Replace trucks and clean tracks sliding cabin door

We had same problem, advice = Use a powerful shop vac, vacuum out all you can get to. Then, use a air compressor wit air nozzle to blow out everything you can get to, then spray Super Lube into all the areas you can get to , for us that solved the problem. Can open and close door with one finger. Almost impossibly to get door totally out to clean, lube or replace rollers!

Just from my experience on my 3560, I wouldn't add any type of grease or lube to the track. If you want, you could try some dry-lube, but I don't think it is needed.

The trucks use wheels and those wheels have ball bearings. They should ride smoothly on a clean track.

Here is what the door trucks look like, the ball bearings are between the 'tire' and the plastic 'axle'. You can almost see one at the top of that rear wheel at the 12 O'clock position, or at the 8 O'clock position on the front wheel.


Here you can see how the truck rides in the track. With any dirt in those grooves where the wheels ride, the trucks will not run smoothly:



Here's how it all works together (please note that these photos are all from the BoatOutfitters site I linked below):


If you add grease or any lube, that will cause dust, dirt and sand to stick to the track, and then the wheels won't roll easily. I have even found coins, and hair from women with long hair in the track.

I find that flooding the track with water, or warm water with soap, and rolling the doors around while flooding the track with water will flush out most dust, dirt and sand from a sandbar. You have to do this several times with a lot of water, while sliding the doors back and forth to get the dirt to flush out.

Again, this is only my opinion and what I found what works on my boat.

If the wheels on the trucks get damaged, then you must replace them, at this point cleaning the track no longer helps.

I find the door trucks can be damaged if someone puts too much weight on the door/hatch by sitting on it, leaning on it, or stepping on the hatch. They can also wear out over time.


On my boat, the damage usually happens for me as my windshield walk through is right there next to the hatch, and I always try to keep it closed when people are heading to the bow via the walk through windshield. Unfortunately, if the boat is not steady, sometimes a person will end up stepping on the door/hatch, then they end up damaging the trucks.

Most all of the door hardware can be found here:
www.boatoutfitters.com/hardware/sliding-door-hardware

I think I documented this on the old forum, but unfortunately, that is long gone now.

Agree with Rich and thanks for the great pics and explanation. Yes, removing the sliding hatch a big, expensive, time consuming PITA, rather just thoroughly vacuum(if you have compressed air with nozzel do that) , spray some cleaner into tracts (simple green or equivalent) , rinse again, then when thoroughly dry spray some , in my case, super lube into all areas you can reach. Then wipe up excess with a towel or whatever. As we dont get any sand into that area that isnt a problem, also, dust/dirt not a problem and no long haired girls on boat lately

We have the same boat, 2007, 4460. When we got it (March this year), the cockpit door was very hard to open and close. We looked to remove/replace tracks and maybe cockpit door (has a crack), but the quotes I got and the fact quotes are alway low made me stop the project. We did as suggested, blew out the tracks, tried to vacuum everything, cleaned everything we could. Marginally better, but still tough. We ended up putting lots of zipper lubricant into the tracks (as close to fully open as possible) and kept running door open and closed. I assume some got into the running hardware. Anyway, door opens and closes problem free now and we haven’t experienced any issues with stuff building into the tracks, but we do clean (use a screwdriver and a buffing cloth) the tracks every time we’re on the boat. Anyway, this was our solution and so far, works great.

hawker63 , Yes. I have already confirmed the tracks are spotless clean. I believe mine are worn. but haven't confirmed it yet.

Mypleasure , Rich, I'll be happy to take you up on this offer as long as you sign a release statement that relieves me of anything I screw up now or in the future. Or I'll just guide you through the procedure and help you do the work yourself! I'm not a pro and have no liability insurance so I wouldn't want to be held responsible for any damage nor problems that may come up.

It did take me a couple of years of thinking about doing this job. Now that I have started, I can see things I would have done slightly differently if I did it again, but minor procedural points. Right now there is one track that I'm not sure if I can completely replace it, as part of it is under the starboard dash panel, and I don't think I want to remove that at this point. I may be able to get at it with special tools (90 degree screwdriver), but I'll deal with this as I get to it.

Right now I'm hoping the lower track is worn and allowing the trucks to move up/down more than they are supposed to, which allows for the twisting motion.

I was hoping that someone else has done this, but perhaps I'm the first? In my case, the tracks have been cleaned and all the rollers (trucks) have been replaced and are brand new. Even the manufacturer of the track system can't offer much help other than to suggest that I also replace the tracks.

My local dealer usually isn't much help, as they usually just complain that my boat is over 10 years old. I'm not about to buy a new boat for a few $100K just to fix a door that won't roll smoothly! LOL

I know it's a different boat (I have a 3560), but most boats near this age and of a similar design use the same track system.

In my case, cleaning the tracks and rollers hasn't helped at all. Of course, if the track is dirty, the door is a bit harder to roll, but it's not a hard bind as has been occurring lately.

Replacing all the rollers did not solve the problem.

Replacing the lower tracks has not solved the problem. It did show some minor wear, and the trucks now roll smoother, but this did not solve the binding problem at all.

I'm now left with replacing the upper tracks, which now will have to wait until spring as my boat is currently shrink wrapped for its long winter nap.

On my boat (a 2005 3560), the upper tracks are aluminum (with white powder coat paint?). The lower tracks are vinyl. I'm not sure why the different material was used for the upper and lower tracks. I asked the track/roller manufacturer and they have no clue either as to why the difference in the upper and lower tracks.

My problem is that even with both the top and lower track spotless clean, the door will bind and jam if you try to move it while holding the door near the latch. If you hold the door at the middle of the top (horizontal) section, it moves easily. 

When trying to open or close the door with your hand near the latch, upper section of the door gets a slight twist as the uneven torque is applied. This causes the upper rollers (trucks) to bind in the track. Doing this you can actually see the upper section of the door twist slightly causing the jam, instead of staying square to the track and rolling easily. When I say twist, I mean the upper horizontal part of the door is attempting to rotate a bit, a similar motion as if the boat was rotating about its axis while executing a flat turn to port or starboard.

I can't yet see why the upper rollers are binding in the upper track, but I can see the twist motion that is causing the jam to occur. My guess is that the upper track perhaps has widened a bit when someone stepped on the door in the past, and their weight caused the track to be tweaked. I can't see any major physical issues with the upper track, e.g.: no excessive wear, etc. I did see a point where a very small dent was in the side wall of the track, but the rollers don't ride there. I haven't tried to critically measure the dimensions of the track to see if they are wider than normal. I'm guessing that the aluminum track was pulled wider a bit and this is allowing some sideways motion of the trucks and allowing the door to jam instead of roll. I have new upper track in hand and will work to replace it in the spring.

On my boat, there is no reason for anyone to step on the door. If you look at my photo above, you can see that I have separate steps that head to the bow.  For safety reasons I try to keep the salon door closed if anyone is heading up to the bow or heading back to the cockpit to prevent them from falling into the salon door opening if something went wrong. Indeed, once when the boat was rolling due to a wake hitting us, one guy lost his footing and ended up stepping on the door with some significant weight (approx. 250 Lbs.), and I can only now guess that this tweaked the upper track. Prior to my recent attempts at service, I simply assumed that the upper rollers were damaged by his weight, but now that I have replaced all my upper and lower rollers, I know this wasn't the root cause of the issue. When I removed my upper rollers, they had some wear, but they were not as worn as my lower rollers were in the past.

I agree that most people probably have dirty tracks and keeping them clean will go a long way to keeping the door rolling easily. Keep in mind that those 'trucks' have plastic wheels and open ball bearings. The lower trucks did wear significantly over 10 years and the wheels can fall off, or some of the ball bearings can pop out. In general, spraying any type of lubricant that can get sticky and hold dust, dirt or sand will not be as good as just making sure that the track is clean. Even dry lube shouldn't be needed, unless your wheels and ball bearings are totally shot.

It takes time and patience, but you can actually remove and replace the lower rollers (trucks) without removal of the dashboard, etc. I've done it before and it helped the door to operate like new at the time. But servicing the upper rollers and tracks certainly require more disassembly of the dash, etc.

I hope this helps describe my problem. I don't expect every other boat to have all these same issues.