Slide seal maintenance

[c214dick]

I just finished wiping down all interior and exterior slide seals with baby powder. I never did this before but it seemed pretty painless , except....
How do you get to the exterior slide seals that are covered by slide toppers?

[tony d]

I saw a u-tube video by the RVGEEKS and I think they attached a sock with powder onto a broom stick on something similar to reach the slide seals on top of the slides.

[dieselguy]

This is only my personal experience with baby powder on slide seals because I know some of you readily endorse it. I tried baby powder quite a while back ... applied it with my hand inside an old sock. It seemed to suck any form of liquid out of the slide seals and eventually combined with dirt to make a black coating on the seals that transferred to the sidewalls when closed traveling. The black was hard to get of the slide seals and a bit hard to remove from the sidewalls. I went back to Aerospace 303 or Turtle Wax Luxe Leather Cleaner and Conditioner which works with rubber and vinyl as well. The seals seemed to stay more moisturized and the black paste doesn't form near as much. I made sure I wiped the seals down good with a dry cloth after the above application.

[DQDick]

I use Tetfords slide seal treatment. It's a spray.

[chris199]

DQ...Does the spray version have a lasting smell?

[stengels]

It does not. The smell is barely noticeable during application and there is nothing after application. Does a great job keeping seals soft and pliable.

[c214dick]

How do you get to the seals under the slide topper?

[DQDick]

I reach as far as I can and then spray as far as I can. Since it has a topper it's not affected as much by sun and it's the best I've figured out to do. We had to replace the outer seals this winter (in the begining years I only thought to do the inside ones). The part under the toppers were still good, it was the part the sun could get to that was falling apart.

[TLightning]

quote:Originally posted by c214dick

How do you get to the seals under the slide topper?

I use two poles bolted together with a soft cloth rapped around the end. Then I spray the cloth with silicone/Protect All/303, etc

[DQDick]

Great idea. I'll be trying that with the pole I use to was the rig.

[snowbirds R us]

To save a buncha money I use mineral oil which is the main ingredient in the spray seal conditioner. Get it at just about any grocery store or drug store. Apply with a rag and use the spray stuff in hard to get at areas.

[WaltBennett]

I bought a gallon of 303, so now I'm using it on the seals as well as everything else. Before that though, plain old mineral oil worked great. Just the cheap horse grade is all you need - the stuff for humans to use in skin treatments & such costs a lot more.