer wall material on the slide does not go fully to either side nor the bottom and there is a fairly large entry point for any water that finds it's way into that area. Removing the caps (3 screws) will give you some insight into the wonders of RV manufacturing and cost saving or poor design, whatever.

I guess we just have to get used to doing this every couple of years and check it regularly. If not found for a fairly short period of time you will soon have floor rot and it will extend up into the slide walls as well.

[jsmitfl]

As Ed has said and another thing not mentioned is the rubber boot on the antenna. Usually just gets the one corner but if you are getting a lot of rain it could be running down there.

[Sierra 117]

My wife hung a dream catcher from tv antennae handle. When we brought the slides in the dream catcher fell on top of the slide. The next time we opened the slides the dream catcher lifted the seal on top of the slide and funneled water into the bedroom onto the carpet between the bed and the closet.pull the slide in and check to make sure there is no junk on top of the slide. If there is the fix is easy as it was in my case.

[brooksider]

I had that problem, which in turn led me to go further and found that the floor in the slideout was rotten in each corner. I replaced the floor and as far as I can determine it was the four inch moulding on the bottom of the slide that the others have referred to. The water laid on the very bottom and wicked up into the wood floor and carpet.Have to remove the bed platform to check the floor.When I removed the moulding I noticed that the caulking had not taken hold in a couple of spots.

Joe

[Ski Doo]

Thanks to all for your help.
The sealant has pulled away from the four inch trim,
So today's project will be to remove and reseal the
Corner blocks and the perimeter.
Thanks again for your help.
Will update after the project.

[brooksider]

Ski Doo not wanting to scare you but I would go a little further and check for any mold and wet floor. Check for some possible rot stating.
Good luck.
Joe

[Ski Doo]

After removing the trim, it was disappointing to see there was some rotten
Plywood. So the project has grown.
Thanks to all for pointing me in the right direction.

[brooksider]

Ski Doo I replaced the side floor by myself without removing the slide. If you PM me I will give you some details, and a phone #.
Joe

[JnSWells]

We had a leak also, both sides of slide after hard rain. Dried it all out slowly with cold air. The next time it rained (hard) brought the slide in and slept all night without any leak at all. My question, could it still be as you"ve suggested, or is this a different problem? Also the rubber seal on top was turned under, instead of laying flat and I fixed that. Any suggestions appreciated.. Thanks

[Ozz]

My super slide leaked on my 2007 3400RL, pretty significant leak, I made a slide show on my repair of the problem.
If your rubber turns in, that really doesn't stop the leak or has too much of a contributor to the problem, there is a flange that seats with the slide..seating against the rubber. If the slide doesn't come out all the way, there may be a gap. Check that.
My seal; a metal retainer, to hold down the rubber was leaking.

http://s112.photobucket.com/user/Jim..._1416.jpg.html

[Ski Doo]

Thanks again to all for their help/ideas.
The repair has been completed, and a few days of rain this week
will hopefully confirm that it is no longer an issue.

The original caulking behind the 4" trim was skimpy and missing in places.
Also the 1" angle on the sides was poorly caulked.
Replaced a 3" x 24" piece of plywood with pvc using
2 tubes of Dicor and stainless screws.

The camper is only 3 1/2 years old and this problem appears to have been
there since day one.

The project makes me realize how careful you have to be when checking caulking.

[TYR]

Sounds like we've joined this club, too. (Earlier "membership" was in the split gray tank club.) We're here in Texas and are drying out from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia that swept through over the weekend. Lots of rain and a bit of breeze and, for the first time in 5.5 years of full-timing, we were broadside to the wind. So! Noticed today the damp at the head of the bed on one side.

Thanks to ya'll we checked outside and discovered that Dave has a caulking job this week! We should have sunny weather the next 3 days, so he'll get started on it tomorrow.

Hoping that is the issue. Thanks again for sharing all your experiences!

[Larry-P]

I may need to check our slide out for this condition also. What is the best caulking product (brand name) for this type of sealant ??

[navybanker]

I am having similar problem. Hopefully, the leak is stopped but now need to determine if floor in bedroom floor is rotten. It is difficult to determine unless you take the slide apart. Unable to see the back corners of the floor with the carpet in place. Brookside, it will help several of us if you provide more detail on how you replaced the floor without taking the entire slide out on this forum. This has and will happen to many Montanas. Especially, how do you determine the floor needs to be replaced without taking the carpet up. Assume the rot starts on the bottom of the floor which is hard to get to. Thanks,