by Rich and Peggy Bowman 2002 U270 36′
Since we bought the coach in Feb., the 12V compressor would run regularly (every 5-6 hrs). Being new, I didn’t know if this was normal or not but the answer is apparently “not.” Recently the bladder developed a much bigger leak and I now have an appointment at HWH to get it replaced. The leak is located on the bottom of the slide, right where the slide rides out of the coach on a stainless steel plate.
It appears the cause of the leak is a tear/cut caused by the slide itself. On the exterior bottom of the slide (on each end) is a stainless steel plate (3″w x 24″l x 1/8″t) that the slide rides on when it extends and retracts. It appears that in the retracted position, a slide roller rests on this plate while you are bumping down the road. Over ten years, the outside end of the plate has bent ever so slightly (1/16″) down away from flat contact with the bottom of the slide. That then exposed the very sharp edges and corners of the stainless steel plate, which in turn nicked and eventually cut the bladder.
It will only take you about 60 seconds to run your hand over the end of the stainless steel plate to see if you have this potential problem. And about 20 minutes with a Dremel tool and a grinding stone to round off the sharp points and edges if you do. It might save you a very expensive repair.
I think I have attached a couple of photos (my first attempt at this) to show the location of the problem area but they don’t show up when I hit “preview.” We’ll see what happens when I hit “post.”
