brady seal install

[BruceSummerlin]

Great to know, thanks for the clarification.

[Kurt Ickler]

An update on our Lx livingroom seal replacement. Everything is "opened up" with the old seal removed. We discovered that the stem/hose assembly was in the wrong location. The correct location ( for our 2001 Lx ) should be 135.25 back from the front of the slide seal track. I believe that this might be one of the first Lx installs and this dimension "bust" is just now surfacing. Not a big deal, the seal is on its way to Roger Anderson/DRI and will be reworked and FedEXed out the same day...great service! We also highlighted that the 3/4" stem hole in the track is off center and DRI believes they can off center the stem in the new location. We drilled a small exploritory hole ( in the seal track) to see if we could use the seal "as is"....that lay out put us dead center into another framing member of the bus....back to back "C" channel forming an "I" beam ledger that captures the edge of the floor joists... the existing stem hole completely misses this framing member....We should be back on track and have project completed this week end.

[davidbrady]

Hey Kurt,

Thanks for the update.

There was a problem with the circumference dimension of the early seals. Roger at DRI subtracted a few inches off the width and height dimensions that I gave to him without knowing that I had already subtracted a few inches - the idea is that the seal should be slightly smaller than the opening. With Roger's additional reduction in size it became difficult to fit the hose in it's hole. This became a problem mostly on the LX seals; it was a problem to a lesser degree on the LXi seals. Roger and I went back to my original dimensions late February of 2012. So if anyone has an uninstalled seal older than 3/1/12 you probably should call Roger and see about a replacement, particularly if you have an LX. Roger knows the proper dimensions and has known since 3/1/12 or so.

Kurt, yours isn't the first LX install. The size reduction was spotted early on when Graham Leftwich had his seals replaced by Dean Woodruff at Integrity RV. I believe they actually tore the hose out from the seal trying to get it to line up with the chassis hole.

[davidbrady]

Hi Kurt,

Maybe I do need to back up a bit. The dimensions that I have for the LX slide body are:

Height: 72"
Width: 158.25"
Hose placement: 117.25" from leading edge.

You mention a value of 135.25" which puts the hose just 2' (roughly) from the trailing edge. Is this correct?

Jerry McDonough and Graham Leftwich both have '03 LX's and they measure 117.25" for hose placement. Could it be that earlier vintage LX's have a different hose placement? If so, I wonder when BB made the change? What we may need to do is specify the LX living room hose placement to Roger at build time. So far, we haven't had any issues with hose placement on the other seals: LX/LXi bedroom and LXi living room.

[Kurt Ickler]

The stem location ,to fit our bus, is off by 17.25"....we needed the stem to be 135.25 from the front, the air seal was mfg. @ 118"....I assume that the 118" dimension is the requirement for the Lxi application...everything else looks like it will work just fine!....holding the seal up to the opening, it appears that the seal is approx. 2+'' smaller than the opening all the way around.

[davidbrady]

Sorry, nope, the 118" is for the 2003 LX living room seal. (Please, see my prior post; I think we were posting at the same time). It appears we have two hose placements for the LX living room seal.

[jerrymcd]

(03-05-2013 15:46)davidmbrady Wrote:  Hi Kurt,

Maybe I do need to back up a bit. The dimensions that I have for the LX slide body are:

Height: 72"
Width: 158.25"
Hose placement: 117.25" from leading edge.

You mention a value of 135.25" which puts the hose just 2' (roughly) from the trailing edge. Is this correct?

Jerry McDonough and Graham Leftwich both have '03 LX's and they measure 117.25" for hose placement. Could it be that earlier vintage LX's have a different hose placement? If so, I wonder when BB made the change? What we may need to do is specify the LX living room hose placement to Roger at build time. So far, we haven't had any issues with hose placement on the other seals: LX/LXi bedroom and LXi living room.

David It was my seal that I pulled the stem out of. If I remember right I put a larger washer on the inside and outside of the stem and applied a little glue around the outside of the stem. and reinstalled the seal.(Really had to stretch it) That is when we found out both you and Roger made deduction in the seal size. We weren't sure if the stem would hold, so Roger sent me a new seal. I haven't installed it yet. The stem just has a real small leak, so keeping the new one in case it lets go.

[davidbrady]

I just got off the phone with Roger Anderson of DRI. I explained that there are at least two different hose placements for the LX living room slide seal. Since we don't know when BB went to the different placement (117.25" versus 132.25" from the leading slide body edge) or if there even is a clear and definite change date, Roger is going to ask LX owners to measure and verify the living room hose placement at order time.

[Kurt Ickler]

We're done!...David's step by step instructions made this project relatively easy...we all discovered that the earlier model (2001) Lx have a different hose placement...we sent the seal back to DRI...they modified it and returned it in two days....a couple of insights...
1) we pushed the slide room into the coach on high density plastic strips approx. 10" wide....I should have removed the plastic rub stips in the coach (3 screws each)...this would have allowed for better placement of the our temporary plastic slide strips...we bought a partial sheet of high density plastic a cut and stacked these strips (with various thickness of plywood) as needed...all of this was done from inside the coach
2) The area in front of our slide is wood and carpet...once the slide room was pushed into the coach, the weight of the slide caused it to settle into the carpet...so get as much "thickness" (and surface area)as you can when stacking your temporary slide strips....so when you push the room out, you will still clear the new seal...
3) I would remove the folding valance that covers the interior rear, bottom slide track ...we fought with this the complete time...it is just two wood screws and a bumper on the back of the dinette
4) hopefully you can have a work space that allows you to do this project at your leisure...it would be a long, and no fun to try to complete this start to finish....nonstop !

Using these high density plastic slide strips (from the inside of the coach) is the way to go, as opposed to shims from the outside....I have a friend that is the local Coors beer distributor...their beer used to be shipped to them on plastic sheets (not pallets, the pallets take up volume in the railway cars) and is just pushed around by hand ...with the corect plastic, this concept can handle alot of weight

[davidbrady]

Thanks Kurt,

We'll get this thing sorted out as time moves on and more folks install the new seal. Great idea with the beer plastic sheeting. I think it's the same stuff that I used. It's an ultra high molecular weight (UHMW) polyurethane. I also got rid of the two plastic interior glide strips that are screwed to the floor. Platforms or UHMW plastic sheeting on the interior floor is the best way to support the slide once it's removed from the rams. Like you said, you want a thick, large surface area platform. Once this is in place I can lean on the slide body and it moves! Very easy to maneuver. It's really a very easy job and I'd do it in a campground if necessary. Good write up!