Slide alignment problem after awning hangs
The slide awning was getting tattered and I should have removed it. But it was still helping some. Went to put the slide out and it got hung up somehow. Had to go cut it off to get the slide out. Ther...
Forum Discussion
Bill,
I got a little lost in your wording on left and right but the pics you posted in the correction orientation now tell some things.
In stead of left and right, I'm going to use "Master rack or driving rack" slide arm, This has the hydraulic cylinder on it.
And I'm going to use "Slave rack or driven rack" slide arm as this one is driven by the square shaft.
Here is the Master rack. It shows the rub is on the hydraulic cylinder side. We can see the square shaft in this pic on the right. Facing the slide, the rub is on the left or the outside of the master rack slide arm.
Here is the Driven rack. It shows the rub is on square shaft side on the left. Facing the slide, the rub is on the left or the inside of the driven rack slide arm.
Since you reported the opposite wear pad was still good on both locations, while facing the slide from the outside looking at the camper, the slide room is forced to the left. Or forced to the hydraulic cylinder side. Both slide arms are showing the same effect.
And you said
Clarify this that I have it correct. Since the rust rub area is following the side the pad is heavily worn or gone, we will call that the rub side. And you said the rust stain is only part way down the slide arm on the rub side.
Please confirm, that the rust rub area is approx the same length on both the master rack and the driven rack? And that the rust rub starts and ends in approx the same spot?
I'm "assuming" from your comments that the rust rub is not full stroke of the slide. Meaning if the slide moved out 36" of total travel (stroke), that the rust rub is only approx 18" or some number of the total slide room travel. This is a key understanding so we have to get it right.
Look at the area on the rub side where this is no rust, is there a burnish of the anything touching the side of the slide arm? And then look at the wear pad side (non rub side, or right) that has little wear and see if the dirt is worn off the slide arm creating a wear pad burnish along the side of the each arm?
What I'm getting at, the slide room arms are touching on the rust rub side for part to the travel (the left side), then as the slide travel continues the touching points flip to the other side and touches on the non rusted/rub side, the side with the wear pad still good. (the right side)
We need to know if that is happening. As if it is, then the slide arms which are bolted to the slide room as not parallel to the slide C channels welded in the camper frame.
The C channels are welded into the frame at the factory. You can't move then if you wanted to, at least on mine I can't, I assume yours is the same. Using a tape measure or a long stick and a pencil, measure the inside distance from the master rack C channel to driven rack C channel where at the slide room side frame rail area. Then go 5 to 6 plus feet away, all the way to opposite side frame rail and measure again the inside distance at the from master rack C channel to driven rack C channel. What you are looking for is, are those 2 C channel tracks parallel to each other and within how much?
You are going to need to try and be accurate so use a helper if needed. And try and hold the tape measure 90 degs to the side of the channel.
At the slide itself, the slide arms bolt to the bottom of the slide. Lippert has a few different ways they connect to the slide room, but all of them I have seen have long slots on the brackets that bolts to the bottom of the slide. See here on mine. These are pics during my slide floor rot repairs.
On mine, there is a bracket that bolts to the camper floor. If you look straight up at the floor, there are long slots that the entire slide can be pushed to the front or rear of the camper if I loosen those bolts. You cannot see those slots in my pics, but they are there.
Go and look at yours. I'm sure there is some type of slotted bracket that bolts to the slide floor.
What you need to do not is, extend the slide all the out. Measure the distance between the slide arms out at the slide room wall end where the slide arm attaching brackets are. Then go up to the frame rail of the camper and measure again between the slide arms.
Try and be dead on with those dimensions. When all wear pads are installed, you might only have a total of 1/16" clearance, so you need to be that accurate or better.
We are trying to find out if the slide arms are running parallel to each other. It "might" be that one arm is pushed too far at the wall of the slide in that long mounting slot creating one slide arm to be out of parallel with the other slide arm.
That said, this may not be all of your original problem. You found this in the middle of your investigation.
If the slide is out of time between the master rack and the driven rack (meaning the driven rack is ahead or behind the master rack) and the entire slide is going in and out of the camper on an angle, that could be part of the issue. Do you know how far out of time it is? Means one side touches the camper seals before the other. What is that difference. We are looking for somewhat big numbers here, not 1/16 th's, but more like 1/2" to 3/4" or more. If the front and rear of the slide are cocked on angle due to being out of time, it will put excess binding pressure on the slide arms because the ends of the arms are bolted pretty rigid to the slide room floor. And if the slide arms are not in the correct location to match the centerlines of the C channels in the camper frame and be parallel, that is even more binding.
OK, check this out and see what comes up good or not.
Hope this helps
John
I got a little lost in your wording on left and right but the pics you posted in the correction orientation now tell some things.
In stead of left and right, I'm going to use "Master rack or driving rack" slide arm, This has the hydraulic cylinder on it.
And I'm going to use "Slave rack or driven rack" slide arm as this one is driven by the square shaft.
Here is the Master rack. It shows the rub is on the hydraulic cylinder side. We can see the square shaft in this pic on the right. Facing the slide, the rub is on the left or the outside of the master rack slide arm.
Here is the Driven rack. It shows the rub is on square shaft side on the left. Facing the slide, the rub is on the left or the inside of the driven rack slide arm.
Since you reported the opposite wear pad was still good on both locations, while facing the slide from the outside looking at the camper, the slide room is forced to the left. Or forced to the hydraulic cylinder side. Both slide arms are showing the same effect.
And you said
Bill wrote:
There is only a small dime-sized metal on metal mark about midway down the inner arm on that side. That mark is shiney as opposed to rusted like in the the picture. That might indicate that the rust in the picture has been there since the awning incident.
Clarify this that I have it correct. Since the rust rub area is following the side the pad is heavily worn or gone, we will call that the rub side. And you said the rust stain is only part way down the slide arm on the rub side.
Please confirm, that the rust rub area is approx the same length on both the master rack and the driven rack? And that the rust rub starts and ends in approx the same spot?
I'm "assuming" from your comments that the rust rub is not full stroke of the slide. Meaning if the slide moved out 36" of total travel (stroke), that the rust rub is only approx 18" or some number of the total slide room travel. This is a key understanding so we have to get it right.
Look at the area on the rub side where this is no rust, is there a burnish of the anything touching the side of the slide arm? And then look at the wear pad side (non rub side, or right) that has little wear and see if the dirt is worn off the slide arm creating a wear pad burnish along the side of the each arm?
What I'm getting at, the slide room arms are touching on the rust rub side for part to the travel (the left side), then as the slide travel continues the touching points flip to the other side and touches on the non rusted/rub side, the side with the wear pad still good. (the right side)
We need to know if that is happening. As if it is, then the slide arms which are bolted to the slide room as not parallel to the slide C channels welded in the camper frame.
The C channels are welded into the frame at the factory. You can't move then if you wanted to, at least on mine I can't, I assume yours is the same. Using a tape measure or a long stick and a pencil, measure the inside distance from the master rack C channel to driven rack C channel where at the slide room side frame rail area. Then go 5 to 6 plus feet away, all the way to opposite side frame rail and measure again the inside distance at the from master rack C channel to driven rack C channel. What you are looking for is, are those 2 C channel tracks parallel to each other and within how much?
You are going to need to try and be accurate so use a helper if needed. And try and hold the tape measure 90 degs to the side of the channel.
At the slide itself, the slide arms bolt to the bottom of the slide. Lippert has a few different ways they connect to the slide room, but all of them I have seen have long slots on the brackets that bolts to the bottom of the slide. See here on mine. These are pics during my slide floor rot repairs.
On mine, there is a bracket that bolts to the camper floor. If you look straight up at the floor, there are long slots that the entire slide can be pushed to the front or rear of the camper if I loosen those bolts. You cannot see those slots in my pics, but they are there.
Go and look at yours. I'm sure there is some type of slotted bracket that bolts to the slide floor.
What you need to do not is, extend the slide all the out. Measure the distance between the slide arms out at the slide room wall end where the slide arm attaching brackets are. Then go up to the frame rail of the camper and measure again between the slide arms.
Try and be dead on with those dimensions. When all wear pads are installed, you might only have a total of 1/16" clearance, so you need to be that accurate or better.
We are trying to find out if the slide arms are running parallel to each other. It "might" be that one arm is pushed too far at the wall of the slide in that long mounting slot creating one slide arm to be out of parallel with the other slide arm.
That said, this may not be all of your original problem. You found this in the middle of your investigation.
If the slide is out of time between the master rack and the driven rack (meaning the driven rack is ahead or behind the master rack) and the entire slide is going in and out of the camper on an angle, that could be part of the issue. Do you know how far out of time it is? Means one side touches the camper seals before the other. What is that difference. We are looking for somewhat big numbers here, not 1/16 th's, but more like 1/2" to 3/4" or more. If the front and rear of the slide are cocked on angle due to being out of time, it will put excess binding pressure on the slide arms because the ends of the arms are bolted pretty rigid to the slide room floor. And if the slide arms are not in the correct location to match the centerlines of the C channels in the camper frame and be parallel, that is even more binding.
OK, check this out and see what comes up good or not.
Hope this helps
John
