We were closing up early Wednesday morning when my wife noticed that the passengers front slide was not coming in correctly. A quick look out the door to the slide rams revealed the problem. The ram under the galley was free from the slide. This is the second failure I have had of this nature. Last year it was the drivers side under the frig.
A volunteer friend of mine came to assist me. (He did most of the work.
) The 2 top blots were sheared off and the 2 bottom bolts were bent down where the end plate holes had stretched out under the severe load.
We bought $3 worth of bolts - grade 8 - washers and nuts. We moved the carriage over enough to drill and tap the ram end plate within the ram tube and drilled 2 bolt holes in the plate extension. Here we used nuts behind the plate. Once all was back together the slide came in. We left on our 600+ mile trip at about 1:30PM. Our original plan was for a 6:30AM start. We were trying to beat a snow storm in norther California. We were driving INTO it!
We arrive here, Grass Valley, around 5PM Thursday. A good portion of the drive was in the rain and high winds. I was beat to say the least. We had been on the road since 6:30AM.
When the slide went out I heard some noises I din't like. But it did go out. It was cold and was starting to rain. We will be here for 2 months so I will have to get a better look at the "fix" and make certain all is well. At the moment the weather is under winter storm watch.
If you have this type of room slide system I strongly suggest that you take a very close look at the ram end plate mounting. Look for a air gap or slight tilting of the trim panel. Even taking the trim off and doing a visual inspection of the adjuster plate bolts is not out of the question. I hope you can catch this problem before it happens to you. I think the upper bolts are too small, 5/16" x 18 thread.
Rick Y
. (full time volunteers)
Linear Mode
