Bedroom Slide Seal Leak

[garyde]

I went out today to wash the RV. Started the Engine to build up Air Pressure to Slide the Slides in. I Brought both Slides in, and went back outside only to hear a Loud Air Leak at the Back of the Coach at the Bedroom Slide. Looks like I got a Leak! Does anyone know the procedure for replacing or even patching a Air Seal? My Book covers the subject slightly. Do I need to get this fixed before leaving for SF? Its a Air Seal which I know can be removed and replaced, but I don't know the drill.

[rmboies]

Gary,

I asked Bob-00 about your slide problem and he highly recommends that you have this fixed before Santa Fe. Having said that, our slides are NOT air they are hydraulic so we have never faced this issue and luckily, no slide issues at all. Bob just felt that your air compressure would run all the time if you do not locate and fix the problem.

I would guess that your coach is still under warranty with Liberty since you it is a recent purchase? If so, then urgent, pleading phone calls should work! Maybe Jon, our resident Liberty wise one, will have a better suggestion:confused: Good luck!

Debi and Bob-00

[truk4u]

Gary,
I would think there is a procedure to bypass, turn off the air seal, for just this situation. There must be a valve or something that can be shut off. Once off, it may be a little noisy driving, but shouldn't hurt anything. It will for sure run your compressor hard. I thought those were also tied into the aux compressor to maintain the seal while sitting.

[Navigator]

Debi,

On your Vantare's HWH slides what type of seals do you have, is it just a soild rubber gasket that flanges in and out with the slide movement? Have you ever had any leakeage problems? Would a hard rain or nasty weather cause slides to leak while in the in or out positions?

Being a newbie I'm trying to learn as much as possible about the various slide types. Thanks for any advice you may give.

Tim

[rmboies]

Debi,
On your Vantare's HWH slides what type of seals do you have, is it just a soild rubber gasket that flanges in and out with the slide movement? Have you ever had any leakeage problems? Would a hard rain or nasty weather cause slides to leak while in the in or out positions?
Tim

Hi Tim,

I have no idea what type of seals the HWH slides have--here is their website link: http://www.hwhcorp.com/roomexten2.html Maybe that will be more helpful to you? As far as weather, we have only been out in the rain with the slides out twice. We had a minor problem with high gusting wind blowing some moisture in but discovered it was around the window not the slide. With the slide in, the window is covered by the awning. I would buy another coach with slides without blinking--it is the only way to go for us. Haven't you found your perfect Prevost yet?:p

Debi and Bob-00

[Coloradobus]

Gary,

Your coach has an air bladder similiar to a bicycle inner tube that inflates and deflates around your slide. In both situations, slide in or slide out, the air bladder seals the weather out. Lucky for Prevost installed slides, they tease the computer to run the slideroom in recessed from the outer coach side. Then, they can pop out the inner tube and replace with like.
Other non-Prevost installed slides such as our former 1999 shell XL coach, the slide rooms need to be removed to replace the tube.$$$$$$$
Yes, its best you get it replaced before Sant Fe.

[merle&louise]

Gary,

My Newell has HWH slides like your coach, and I had a cut air gasket on my bedroom slide. A painter nicked the gasket with his grinding wheel. I tried patching it with an innertube bicycle patch; it didn't work. There is about 22# of pressure on the patch and it just wouldn't hold.

Coloradobus is correct; the bedroom slide room can be tricked into going in enough for you to change the air gasket. On my Newell the gasket was changed in about 2 hours. The technician removed the "stop" which allowed the slide room to retract inside the coach about 2 inches. Then he was able to remove the damaged gasket, replace it with a new one, and I was go to go! Great engineering makes for easy repairs.:D It really isn't a big deal to change the air gasket. I would agree with Coloradobus, change the gasket before you come to Santa Fe (you never know if it's going to rain).:)

[merle&louise]

I had my a problem with my slide outs today. I mention this because I know that there are a few POGGERS that are thinking about slides.

The bedroom slide would "stick" when the EXTEND button was depressed. The bottom of the slide room would run out before the top of the slide room. The top of the room seem to "stick". I called Newell service and they said that it was a faulty hydraulic solenoid. They recommended that I change both the lock & the unlock solenoids; the pins were not being retracted quickly enough to allow the room to glide out.

I changed the "lock" and the "unlock" solenoids. It took about an hour. Problem solved. Cost $190 per solenoid X 2 = $380 + $60 labor. Now both pins retract in time for the room to glide out evenly.:D :D

[Just Plain Jeff]

Sorry to hear of your difficulties with the slide.

No kidding.

For general information, there are some pics over on www.prevost-stuff.com of the preview of the Super Show in Tampa showing the new Prevost pinless slides.

Maybe this link will work and you can see the interior of one of the Prevost pinless slide shells.http://www.prevost-stuff.com/prevostcar4.jpg

[merle&louise]

Jeff,

Thanks for the pictures, can you tell if the Prevost slides are electric or hydraulic? Mine are HWH hydraulic (1999 vintage). As I understand, today Valid electric slides are being used on Newells with very good results. From the posts of Gary and Bob-00 the Prevost slides are working very good as well. I am curious to know if they have Prevost, Valid, or HWH slides? Guys?

I was surprised how easy it was to change the solenoids. There are a bank of solenoids in the bay below the driver's seat. Plenty room to work and clearly labeled. They total 9 in all; I will keep a couple of solenoids on hand for spares. They are all alike, but they of course perform different tasks.

My education on slides is just beginning, but so far I am having fun learning about them. :)

[Just Plain Jeff]

The new slides are electric. Here's the electric motor (note the massive mechanical stuff up it:

http://www.prevost-stuff.com/prevostcar5.jpg

What you see underneath in the storage bay is a long shaft which is driven by the gear mechanism, similar to the system (boy am I gonna get whacked for this) to the Newmar system.

The advantage of this set up over the first Prevost system is much more room inside the coach, since the mechanical stuff is now mostly below instead of inside the coach, and much easier to fix or adjust.

Other than that, you'll have to get much better information from someone who is an expert or from PCC.

Hope this helps a little bit?

Self defined level of expertise: .00000278943a (I took the picture)

[merle&louise]

Thanks Jeff, it looks like the electric slide has a pin. The yellow label on the electric motor instructs the user to deflate the air gasket and release the pin before using the override mode. I assume the override mode is used if the electric motor fails?

We need someone to explain how slides work! Maybe we could remove the slides from Gary's Liberty @ POG III. How about it Gary? Show & Tell!:D :D

[Just Plain Jeff]

Frankly, I don't have a clue how they work.

The first Prevost slides I encountered were the pin slides in an H3 and they sounded like a 30-06 going off. They did have some fancy interlock deal with the little window by the driver (it had to be open prior to the slide being extended). This was due to the fact that when the slide was opened, the suction in the coach would pull out the odors from the waste tanks up through the P traps.

I am sure there are others here who can better explain that in far more interesting terms than I.

Anyway, the shell viewed was not set up yet by the converter, obviously, so I'm not clear on the operations, but I'd hazard a guess that any interlocking and pins is eithe automatic or so simple a Cave Man could do it.

I do have a Sawzall with metal blades and a crow bar. It'd be interesting to take apart someone else's coach to see how it worked! Volunteers anyone? Great topic for POG III seminar: Taking apart another guy's coach.

Self rating: -.198/a.3

[lewpopp]

Tuga, you stated that you changed the two solonoids and they cost you $180 ( I'm close ) and $60 labor.

Do you charge yourself labor? Or should you have said" I had the two solonoids changed"

Just trying to keep up with ones expertise.

[merle&louise]

Lew,

You are correct, what I should have said was that my friend Francis and I changed the solenoids together. He is the kind of guy who can fix almost anything; plumbing, electrical, computers, etc. I paid him the $60 labor. The good thing about Francis is I don't have to drive to an RV repair shop, make an appointment, and then pay a ridiculous repair bill; and he can do almost anything from the Aqua Hot to the Girard awning. He reminds me of Jon; there is nothing that he won't attempt to repair.

Without Francis my motorhome days are over. He is also a great friend!:D

[garyde]

Hi Tuga. My Slides are Prevost Electric Slides , with one Horizontal Motor @ each slide. The Living rm motor is located in the 3rd Port bay with the OTR fans. The Bedrm. motor is located inside under bath pullman / and partiallly underside of side of bed. ( Access is no Picnic on this one) Pin relays/solonoids and Air tube solonoids are located in same 3rd bay port side.
Here,s the rub. If motor does not work you can either a. use a ratchet wrench ( @ Motor)to ratchet the slide back in, or have a air tool on hand with a socket that will do the same thing. Thats if the Pins have opened and the Air tube as deflated. If not, you have to do all sequences manually. A real drag!
Or, you can leave the slides out and have an extended Vacation!

[merle&louise]

Gary,

Good post, it appears to me that the electric slides are superior to the hydraulic slides. If your electric motor fails at least there is a backup plan to retract the slide room. If I had a hydraulic hose failure for example, I am not sure how the slide could be retracted (not to mention the mess that the hydraulic oil would make). I would guess that the only way to fix it would be to replace the hydraulic hose on the spot.

I am going to do some investigating on this and will post the findings.

[Just Plain Jeff]

You can pretty much bet that you don't want hydraulic slides. They are pretty nifty on the sales lot, quiet, smooth, ya-da, ya-da. But when they have problems you have very big problems. Many years ago we were at a rally up in the Panhandle of Florida and a guy couldn't get his hydraulic slide in his motorhome (whatever it was). The factory and reps weren't helpful and the hosts of the park said he had to get the coach moved.

He wound up hiring a local hydraulic guy who worked at a farm machinery outfit. Came over..no kidding...WITH the Sawzall and cut a hole in the middle of the salon to access the hydraulic pump, which apparently was stuck in there as part of the manufacturing 'design.' He bled the pump out, replaced it and handed the plywood and carpet to the owner along with a bill for $1300 cash money.

So, you can see how early experiences with slides tend to shape one's opinions.

I am sure they are better now than they were then.

Just like some of us. When we hit 40, look out!

[merle&louise]

I just received an answer from Boyd Vanover with Newell Coach. I will try to copy and paste it here from my email.

Tuga,

If a hydraulic hose failure occurs on the road, the first thing to do would be to disconnect power to the hydraulic pump. There are many hoses in the system, and the one leaking would have to be determined and isolated. HWH could be contacted for direction to a service facility familiar with their system. Also, Newell Service could be contacted for additional advice.

If a room is in the extended position when a failure occurs, the room can be retracted only by disconnecting the hoses (supply and return) from the room in question. It will take a considerable amount of force to manually push the room in. Perhaps, three or four people would be needed to overcome the load placed in the room such as furniture, cabinets, etc.

The electric slides are preferred due to the structured support system which is very much like a typical full extension cabinet drawer slide. Also, there is no need to worry about "leaks".

Boyd

[win42]

XL2 Slides: CC brought a new shell to Beaudry's a couple of weeks ago and my son and I checked out the slide mechanisims and the structure surrounding the the slide openings. I'm reasonably certain Prevost has done a good job on both items. The slides glide out on precision bearing slides. they are moved in and out be two large gear racks operated by an electric gear motor connected to a single shaft driven pinion gears at each rack gear for identical side to side movement. The slide opening surround seal is pneumatic operated. When the slide is activated the seal deflates and re-inflates when it reaches it's full in or out position. when extended it pockets itself into a chanel surrounding the entire opening.
We are not ready for a slide coach at this time, but I would not hesitate t purchase a coach built by Prevost with this mechanism. We still love our simple manual operated XL without the added mech/elect items.
It seems all the expert opinions on slide coach's come from non slide coach owners, I wonder why?

[Just Plain Jeff]

Harry: I am NOT an expert in anything.

My OPINION comes from the following: In about 1992, Newmar first introduced their slides in Miami at a trade show and just about turned the RV industry upside down. Most of the other manufacturers hadn't thought much about the engineering side of slides and rushed their products to the marketplace with expected results.

In the summers, I help out Hitman Frank, well actually hand him tools, at an RV dealership in Maine. He spends a great deal of the customer's money fixing slides. I have seen (non-Prevost) coaches with stress cracks across the entire sides of coaches from the lack of proper framing, leaks, seal problems, drive mechanism problems, adjustment issues, you name it.

Met a guy this summer who had a Monaco Executive, big bucks, with quad slides. Every time he put them out it would crack all the tile up the center of the coach, due to the outbound weigh. After the 3rd patch job on the tile, he had them strip out all the tile. Turns out that in manufacturing the company hadn't screwed the center pieces of plywood down at all. He had them to that and bought a non-slide Prevost.

Slides are not just about the mechanism or the room you get or don't get from a mechanical point of view. Putting slides into a coach, especially a big one from what I have seen, really alters the basic structure of a coach and I don't like the idea of simply punching a hole in a well-engineered shell and putting in a 24-inch 'room' to gain a bit of additional space. There are more consequences to that than may appear on the surface.

Prevost was very late to the game in slides, by their own admission. The company has reworked version 1 and perhaps version 2 by now and they are getting much better. Now the company is about 90% focused on integrating the new engine and EGR issues, so what you see now is likely to be in coaches for the foreseeable future.

Our camper is pretty much at the end of the line of almost 30 years of tweaking this and that to make it pretty reliable. Hopefully those who like slides and want them will have terrific success with them and be very happy with their choices.

I ain't ready yet to make that leap of faith from what I have seen.

Of course, I am also too cheap, so maybe that makes a difference too.

Why is it that I feel like Jon is writing this? (He would have used bigger words and talked about greasy wrenches and tempered chrome-plated flatulators or something tho).

To answer your question.

I dunno

[truk4u]

Dear Postal Dude,

Please refrain from calling your fantastic, great looking, beautiful Prevost a CAMPER, it makes me shutter and then I have a burning desire to subscribe to Trailer Life and start looking for a bigger pickup truck.:eek:

Kindly see the information below:

Camper - A compact, vanlike vehicle resembling an automobile and trailer combination, designed to serve as a dwelling and used for camping or on long motor trips.

http://www.texasrvcenter.com/RVpictures/TravelTrailers/03Sportsmen3262/03Sportsmen02sm.JPG
CAMPER

816
BUS - PREVOST

Do you now see the difference?:p Your friend and a loyal sponsor of the Postal Service.....

[Ben]

I've started calling my Prevost a "camper" to people who think that all big rv's are buses... they will often say "oh, yeah, my friend just bought a bus... I think he got a new one for about $250,000".

For those people, I will tell them I live in a "camper". That way at least they don't invision a big chunk of plastic... instead they simply stop talking to me because they invision something closer to a tent, or a tiny chunk of plastic. When asked what I do for a living, I tell them I'm a bus driver. If they ask for more detail (it's only happened once), then I tell them it's a "rock star bus" that is owned by an accentric author. They then say "I understand, you can't tell me who it is"... even though I didn't say that and I happen to be the author in question.

I just love messing with people who really don't care and am very happy to have them think I live in a "camper". On occasion I'll also call it my "van".

[Just Plain Jeff]

You're a good man Ben.

It is clear that none of us are eccentric, just, well, different. That's what makes America great, huh?

Now if we could just figure out a way to make Smores with the sunlight reflected off the Stainless (catch that Mango?) we would have the perfect camper...and energy efficient too.

BTW Tom, I picked up HitMan Frank's Cummins Diesel pickup and brought it with me. So, we are ready to go, no matter what.

Jus' campin'.....

[garyde]

I'll often refer to my Bus as my 'Camper'. Aside from the fact it draws less attention to myself ( which I am constantly striving) I find it a good short discription . Until you own a Prevost, you don"t realize the effect it will have on folks.
A Contractor friend when pulling up to my house and seeing my 'Camper' said he didn't know Willie Nelson was in town!

[Jim_Scoggins]

Back to the slide issue for a moment. For future reference:
If you ever have to travel some distance and for some reason the air seal is deflated, you can use masking tape to seal up the seam. It will limit road noise and keep the dirt and grit out--also gives the ac a fighting chance.

Do not use duct tape--even the color co-ordinated kind :>)
Not cool, and difficult to clean up afterwards.
Regards,
Jim Scoggins