Can you recommend anyone to do this in CA, OR, WA?
This leak started suddenly a couple days ago and is large enough t cause the aux compressor to come on about every 90 minutes. Has anyone found an adhesive or something that might serve temporarily?
What should I expect to pay to have this replaced?
Thanks, Dick
well, at FOT the Slide bladder for the living room slide runs about $1200-1500 then labor which FOT estimates at 12 hours. Michelle and Steve or Carol and Jeff might have a better idea on numbers for you.
Not sure who on the west coach. maybe the old Country Coach folks?
I had my l/r slide bladder done at:
RnR RV CENTER
23203 E. Knox
Liberty Lake, WA 99019
800-873-9002
I would also highly recommend for any service
Oregon Motorcoach Center
29417 Airport Road
Eugene OR 97402
(800) 942-6860
(541) 762-1505
I don't know if anyone has had this service performed in CA or OR. But I do recall that Barry Beam ordered a slide bladder from FOT, then had it installed enroute at R&R RV while in Liberty Lake, WA, just east of Spokane on I-90 near the Idaho border. He reported good service at R&R.
Service Manager at R&R was in a similar position at the FT store formerly in Liberty Lake. Many Northwest FT folks now use R&R for service and repairs.
Price looks familiar. When I had a slide bladder replaced at MOT 4 years ago, the cost of parts and labor was around 2 grand. It's a big job. I am aware of ony one current member of this forum who has tackled it on his own.
I am not aware of any temporary bladder patches - and I think that it would be a pretty big job just to get at it if a patch were available.
You guys might enjoy this. The '98 thru '03 LX and LXi Wanderlodges are equipped with HWH slides. We had issues with the price, quality, availability, and fit of the HWH air seal so I went off and designed a replacement seal and had it manufactured by a company named Dynamic Rubber Inc. The seal profile fits the HWH extruded aluminum track and uses the HWH nylon retainer locking strips. I believe the Foretravel is the same. If you're interested we can have DRI mold seals for Foretravel owners. DRI agreed to sell retail. The price for the 14'x6' Wanderlodge LXi air seal is $550, direct from DRI. I have no financial interest. Here's a few threads where we talk about it on WOG:
Brady Seal by Dynamic Rubber Inc: Orders Needed - Wanderlodge Owners Group (http://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12300)
The Brady seal install,at long last! - Wanderlodge Owners Group (http://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12171)
What WEARS OUT a slide SEAL? - Wanderlodge Owners Group (http://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10696)
https://picasaweb.google.com/dmb2000/DR2FOFPhotos
David Brady
'02 Blue Bird, Wanderlode, LXi
NC
Duct Tape will fix anything.
Dick,
Ours was a much larger leak than that - basically continuous running of the aux compressor. Steve tried a few spare tire patch types but nothing worked. Ours was at the bottom center of the slide where we could see it. If yours is in a different area it's going to be challenging to get to unless you push the slide into the coach to reveal the bladder.
One option if you're in an area for a while is to close the valve for that bladder (you'll need to re-open it when the time comes to pull vacuum on the bladder to get the slide to come in. It will leak down, but we found a grey closed cell foam "rope" style window/air conditioner gasket/seal at Home Depot (or maybe Lowes) that we could push into the gap around the slide as a seal when the slide was out. When driving, we used low tack duct tape to cover the gap. It got us from Michigan to home and then to Nac for repair (over the course of a month and a half) without any issues.
Michelle
Our temporary fix...
As with bleeding, apply direct pressure. We put a 3" piece of electrical tape over the leak (it doesn't stick very well, but does put an adhesive surface against the leak), inserted a shortened tongue depressor, pried it out until the hissing stopped, and held it there with a short piece of a tree branch. This has kept the seal inflated for up to 10 days.
For travel we force a 1 1/2" piece of a wooden paint stirrer in against the tape and hold it in place with rolled up low tack masking tape (we just rolled the tape with the adhesive side out until it was almost 1/2" in diameter) which we forced into the opening, and then covered that with a foot long strip of the masking tape.
It's crude, but seems to do the job. That thing sticking out the side when we're parked really looks strange!
We'll be at the factory in a few days to get it fixed right.
The price for the LR slide bladder on our '02 was in the neighborhood of $1500. The labor was estimated at 11 hrs. It took 2 young men about 6 hours to complete the job, including cleanup. FOT gave us a break on the bladder, because it was the tape that failed, causing the bladder to rub and begin to tear. They were actually worried that they would not have the right size, as this was at the tail end of the period when HWH was not able to supply the things ... bad batch of raw material, I think ... and items were scarce. We got lucky, and they had one in stock. They charged us for 8 hours labor. These young guys were good. They knew exactly what they were about, having worked in production installing the bladders in new coaches. They were really fast. The ceramic tile on the edge of the slide under the dinette table had to be removed to expose the slide mechanism and it broke ... Mike in the Remodel Dept was able to match it exactly. We felt very lucky to be in Nac when this issue presented itself! It was a rather costly and unanticipated repair! I hope you have a speedy solution!
Thank you. Makes is feel the 1,600 mile trip was the right thing to do.
Sent from my Phone
Dick: I live in Washington and replaced the seal on the large slide out on our 2002 320. It is a big job and I would not recommend it unless you have access to a large shop, lots of equipment and a high level of mechanical aptitude. Although I did get it done successfully, if I have another leak I would opt for one of the proposed temporary fixes until you can get to a professional shop. I would also suggest making sure that the technician doing the work has some experience at this replacement. Best of luck.
Gordon
I wonder if anyone at FOT bothered to check out the seal that David Brady posted about, seems to me a seal with molded corners would be better than just a big rubber tube.
Bill,
Thanks for bumping up my post. I recently spoke with Roger Anderson at DRI (Dynamic Rubber Inc). He told me that he's providing a seal to Lyle Reed for evaluation. I hope he can work out a deal with Foretravel. The DRI seal is much better than what HWH is providing. It's made of EPDM as opposed to neoprene, and it will fill an air gap of up to 3/4" air gap without buckling in the corners. And best of all, the price is a fraction of the HWH seal. Just this past weekend I installed the seal in my HWH slide equipped Wanderlodge. It took about 12 hours to complete the installation. The seal has performed beautifully. I encourage anyone interested in a DRI seal to contact Roger: Dynamic Rubber, Inc. - Contact Information (http://www.dynamicrubber.com/contact.html) I have no financial interest.
David Brady
'02 Blue Bird Wanderlodge LXi
NC
I have been looking into this air seal for the past week
Emailed Roger Anderson @ Dynamic Rubber. He sent me a print of the slide dimensions.
There were two different prints for the front slide. One for the LXI and one for the LX model.
From the measurements on the print, looks like FT used the slide that is in the LX.
After I talk to Mike at MOT, I think I'll be better able to determine if it will fit OK.
Has anyone else checked into the information provided by Dave Bradly ?
I was quoted a price of $550. with a two week lead time.
I'll post the print if anyone is interested.
This is very interesting. I hope that it works and if so we should start using it for our changes. IT will be cheaper and hopefully last longer. This is one of the reasons I love this forum so much. Let us know what Mike says at MOT about it.
Tom,
I'm glad you took the initiative to call DRI and talk to Roger Anderson. DRI has published 4 different part numbers for seals for the 1998 thru 2003 Wanderlodge LX and LXi buses. Each of these buses can have up to two slides, a living room and a bedroom slide. Turns out the bedroom slides are the same size so in actuality DRI is currently shipping three different seals.
The part numbers are:
DR126-Brady-E-LX-Bedroom
DR126-Brady-E-LX-Livingroom
DR126-Brady-E-LXI-Bedroom
DR126-Brady-E-LXI-Livingroom
If your Foretravel slide bodies don't match up to the slide dimensions used in the wanderlodge family, it's a simple matter to take a width and height measure of the slide body for Roger. Roger can fabricate seals of any dimension. You'll also need specs of the hose placement. Details of these measurements should be in the scan that Roger sent to you. I had a great time designing the seal and working with DRI to have it fabricated. DRI has been very helpful and accommodating every step of the way. The seal has been installed in probably a dozen wanderlodges with very good results. There are installation centers here on the east coast that I can recommend who have experience with the DRI seal. I'll publish them if you think they might be useful. If I can be of any further help let me know!
Best,
David Brady
'02 Blue Bird Wanderlodge LXi
NC
What a great thing it would be if the seal turns out to be the killer app, solving the durability problem. EPDM is some great stuff, I installed a flat EPDM membrane roof on my mom's house 25 years ago, it's been baking in the Corpus Christi sun all these years and is still in good shape. If this happens I will be in the market for a Foretravel with slides.
Just a last comment to this now that the slide bladder has been replaced.
I am now fairly certain that this bladder had been leaking for several months, but too little for us to notice or heat it.
The reason I think this is because our auxiliary compressor has not come on while we have been sitting for almost three weeks. It would come on three or four times a day before replacing the bladder. In fact we used to have to close the air valve to that slide, which almost solved the problem, but not quite. So I would also turn the compressor OFF with an in-line switch.
As I think back on it this was probably diagnostic of two problems: 1. the bladder had a leak and 2. the slide air valve also had a leak. I know both Barry B and Steve had to replace those valves due to leaking.
Well I'm happy about it now and hope this may help someone else. Dick
In reference to Dave Brady's post on March 10,2012 concerning the slide bladder produced by Dynamic Rubber.
After talking to Keith Davis at MOT, he said the bladder from a Wanderlodge will not fit a Foretravel. He further stated the even though both slides are produced by HWH, its just the mechanism and each has different room dimensions.
Just had the bladder replaced on my coach on May 16th. 2012 and Keith was kind enough to get me the measurements of the bladder.
If in the future I need another bladder I'll check with Dynamic Rubber for a replacement, since the part cost is quite high from HWH.