Slideout

[Teacher]

Had a very frustrating day. After camping for a few days, I tried to retract the slideout from my 24 foot 5th wheel. It would not go back in. The pump seemed to be working. We unhooked the lines to see if fluid pumped through them. It did. I couldn't even manually retract it. We jumped my trailer battery with another vehicle ( in case the trailer battery wasn't putting out 12 volts). Didn't work. We pressed the pump button and had people try to push the section back in. Didn't budge. Finally, we unhooked the hydrolic lines, used a chain and a come-along to move it in. That worked. The retracting cylinder pumped out quite a bit of fluid.

We eventually got home. The only thing I could figure that might have caused this was that we weren't quite level when we moved the slideout. The manual said not to do that (now we know!).

Anyone ever have this problem? What did you do to solve your problem?

 

[Sarge]

Stuck slide..........

I also have a hydralic slide on my TT. It sounds like you pushed the slide out without the unit being level. This causes the opening not to be "square" with the slide out room. Even though the walls and openings seem rigid, they still flex and move quite a bit on a unlevel surface. The same thing will happen with an entry door if your rig is not level. You may get it open but you would never get it closed again. You learned that the hard way, but to avoid the problem, always put the jacks down first , and level front to back and side to side. You may need to have the unit's slide adjusted for travel, depending on how much pressure was needed to force it closed. The rule of thumb when setting up... ... . if the rig won't level, then you should not be parking there. Hope this helps, be careful out there, Sarge:{

 

[Teacher]

Leveling

Thanks, Sarge!

You are right, I learned the hard way. I should have also added that the reason we put the slideout before leveling is because I also couldn't unhitch my fifth wheel. After repeated tries at moving the hitch tongue up and down, pulling on the release handle, it wouldn't unlock. Therefore we left the 5er hitch onto the truck and slid the slideout. Later we tried unlocking again by slightly letting the truck roll back to break the bind. It worked, but the slideout damage had already been done.

A question (or two): Do you think the slideout will work properly now that it is back in? How does one adjust the slideout for traveling? Is it a simple matter? Why couldn't I manually crank the slideout back in? It had nothing to do with the hydrolics.

 

[Sarge]

Slide........

Once the slide is out and not square, nothing will make it work properly until you level and square the rig. If you drop the jacks now on a level surface and ensure that the rig is level, the slide should work properly. HOWEVER, make sure the pump is refilled with fluid before operating the slide room again!! Failure to do so could lead to burning up the pump To know if the slide is aligned properly, move it out slowly, and watch and listen for the pump to run normally. If you hear the pump whine get louder and the room is not fully out, it means the room is binding somewhere and needs to be adjusted. Your manual will usually tell you how it's done, or better would be to take it to the service center so they can check for a damaged slide mechanism. Hopefully this will not be necessry. If the room does open with the switch, open it fully, then check for light/drafts around all the seals. You may get lucky and not need any adjustments at all. Sarge