Hey all. Just wanted to share our "rotten" experience with the rest of the forum.
Six days before we left MT for CA, we were moving the little Avanti freezer into the dining room slide. The table was screwed to the floor and had never been moved. Steve unscrewed it and pushed it to the other side. When he stepped into the left side outermost corner of the slide, he felt the floor give way. OUCH! We pulled back the carpet and saw their was just a little bit of discoloration on the back of it. Next, he pulled back all the other stuff and found that there was severe rot to the plywood floor. So we ended up having to replace the entire floor of the dining room slide. It was quite a chore, but we got it done. Steve detailed the repair in the thread "slide out floor," just a little while ago.
There was absolutely NO water damage visible to our camper. There was no outside wall damage. The walls inside were not bubbled or discolored. The window in the slide had not been leaking. The rot actually came from the bottom of the slide and moved up...the backside of the carpet was only a little discolored...and the top of the plywood didn't look too bad. But once Steve started digging it was just pure rot from the bottom and moving to the top of the floor.
We called our dealer in Tennessee, who is great, and we e-mailed him lots of pics. We together concluded that the small piece of trim to the bottom of the slides was the probable culprit and the source of the leak. The screws were indeed rusty and could have allowed water to seep in. After the water got in, it more or less would have just sat in there due to the tyvex/moisture barrier wrap.
We have since siliconed all seams of the slide and are in the process of removing all old silicone and replacing all old joints with new beads of caulk.
We could have taken the Monty to the dealer and have the work done (it is under warranty) but we just didn't have the time. Closest dealer was 2 hours away! Our Montana is a 2003 3655FL. It is in like new condition. Our dealer was absolutely shocked this had happened and said he'd never seen it before. Guess there is a first time for everything.
Just wanted to alert others.
We do have pics is anyone needs them. We stink at the tinypic thing.
Tara
Steve and Tara Krumm
2004 GMC 4X4 Duramax Allison
2003 Montana 3655 FL