Slide Out Struggles

How old is you battery? Is it fully charged?

I was told to keep the charge cable attached to my pickup with it running when extending slides on our Raptor 5er. But eHoefler is also right, try hooking up to your truck with it running and see how the slides operate.

jodeb720 wrote:
A fine evening to all of you -

my 2010 Keystone Cougar 244RLS has a "challenge" with the slide.
I thought the issue might be related to the lack of lubrication inside the jack screw assembly which moves the slide in and out, but after removing the entire assembly this afternoon, it's working fine (though the Motor's grease has almost dried out - it's not the reason it's on sliding).

I had hoped this was the problem, but it's not.

The bottom of the slide, in the center is dragging in and out of the 5er. I've raised hte slide up about 1/2" to see if that would help, but it doesn't.

I've seen on some of the other Keystone products, they've put roller assemblies that allow the bottom of the slide to roll in and out of the side wall - but LCI want's a fortune for the roller assembly (and it's just one small roller 5" wide).

I'm thinking if I fabricated a roller assembly with a bunch of small sealed roller bearings I could put it across the most, if not all the frame where the slide goes in and out of the wall.

Has anybody done anything like this or am I starting from scratch?

Thanks in advance!

josh

Screw Lippert. Search for slideout roller. You can find them all day long from others that are less than half what Lippert wants to extort from you. Rec-pro comes to mind

Guys,

Thanks for the suggestions.
Batteries are fully charged, and plugged into 120 - so it's not power issue.

PButler - thanks for the suggestion. I'll be searching here shortly.

For those of you who might be following this thread -

I ended up ordering 4 rollers from Amazon (I already had one incorrectly installed).
I was trolling through Youtube and came across a video from #loveyourrv.
I was a bit astounded to find out the entire slide is riding on two pieces of curved plastic in the corners.

I used some 1/4" plywood shims, and lifted the slide up off the plastic using my floor jack and some 2x4'. I mounted the rollers so that there is one in each corner and split the rest of them evenly out across the slide.

I also dropped the drive slide drive assembly out, and lubricated the gears in the motor head (there is no way to grease the actual jack screw assembly without diving way deep to disassemble the unit).

The good news is the slide now works as well as it did the day I bought the rig.

Now for the question that's burning in my mind. I used self tapping outdoor (coated to resist rust) screws with stainless steel lock washers. As much as I'm thrilled with my work, the steel tube under the 5er is maybe 3/32" thick - and I suspect over time, those sheet metal screws will start to bend and/or lose their grip.

The best solution would be to weld nuts to the tube - and use some stainless screws to hold the roller assemblies to the frame.

Since i'm going to be redoing the floor of the slide, I will have the opportunity to put some rollers embedded in the leading edge of the slide on the inside. From what I can tell, it may damage a new vinyl floor I'm considering putting into the trailer, shortly.

Just from a practical perspective, has anybody found the slide will mar the new floor or is the solution to put down those "slides" that you put inside on the floor?

Hi Josh,

I just found your post. I have been into the Lippert rack and pinion slides, the Barker rack and pinion, the DeWald (Power Gear) rack and pinion before, and while my camper has the Lippert rack and pinion setup, the trough in the floor was made by my camper manufacture.

I can state this though, the two end walls of the slide is where the big support of the slide is going in and out. The walls are rigid, including the long outside wall and they are structural. But the long slide floor itself (the part that is open to the main camper) normally does not have a vertical support to the ceiling in the middle area of the long open section. That center floor area is weak unless the slide is full out being supported by the camper main floor.

To help better, what type of slide drive drive system does your camper have? By your description it sounds like a rack and pinion system, but there are several brands on the older campers. Lippert, Dewald, Power Gear, Barker etc.

Is your slide setup a "flush floor" system or an "above floor" system?

The flush floor setup is more flush between the main camper floor and the slide floor when the slide is full out. There is a rug flap that covers the gap between the two floors. This flush floor system has a cam type of plow so to speak to lift up the entire slide off the main camper floor as the slide comes in and goes out. This type of slide setup most often comes in going up hill on an angle to get the slide floor up off the carpet or floor vinyl in the camper. When the slide is in, the long tongue of the slide is several inches up off the floor.

The above floor is at the name states. The slide floor is on top of the main camper floor, there can be a 1" or so bump (the actual slide floor) to walk from the main camper floor up into the slide when the slide is out. This slide moves more straight in and out. There is no cam action lifting the slide up off the floor.

The plastic floor slides, LCI calls them slide slickers, helps the above floor system not drag the floor as much. On the flush floor system, often you can adjust the system to lift up off the carpet/floor and the slide slicker is not needed as much, but sometimes added as the system gets a lot older.

Where I'm going with this, I do not have you exact camper, but I have worked on some of the older Keystones and other brands to repair older slide setups that have deteriorated over the year with sagging slide floors, sagging main frames, leaking slides, and just plain high drag in the system, but it helps to know what you have on how to help better. Do you have any pics of the slide drive system under the camper and area the slide floor to the main slide floor area where you added the rollers? And some inside the camper too.

Hope this helps

John