Bedroom Slide Seal Leak

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)

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

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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?