Forum Discussion

gkitchens's avatar
gkitchens
Explorer
Sep 04, 2013

Need help with my slide out

I have a 2005 Fleetwood Bounder 32w. I can not get the top of the slide out to close all of the way. When it does not close all the way, the floor that the sofa is mounted to does not lay flat, instead there is a 2" gap that you keep tripping over. I have tried the following so far: Cleaned and silicone rollers and tracks, adjusted stops, adjusted slide out up and down, made sure the motor is receiving 12 volts, made sure there is nothing binding. When I bought the motorhome a couple of months ago the slide out worked fine. All of a sudden is starting not closing all of the way at the top. I have read all of the posts concerning slide out problems and have tried everything they have suggested to no avail. Is there anything else I can try? I am trying not to take it to a rv shop and be without the motorhome for a week or two. Any help would be appreciated.
Class A
  • gkitchens's avatar
    gkitchens
    Explorer
    Sep 04, 2013
    Thank all of you for the suggestions. I am going to look again this weekend and check the three items that would affect the slide out. This is my first post to rv.net and I have gotten more information from hear than from all of the google searches I have done over the past month. Again, thank all of you for your responses.
  • tomousecap's avatar
    tomousecap
    Explorer
    Sep 04, 2013
    I would suggest that you may have something under the slide that is lifting it as it comes in, or your bottom rails are dropped down due to a roller bearing failure. The top should move to the leaning inward position as the slide rails pull it in. The angle is controlled by the elevation of the outer ends of the rails as they move in. Too low equals top hanging out. If it is working right the top will contact the sidewall first and the rail will pull the bottom in last loading the top against the sidewall seal.

    Really only three things can cause the problem.

    1. Binding in the slide itself.
    2. Something under the slide lifting it as it comes in.
    3. Lower rails not raising enough as they retract, which lifts the slide tilting the top in first.

    I have the correct PowerGear service manual for yours. PM me with your e-mail and I will send it to you.
  • msmith1199's avatar
    msmith1199
    Explorer II
    Sep 04, 2013
    Try a Google search. There is a lot of info out there and some Youtube videos, but there are also a lot of different types of slides. This is one of those issues where you may be better off cutting your losses early and just take it to an RV shop for repair, because if you don't know what you're doing on it you may cause more harm than help.
  • Effy's avatar
    Effy
    Explorer II
    Sep 04, 2013
    msmith1199 wrote:
    I can't help you as I'm no slide expert, but my guess is it's simply out of adjustment someplace. The mechanisms closing the slide are on the bottom. So if they have pulled the bottom tight, and the top is still out, there is simply no way the top is going to close. My slide as it comes in starts to tilt inward and the top contacts first maybe an inch or two before the bottom. Then the mechanism pulls the bottom in and this causes a tight seal at the top. You say you have adjusted the slide up and down, but is there some type of tilt adjustment on the slide?


    I would agree. I had my slide go out of alignment. took it to the dealer and took about 15 minutes to realign. The process is something like, unhook the slide motors, get it square, send some voltage across the motors to reset, and plug the motors back in. Worked like a charm.
  • gkitchens's avatar
    gkitchens
    Explorer
    Sep 04, 2013
    The problem is I can not get the top to close first where the tracks then can pull the bottom in. This past weekend I tried adjusting the slide out up and down and it just make the top stick out more. I tried adjusting the stops and that did not help. I have looked top, bottom and side of slide out to make sure nothing is binding. There is not a tilt adjustment on the slide out. Any other suggestions?
  • msmith1199's avatar
    msmith1199
    Explorer II
    Sep 04, 2013
    I can't help you as I'm no slide expert, but my guess is it's simply out of adjustment someplace. The mechanisms closing the slide are on the bottom. So if they have pulled the bottom tight, and the top is still out, there is simply no way the top is going to close. My slide as it comes in starts to tilt inward and the top contacts first maybe an inch or two before the bottom. Then the mechanism pulls the bottom in and this causes a tight seal at the top. You say you have adjusted the slide up and down, but is there some type of tilt adjustment on the slide?
  • rgatijnet1's avatar
    rgatijnet1
    Explorer III
    Sep 04, 2013
    Have you checked the top of the slide with it extended to insure that there is nothing up top of the slide that is causing it to not close properly?
    Have someone bring the slide in while you are watching/listening to the top of the slide to see if you can see or hear anything binding.

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