which slideout is better?

[lycialive]

I'm doing my research, thanks for many great replies in the past.
Which is the best, or most preferred slideout on a 5th wheel,
rack and pinion, cable, or hydraulic? Thanks

[caissiel]

Originally Posted by lycialive

I'm doing my research, thanks for many great replies in the past.
Which is the best, or most preferred slideout on a 5th wheel,
rack and pinion, cable, or hydraulic? Thanks

I prefer hydraulic over rack and pinion
No experience with cable but its a weight advantage over hydraulics.

[Mr_D]

Newmar is credited with having the first flat floor slide out in a MH. They use electric rack and pinion. Ours have been pretty trouble free except for a motor that is weak and needs to be replaced.

[jojolima]

Strongly prefer rack and pinion from a quality company. Newmar has been outstanding!!!

[TXiceman]

Having had hydraulic and rack and pinion...I prefer the mechanical rack and pinion.

Ken

[jesilvas]

You can still have a rack and pinion style in elec or hydraulic. The rack just joins the sides together.

But I'd rather have electric motor pushing it. Pumps can fail, leak. Isolator valves can leak. Cylinders can internally leak and drift slides going down the road. You have to run all slides at the same time.
Electric can be done individually per slide. No fluid to leak. Just less things to go wrong.

I HATE cable. Only experience was with Open Range. They didn't attach it to the slide very well in all the two I've seen. Snapped screw here. No screw there. Just slap in as many as possible on top of one another. Then, if a cable breaks, you have to hope it stayed in the pulleys. Adjusting it is hard if there's no room between the upper slide valence and ceiling. It's finicky if not level. Cables can stretch needing constant adjustment.

The new Lippert four track wall system is strange. Finicky if not level too. Had a MH whose system failed. Couldn't get the slide in so he was stuck. Motors are in the wall.

Plain electric motor with R&P is simple. You can crank in/out a slide much easier than ANY of the other methods if need be.

[JohnBoyToo]

You didn't mention it, but I'll post it to save others the trouble....

Lippert's Schwintek system is an abject failure - do NOT purchase anything with it on there unless it is a VERY VERY small slide (and with two motors on each end you'll still get out of sync conditions and binding !)

[vsheetz]

In my experience, at a dealer, whichever system the coach you are looking at uses is the best.

[Half Dimes]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

...Pumps can fail, leak. Isolator valves can leak. Cylinders can internally leak and drift slides going down the road. You have to run all slides at the same time.
Electric can be done individually per slide. No fluid to leak. Just less things to go wrong.

Not necessarily. Our NuWa has two individually operated hydraulic slides. No problems with those or the other two electric motor operated slides (so far).

[jesilvas]

Originally Posted by Half Dimes

Not necessarily. Our NuWa has two individually operated hydraulic slides. No problems with those or the other two electric motor operated slides (so far).

True, I forgot those. Not very common though.

[lycialive]

Thanks everybody for the great feedback. rack and pinion seems to be the group favorite. I went to an RV show this last weekend, and the only cable slideout was on the Open Range. Interesting.

[greyt-parent]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

You can still have a rack and pinion style in elec or hydraulic. The rack just joins the sides together.

But I'd rather have electric motor pushing it. Pumps can fail, leak. Isolator valves can leak. Cylinders can internally leak and drift slides going down the road. You have to run all slides at the same time.
Electric can be done individually per slide. No fluid to leak. Just less things to go wrong.
.

I have to respectively disagree with almost every point:
- your are correct in that most hydraulic systems are a combination of hydraulic and rack/pinion. The slide has 2 arms. The drive arm will be a hydraulic ram which also drives a rack and pinion system to keep the second arm in sync.
-you are also correct that leaks in a hydraulic system or a pump failure will cause problems, but then a decently designed system with well made hoses and connectors will operate trouble free for many years. A hydraulic pump is not subjected to the same stresses as an electric motor.
BUT
-A good hydraulic system will allow you to operate one slide at a time by activating a solenoid which drives the selected ram.
-all hydraulic motors/pumps have a backup drive system: a hex head bolt in the pump, which can be manually driven by a hand held electric or battery operated drill.
- The solenoids all have hex bolt overrides to manually open/close the valve in the case of an electric or switch failure.
-in the event of a failure with an electric system, there is a hand crank to move the slides. I think I would rather be able to use an electric drill to manually crank a hydraulic pump than to have to hand crank an electric system.


I have two large full length slides and 2 bedroom slides. You would need a mother of a large electric motor to move the large full length slides. To be able to move that kind of weight, the gear ratios of the electric system would make the slide move at a snails pace. Hydraulic rams are much move powerful and can handle that kind of weight. I would rather have a hydraulic system any day.

[jdoc]

Half Dimes, thank you. Very well stated. Our last fiver was a 2003 model of your 2008. Had the same slide system. The 2 years we had it never had a bit of trouble with it. Had 3 fivers prior to it and had to have at least one electric motor replaced on each of them due to the gears breaking and that causing the motor to get in a bind and burn up very quick. Have had to one replaced on our current rv. See sig.

Jerry

[BCooke]

My father has Hydraulic and electric gear drive. He likes the hydraulic. It takes up more space inside the unit. We did have to re align the electric unit once. The only hydraulic issues he has had on his motor home was the jacks.