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dshogman · 05-31-2010, 02:55 PM

Arrived at Dayton Elks a little while ago, got leveled, and put out the rear slides. When I went to put out the main slide, got lots of bad noise from outside. Went to look and from what I can see the slidetopper locked up and started tearing the brackets from the side of the coach!! Looks like major problem and will need professional help. Any thoughts as to why this would happen? All was well this morning when I left Springfield, IL.
Thanks.

Old Scout · 05-31-2010, 05:19 PM

Two guesses: 1-something got jammed inside the spring mechanism; or 2-perhaps the anti-sail/bellow lever [the lever on the end of the roller] got hung-up on something. This is a new issue--dont recall hearing about this one before. On older coaches, the metal portion of the topper has a tendancy to hang up on the top edge of the slide on the way in but not going out...

Voiceman · 06-04-2010, 03:40 PM

David, were you able to determine cause, effect a repair and get back on the road?

dshogman · 06-05-2010, 09:32 AM

Was never really off the road. It happened when I was setting up and I brought the slide right back in. Monday morning heading for RV shop in Burlington, VT area to figure out what happened and get it fixed. Thanks for asking.

dshogman · 06-07-2010, 04:33 PM

OK, it's fixed. Actually, what they did was remove and reattach those plates to the side of the slide according to manufacturer's specs! The specs are that the top of the plate is to be 6" but not more than 7" from the awning rail where the slide topper is attached. The plate on my coach was 8" from the rail. When I got the coach April 2007, the dealer put a new slide topper on but used the same mounting points as the factory had. So the slide topper was basically mounted so that the material almost rested on the top the slide.
Now, what happened to make the whole thing sag a fraction of an inch and the ends of the slide topper tube to snag on the top corners of the slide, who knows??
They moved the plates up 1 1/2" and now there is space between the slide topper material and the top of the slide when the slide is out. There is still a slight slope to the material so water should drain off.

Voiceman · 06-10-2010, 10:23 PM

David, thanks for the follow-up and update. This hopefully closes another issue should others have the problem.

Enjoy the rest of your travels.

Renipladlo · 06-16-2010, 11:54 PM

Wow, had something similiar happen when water froze on the topper when slide was extended, and heard noise when putting in the slide. Glad the BH heard it, so I did not tear anything.

The shop could have taken an extra turn or two on the spring so the topper does not sag, that way when the wind blows, it wont flap and tear off. But each to his own.