Slide Adjustment nuts

[kketterling]

I extended the slides and was checking everything out and noticed on the front driver side slide that the nut on the end of the each hydraulic ram attached to the slide had backed off about an 1/8 inch. Can't imagine the mess I'd have had if just one had come off completely while traveling or when retracting the slide.

Not saying this is normal but if you haven't checked yours lately you may want to check to see that they are tight.

Just glad I caught it.

[Alga Forrest]

Ken,
I found the same thing on my kitchen slide today.....2 nuts on both rams attached to the kitchen slide out. Mine were about 2" from the sidewall....never tightened. I hope people take heed!

[LewF]

Not sure which nuts you are talking about, but the nuts at the end of the slide hydraulic rams, inboard and outboard, are not supposed to be tight against the bracket from the slide. There needs to be some amount of play to allow the slide to adjust alignment as it moves.

This is difficult to explain in words but the outboard nut should be some sort of self locking nut - every one I have seen has a nylon insert. Inboard should be two nuts that are locked by tightening one against the other. I can't advise you about the gap that should be available, but I know that on the full wall slide on the 2007 Endeavor we used to have the gap was almost two inches. On our Camelot the gap is about one inch.

Here is a picture of what I am doing a poor job of explaining. This is the ram on the full wall slide on the Endeavor.



May not have anything to do with what you are seeing but maybe this is helpful.

Lew

[Mike Canter]

I agree with Lew. That is the way mine are with the gap. That is why the two locking nuts on the inside and the self locking nut on the outside.

[Alga Forrest]

My 2 nuts on on both rams on the kitchen slideout were free spinning...not locked to each other. My slideout on the opposite side of the motorhome was cinched up and tightened to the outside frame, by the factory.....so I guess a call is in order to Monaco to find out what it's supposed to be. Thanks for the pic Lew.

[kketterling]

I will be interested to hear what Monaco tells you Alga Forrest. If what Lew is saying is true then there was no logic to how mine were set up as only one of the the rams had the outer nut loose.

Waiting to hear what Monaco says.

[LewF]

My thoughts - based on a little engineering added to experience with two motorhomes with hydraulic powered slides.

First I believe there needs to be a gap at the end of the rams that I am experienced with. This gap allows for the ends of the rams to have a little freedom and allow for the ends of the slides to do some aligning when they move. All the hydraulic slides we have experience with have the front and the back of the slide moving at slightly different rates. On the full wall slide the difference was substantial and we had to make sure the we kept retracting (holding the button for about 15 seconds in the direction we were moving the slide) to ensure the rams stayed in sync. On our current coach the front slide with the reefer at the front moves slower at the front that the back. We have about one inch gap on those slide rams. You can see the rear side of the slide seat first and then the front moves in and seats; without the gap I think there would be some distortion of the rams that might make the seals leak eventually.

Here is a little bit of info I have from experience on the gap - 2007 Endeavor full wall slide, about 30 feet long, two inch gap. 2009 Camelot two front slides, about 12 feet long, 1 inch gap.

Hope this helps. I don't hold out much luck you will get a good answer from Manaco, hopefully you will. My experience with their tech support is very spotty. They have sent me on several wild goose chases until I finally answered my question myself.

Good luck - take all this for what it's worth and what you paid for it. Might be all wet.

Lew

[Alga Forrest]

OK ....here it is per Monaco tech support...1/8"-1/4"...Just loose enough not to bind on the carraige. Ken, I think we better adjust ours like everyone else. I looked again at mine. One was set at about 4" and the other at 2"...all free spinning, not locked. I adjusted mine to 1/4" until I get a consensus of opinion.

[Mike Canter]

I hate to say this but the Monaco tech guy is full of it. He is 100% wrong. According to Lippert there needs to be 2 to 3 inches of travel between the nylon locking nut on the end of the shaft and the two jam nuts further down the shaft. Those two jam nuts should be locked together tightly. The position of the two jam nut and the locking nut on the end of the shaft control the in and out sealing position of the slide.

Go to this Lippert website and download the pdf manual and go to the last page and it will all be explained. The rest of the manual has a lot of good data in it. On this Lippert website are also manuals for the leveling systems.

http://www.lippertcomponents.com/Own...ideout-Web.pdf

[LewF]

Mike, good find. In my experience there can be less than 2 to 3 inches but I have never seen less than 1 to 1 1/2 inch. To see what is going on one should go outside the coach and look at the bottom of the slide while someone operates it. You will probably see the two hydraulic rams operating at different speeds and may see one end of the slide move differently than the other. This is OK and that is why you need the gap to keep the rams from binding. When the slide is out, the jam nut end of all rams need to be up against the slide bracket - not so tight they cause stress on the ram but tight enough to ensure the slide is up against the "out" slide seal. When the slide is in, they must hold the slide up against the seal. I think there is enough room in the ram cylinder for the Nyloc nut to be on the end and allow this to happen. You can only judge this end of the cycle by looking to see that the slide is full in and up against the seal. I would adjust the gap based on these two end points and that is what I think the Lippert manual is trying to say, albeit not very clearly.

There is one thing to watch for, that is getting the two rams out of sync and having one all the way in and the other not quite in when you stop retracting the slide - pushing the retract button. We had this happen on our full wall slide and the front of the slide would be about an inch from coming all the way in. You solve this by continuing to retract the slide for 15 or so seconds to make sure the ram that is lagging has time to fully retract. You need to watch for this on the out cycle as well but it is easy to look under the slide and see what is going on there. If the jam nut side is not against the bracket for all rams then just push the "out" button until they are. The longer the slide the more likely you will have out of sync problems I think.

My experience is that there are many factors that make the hydraulic slides move in different ways and at different times, and the level of the coach as well as other factors change over time and at each site. The slides have to tilt and they slide over nylon bearing surfaces and those surfaces may get dirty and have some increased friction. The slide may be heavier at one end than the other. One of our slides has the refrigerator at one end and that end always moves slower that the light end when retracting. The hydraulic rams must be able to accommodate the non-uniform slide movement.

Once again all this is gleaned from our experience.

For Alga, I think 1/8 to 1/4 inch is too tight. If I were in your shoes I would try 1 inch and watch to see if that is working properly without binding.

For all there in another post somewhere here where some one had a ram leaking and the slide was not staying closed. That is another problem to watch for as well.

Hope this is helpful but remember it is worth what you pay for it. :-{)

Lew

[Mike Canter]

Well said Lew. I agree.

For Alga Forrest....If you adjusted the double jam nut to tighten the gap down to a 1/4 then the full open position is going to be too far open and can break something when the rams are pushing at the end of the travel. If you adjusted the lock nut on the end then the closed position will be out of adjustement and may either have too much closed pressure against the side of the MH or may be too loose and the slide will not lock in so it might drift out while driving.

A couple of things I learned about slides while reading the Lippert manuals. This includes generator slides.
1. Never stop a slide during its travel in or out and reverse the direction (unless an emergency). Open a slide all the way or close it all the way before you reverse direction. This prevents the rams getting out of sync.
2. During opening or closing when at the end of the travel keep holding the button/switch for approximately 5 seconds until you hear the change in the pump tone.You will get a slight change in sound when it initially hits the full open or closed stops but that is not the one you want. You want the second change in sound just a few seconds later. This is especially important when closing to ensure the rams are all the way in and the slide latching devices are locked closed. You are not going to hurt anything by doing this. Try it and you will hear the change in the pump tone about 5 seconds after it has fully open or closed.

[Alga Forrest]

Thanks for the info. I'll readjust my slides tomorrow

[gg]

My two cents on the Lippert 09 combo jacks and slides Gas coach.

1. The nylon loc nut sets the closed position against the outside seals.

2. The 2 jamb nuts sets the extended position against the interior seals.

3. 1 or 2 inches of thread is just mfg variation. Mine has 1/8 of inch to work with. The internal cylinder has a spacer that could be modified to change the stroke.

4. On this model the hyd pressure holds the jacks up and the slide in. Monaco provides a lock bar to install at the top, but the bottom will slide out 5 inches. See my fix in post (lippert side creeping out on I-75)

5. On my model the Lippert pump asm has a flow divider in the manifold. This should allow the cylinders to extend/retract and hold the final position by holding the switch down for 5 sec. I find that the rear cylinder is slower than the front.

My concern on the full slide models or any model where the cylinder stroke fluid volumn in not greater than the hose fluid volumn if it will self bleed the air in the system?

[Mike Canter]

Alga Forrest, I would recommend looking close at the threads and see if you can tell the original position of those nuts and put them back there go from that point.