BAL Accu-Slide maxed out on adjustment
I have two questions dealing with a BAL cable Accu-Slide system. The two questions are below. I am trying to give you the background on the camper. The camper is a 2019 Keystone Laredo 5th wheel,...
Forum Discussion
Hi Folks,
First off, thanks, everyone, for your comments. They do help. And a special thanks to schlep1967 and opnspaces. Your posts made me think harder about some areas, and I have made some progress today.
The cliff notes version, I will summarize more after this is all over, it is not over yet.
I talked with BAL tech service today. What a great group. A breath of fresh air in the manufacturing world for customer support. Very helpful. I told them my situation, and they explained some details. High points:.
During the OUT adjustment, the bottom slide flanges are to touch the frame when cables are adjusted properly.
I spoke about the tensioning issue and what seemed like an absorbent amount of tension needed, and I was still 1/2" away from the wall on the bottom. He said you are fighting the slide's weight; use a floor jack and remove some of the weight. I explained I tried that but lost the tension when I removed the jack. He stated you have to compensate for the sag and crank more. I did and was able to get the slide bottom in within 1/16" to 1/8".
He did say, as a last, absolute last resort, that if you have no more adjustments, you can remove 1" of links only at the IN end of the chain. This is only for special cases if you have one of the on-the-edge odd setups.
He did talk about shifting the chain 1 or 2 links on the sprocket to shift some excess adjustment from the OUT cable block to the IN cable block.
We talked about cable stretch, chain stretch, and pulley bushing wear. He agreed, on this slide, being this new, with such little use, there should be no heavy wear or stretch. This concluded the call.
After the call and thinking about all this, I used the floor jack and jacked the slide slightly high by about 1/4" on the outside wall. This over-jacking kicked the top of the slide in a little. This allowed me to adjust the tension more on the bottom cable and not have to crack so hard. I adjusted the OUT setup, which now can hold the settings under the slide's weight (no jack) with both ends of the slide bottom flange within 1/16" to 1/8" at the top and bottom slide flanges on both ends of the slide. This confirmed I could get the system setup correctly in the OUT direction.
However, I still had too much excess chain at the IN chain cable bracket to adjust the IN direction. After I had the OUT set correct, I saw about 1" extra adjustment on the 1/4 - 20 center draw bolt on the OUT cable blocks. I measured where all the OUT cables were located about the ends of the cable threads, put the jack back in place, unhooked the chains, and moved two links backward on the chains. Each link is 3/8". This lost 3/4" adjustment at the OUT blocks and created 3/4" more adjustment at the IN blocks. I still have 1/4" more center bolt adjustment if needed at the OUT blocks.
I put all the OUT cables back in tension and proceeded with the IN blocks. I was able to get the IN block adjusted as is. This allowed me to start moving the slide in and out under power.
The slide room now moves instantly when the power button is pressed, with no delay in movement; it just goes out and no jerking or on the way in. It took several tweaks and cable adjustment tweaks to get the outside slide seal compressed correctly and have the correct 1/2" lift test tension on all eight cables when they are relaxed. As the system runs, all the trapped cable slack comes out, and you eventually get it all tight with tweaking adjustments.
The system is working, but I still have two problems.
The rear bottom inside slide flange has about a 1/2" gap. This came after running the slide in and out several times. The front bottom is good. And I am out of cable adjustment on the bottom OUT cable block. My first correction for this is to add a 1" tube spacer made out of 1/8" sch 40 pipe over the 1/4" threads on the OUT BTM block cable. This is from opnspaces comment. This is an easily reversible fix if it does not cure the problem. I can always cut that chain later, but I do not think I will have to.
The next problem, I believe, is a gearbox install problem from the factory. Now that the slide is working, I can see the interface problem that has been going on for a long time. The IN and OUT cable blocks crash into the gear motor. The IN block is worse than the OUT block.
I will post pics in the next reply on the motor issue. Be back soon.
Thanks
John
First off, thanks, everyone, for your comments. They do help. And a special thanks to schlep1967 and opnspaces. Your posts made me think harder about some areas, and I have made some progress today.
The cliff notes version, I will summarize more after this is all over, it is not over yet.
I talked with BAL tech service today. What a great group. A breath of fresh air in the manufacturing world for customer support. Very helpful. I told them my situation, and they explained some details. High points:.
During the OUT adjustment, the bottom slide flanges are to touch the frame when cables are adjusted properly.
I spoke about the tensioning issue and what seemed like an absorbent amount of tension needed, and I was still 1/2" away from the wall on the bottom. He said you are fighting the slide's weight; use a floor jack and remove some of the weight. I explained I tried that but lost the tension when I removed the jack. He stated you have to compensate for the sag and crank more. I did and was able to get the slide bottom in within 1/16" to 1/8".
He did say, as a last, absolute last resort, that if you have no more adjustments, you can remove 1" of links only at the IN end of the chain. This is only for special cases if you have one of the on-the-edge odd setups.
He did talk about shifting the chain 1 or 2 links on the sprocket to shift some excess adjustment from the OUT cable block to the IN cable block.
We talked about cable stretch, chain stretch, and pulley bushing wear. He agreed, on this slide, being this new, with such little use, there should be no heavy wear or stretch. This concluded the call.
After the call and thinking about all this, I used the floor jack and jacked the slide slightly high by about 1/4" on the outside wall. This over-jacking kicked the top of the slide in a little. This allowed me to adjust the tension more on the bottom cable and not have to crack so hard. I adjusted the OUT setup, which now can hold the settings under the slide's weight (no jack) with both ends of the slide bottom flange within 1/16" to 1/8" at the top and bottom slide flanges on both ends of the slide. This confirmed I could get the system setup correctly in the OUT direction.
However, I still had too much excess chain at the IN chain cable bracket to adjust the IN direction. After I had the OUT set correct, I saw about 1" extra adjustment on the 1/4 - 20 center draw bolt on the OUT cable blocks. I measured where all the OUT cables were located about the ends of the cable threads, put the jack back in place, unhooked the chains, and moved two links backward on the chains. Each link is 3/8". This lost 3/4" adjustment at the OUT blocks and created 3/4" more adjustment at the IN blocks. I still have 1/4" more center bolt adjustment if needed at the OUT blocks.
I put all the OUT cables back in tension and proceeded with the IN blocks. I was able to get the IN block adjusted as is. This allowed me to start moving the slide in and out under power.
The slide room now moves instantly when the power button is pressed, with no delay in movement; it just goes out and no jerking or on the way in. It took several tweaks and cable adjustment tweaks to get the outside slide seal compressed correctly and have the correct 1/2" lift test tension on all eight cables when they are relaxed. As the system runs, all the trapped cable slack comes out, and you eventually get it all tight with tweaking adjustments.
The system is working, but I still have two problems.
The rear bottom inside slide flange has about a 1/2" gap. This came after running the slide in and out several times. The front bottom is good. And I am out of cable adjustment on the bottom OUT cable block. My first correction for this is to add a 1" tube spacer made out of 1/8" sch 40 pipe over the 1/4" threads on the OUT BTM block cable. This is from opnspaces comment. This is an easily reversible fix if it does not cure the problem. I can always cut that chain later, but I do not think I will have to.
The next problem, I believe, is a gearbox install problem from the factory. Now that the slide is working, I can see the interface problem that has been going on for a long time. The IN and OUT cable blocks crash into the gear motor. The IN block is worse than the OUT block.
I will post pics in the next reply on the motor issue. Be back soon.
Thanks
John
