Slide alignment problem after awning hangs

bearsnob wrote:
. Things are moving freely and the bolts should not be hard to get out. How should I brace the arm before taking the assembly out and do you have any tips beyond that?

Hi Bill,

Sounds like you have had a bugger of a time with that bolt. And laying on the ground working overhead. Not fun.

When you ask, how should you brace the slide arm when dropping out the pinion assembly, if that is what you are asking, then:

In my case, I had the slide all the way in when I pulled the pinion assembly out. The weight of the slide was held by the slide floor resting on the camper floor. On mine, there was no load on the pinion rollers. The pinion assembly came out real easy. No load at all.





BUT, that is my slide and the way the ends of the arms where adjusted. If your end of arms is higher then the slide floor, the arms may be holding up the slide floor load above the camper floor at the wall of the camper. You will need to watch for this. You can check if there is load on the pinion rollers by trying to spin them. If there is no load, they "should" spin by hand if they are not frozen up. With load, they won't and the bolts will come out real hard too. The slide arms while they can move some, should not drop out the bottom as there is a bent in edge on both sides still there to prevent fall out. Makes like a "C" shape. See mine. Yours should have those formed in edges too.

If the slide is fully out, the pinion rollers could have a good deal of load on them.

Ideally you take the pinion assembly out when the slide is fully retracted in. In may case, the pinions are inside the frame making it easy to do when the slide is in. Yours I believe are "outside" the frame. Is that correct?

If they are outside the frame and I'm assuming you need a little room to work in, then only put the slide out 8" to 12", just enough to work in there. Then you need to jack up the slide enough until you see the weight come off the arm and the pinion roller spins by hand. Then you know the weight is off the arm. Then you can take the pinion assembly out. If the pinion cannot be turned by hand, then weight is on the arm. (or it is frozen but you will see drags marks if the roller is frozen)

Do not jack the slide out in the middle of the floor area, no good there. There is no support. You have to lift at a wall area like the slide arm is doing. The wall ends are OK and the long wall is OK, just not out in the open area of the floor

Does that sound like it will fit your situation?

Here are some pics of me holding the slide up when I was fixing slide floor rot... NOTE: The slide is full out when I did this. The flanges where against the side of the camper and I had a concrete surface to jack from. In your case try try and get the jack as close to the slide as you can so something does not shift on the ground below you. I'm assuming you are on a dirt/gravel campsite








Hope this helps

John