Community Forums

Ljwt330 · 06-11-2018, 11:27 AM

Sorry for the long post, but I hope someone will bear with it and offer some insights.

My new to me 2007 National Tropi-cal has a Power Gear (Lippert) electric slide out for the lounge area which includes a dinette and refrigerator.

When the slide is fully in or fully extended, there is a small gap, ~1.25", between the bottom of the slide floor and the coach floor. Under the refrigerator is a roller but there are no rollers under the dinette, which extends further into the coach. Coach floor is vinyl "tile."

The following describes the action from inside the coach:

When the slides begins to extend, it tilts forward (top tilts inward toward the coach) and the bottom edge of the dinette floor scrapes a bit on the vinyl flooring. As the slide continues outward, it reaches a "tilting point" and the top now tilts outward (toward the wall), and there is ample clearance under the dinette. When fully extended, the top hits the outside wall first, and the bottom continues to move until the slide is squared up against the wall.

Now, the above all makes sense to me if the slide is moved over a pivot point at the outside wall. The slide is basically "pulled out" by the floor so the bottom would move first causing the slide box to tilt inward at the top. As the weight of the slide box reaches the pivot point (the outside wall edge) it tilts outward at the top, toward the exterior wall. When being retracted, the reverse happens--bottom moves first, slide box tilts slightly with floor up, as it moves in the tilt changes and slide floor is contacting the coach floor until fully retracted and sealed.

My question is, is this normal to the degree of tilt, or is there some adjustment that can be made to the slide mechanism to reduce the tilting. I have thought of adding rollers under the dinette so the tilt is reduced and the scraping is replaced by the rollers moving over the vinyl.

Thoughts or advice is welcomed.

curmudgeon59 · 06-11-2018, 01:01 PM

You can find the service manual on the Lippert site to look at the adjustment options. It's www.lci1.com. You can dig around in the support section to find owner and service manuals. I found (and printed out to carry) the ones for my newly acquired 2007 trailer. If you take a look underneath your slide first (maybe snap a couple of pics), it will help to narrow down which variant of the slide mechanism you have.

I think the important point with the degree of tilt going on is that the seals need to be fairly tight (both retracted and extended) to prevent water intrusion. Whatever you tweak, you don't want to bind the seals while sliding for risk of tearing them.

Ljwt330 · 06-11-2018, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curmudgeon59

You can find the service manual on the Lippert site to look at the adjustment options. It's www.lci1.com. You can dig around in the support section to find owner and service manuals. I found (and printed out to carry) the ones for my newly acquired 2007 trailer. If you take a look underneath your slide first (maybe snap a couple of pics), it will help to narrow down which variant of the slide mechanism you have.

I think the important point with the degree of tilt going on is that the seals need to be fairly tight (both retracted and extended) to prevent water intrusion. Whatever you tweak, you don't want to bind the seals while sliding for risk of tearing them.

Thanks for the response. I've already downloaded the Power Gear manual have studied it closely. Currently, the seals are tight when slide is in or out and, if I remember correctly,appear to be aligned correctly/evenly along the slide box. (MH isn't here so this is from my last observation.) I'm not going to adjust anything until I understand what's in play here.

It doesn't seem, from the manual, that the slide box should be able to tilt, however. The outer edge of the slide box is firmly bolted to the ends of the inner (moveable) slide rails. I assume the inner edge of the slide box rides on rollers that run on the top of the outer slide rail. Does anyone know if this is the case? There has to be something that supports the inner edge of the slide box off of the coach floor.

curmudgeon59 · 06-12-2018, 09:51 AM

In my case, there was a "service manual" in addition to the owner's manual. The service manual (with lots of "certified technician only" verbiage) describes various leveling and squaring adjustments. I haven't needed to do any of that.

For my slide, the tilting that happens at the beginning and end of the slide movement seems to be an aspect of the distance between the inner and outer lips at the *top* of the slide. When bringing the slide in, the top touches first, while the bottom continues to come in for a couple more inches. This gives the slight tilt while in. There is a similar bit of movement at full extension. While I suspect this might be adjustable by the bolts at the outer end of the slide racks, in my case it seems to be overall working fairly well. I'm thinking that the distance between the seals/lips at the top of the slide is less than at the bottom, probably by design, though I don't know exactly why. This makes the top of the slide contact first, with the bit of tilt added by the bottom continuing to move another inch or two at each end of the travel to bring all the seals in contact.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-13-2018, 08:40 AM

Is this a flush floor slide or a level type (stays raised above main floor)?

With my PG flush-floor slide (in a different brand coach), the inward tilt at the beginning of the deployment was very small and momentary. The big tilt was as the slide crossed over the sidewall and began to settle down to be flush with the main floor. That caused the top to touch the sidewall first while thebottom moved to full extension.

The level slide on the other side of the coach didn't tilt at all - just moved straight out to contact the sidewall. That slide carried both the galley and the sofa.

Ljwt330 · 06-13-2018, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

Is this a flush floor slide or a level type (stays raised above main floor)?

With my PG flush-floor slide (in a different brand coach), the inward tilt at the beginning of the deployment was very small and momentary. The big tilt was as the slide crossed over the sidewall and began to settle down to be flush with the main floor. That caused the top to touch the sidewall first while thebottom moved to full extension.

The level slide on the other side of the coach didn't tilt at all - just moved straight out to contact the sidewall. That slide carried both the galley and the sofa.

It is a level slide, as you describe, that's why I just don't understand the degree of tilt. Theoretically, the slide should remain the same distance from the coach floor between fully open and closed positions. I can understand a bit of tilt as the physics of moving such a heavy object by pulling only at the bottom would cause the bottom to move first and the top would tip forward a bit. However, as it moves outward, smoothly, it reaches a point where it shifts its tilt and the top moves outward, relative to the floor--almost like there is some flex in the rails or the slide box itself is loose on the carrier.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-14-2018, 06:15 PM

Doesn't seem to me that it should tilt like that. Maybe a damaged or missing roller? I'm quite familiar with the PG flush slides, but didn't pay much attention to the standard "level" ones I've owned, so can't comment on possible causes.

Ljwt330 · 06-14-2018, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

Doesn't seem to me that it should tilt like that. Maybe a damaged or missing roller? I'm quite familiar with the PG flush slides, but didn't pay much attention to the standard "level" ones I've owned, so can't comment on possible causes.

Thanks for the input, Gary, every bit helps. I may be over emphasizing the tilt to make my point which really is, why does the dinette floor edge rub against the coach floor.