Slider channel water collection & premature roller failure - cured.

[Graveydogg]

Hi All. A few weeks back I had the roller on the sliding door fail / disintegrate through corrosion. Although this was only a 5 year old van, it seemed a common problem. Through searching the forum I also discovered another common problem - sliding track channel water collection. This was something I’d increasingly noticed over the three years we’ve owned our van. Looking at where the water was coming from I then realised that the outer door bottom seal was not only blocking the door’s inner drainage holes and also trapping water draining around the door into the channel. Last week I took the bold [and hopefully not foolish ] measure of cutting the bottom section of this seal at the corners and removing the bottom section and f seal. This now seems to be allowing water to drain out effectively- exactly like the cab door arrangement where the seal is discontinuous at the bottom. Is this a widespread design flaw?

 

[PhillH]

Hi @Graveydogg how have you go on with water collecting since removing the bottom seal from the door? I have the same issue.

Cheers

 

[Graveydogg]

Morning Phil. After ~ 6 months it’s definitely been a whole lot better. We live on a 1 way street so when we have to park on the right hand side it means that the camber tilts the van the ‘wrong’ way, in which case, with heavy rain, some will find its way into the bottom channel. But on the flat and when it’s parked on the other side of the road, it stays dry. Also , not having the seal there means the water can escape when the van is more level.

 

[PhillH]

Morning Phil. After ~ 6 months it’s definitely been a whole lot better. We live on a 1 way street so when we have to park on the right hand side it means that the camber tilts the van the ‘wrong’ way, in which case, with heavy rain, some will find its way into the bottom channel. But on the flat and when it’s parked on the other side of the road, it stays dry. Also , not having the seal there means the water can escape when the van is more level.

Hi @Graveydogg thank you for getting back to me. I will give this a try. Unfortunately where I park the van, rain always seems to get into the bottom channel.
Thanks again