Valid Slideouts

Hello All,
We sold our Featherlite a few months back and are now looking at a pre-owned Marathon XLII. I noticed that it has slides made and installed by Valid Mfg instead of the Prevost installed slides.
Does anyone know if there is any downside to the Valid slides vs Prevost slides? I'm wondering if there is any possibility that the structural integrity is compromised in any way by having them done by an outside company. Also curious as to why Marathon wouldn't just order the shells with the Prevost slides from the factory.
Just trying to understand all of this.

Robert & Tracy,

There are a couple of POGGERS who have Marathons with Valid slides: Jerry Winchester and Alan Hann are 2 that come to mind. You might try PMing them or maybe they will chime in and update you with their feelings about Valid slides.

I know that Newell has been using the Valid slides for about 10 years; results are excellent.

Valid Engineering is a Canadian company.

I only want Prevost slides,because as we have seen many very good manufacturers have ceased production.Prevost has Volvo behind them and I think that they will be here for the long run.If you really analyze the current converters there really are only 2 left that are converting the majority of MH shells and they are only using Prevost slides,that should tell you something.

Jack,

I would assume that you are talking about Liberty & Millennium being the 2 converters left. Is Marathon not building MHs anymore?

Marathon , as I understand it, has used Valid for a long time. Before Prevost got into slides. Depending on which converter you are speaking , Marathon and Featherlite were the first to introduce slides on the Prevosts.
Liberty was late to the game and waited for Prevost to come out with slides.
Valid has been around for a long time, it would not be a deal breaker for me.
Prevost is now on their 3rd generation of slides and with them they have re designed their Prevost coach to change the
structure of their coach. Now , the slides are not part of the integral frame of the coach, Prevost redesigned their frame
so the truss like frame is below the floor level. It used to be above the floor level and the slide was cut into the truss frame.

I've been told that there are two key differences between Prevost and all other slides. Prevost slides, being done at the factory, should weigh less as they will be the only slide manufacture that has the ability to modify the structual cage in that are of the bus. Others will have to provide added structual materials in the immediate area of the opening. The other difference will be the mechanism and electronic control systems supporting the movement of the slide. Who's best here I have no idea. I'll add that I'm not a fan of fold down bay doors under the slides. I would prefer side opening doors that open to the front of the bus. Can you imagine what would happen if a fold door door accidentally opened while travelling...

Gil and others,
Marathon is still building coaches to start with. The coaches that JDUB and Alan and Mary Kay have are XLII's with Prevost installed slides. Prevost slides key distinguishing feature, is the raised up floor or step-up.
Marathon equipped slide coaches pre-2000 model XLII shell (RIVET coaches), were using Rogue Coach slideroom installs. Marathon Coach 700, an 2001 build XLII 45 has the first Prevost installed slides for a Marathon Coach.
Some coaches (XL 40 and 45's RIVETED) had sliderooms installed by Rogue in Medford Oregon, before Marathon did the connersion, and there are some XL45 and XLII 45's out there that coach owners had slides installed by Rogue.They went belly up in 2003. Most notable, on www.Prevostsales.com there is 1996 40 ft Marathon Coach 409, green and white checkboard paint job with Rogue slides, was slided before Marthon converted it, have bottom hinged driverside baydoors. Bottom hinged baydoors is a signature Rogue Coach feature.
Another example of a coach whose past owners ( we know them, Bob and Ann Chambers) had Rogue do the slides, is found at http://www.transwestrv.com/pre_owned...R0&veh=2576590 is 1998 Marathon Coach 501, XL45 (Rivets) kitchen slide. Marathon did not build any kitchen slide XLI or XLII's so the 2001 XLII that showed up on Ebay last year was done later. There is another 2001 Marathon XLII 45 that periodiacally shows up on Ebay out of Washington state, with bottom hinged bay doors. This coach was converted to slides after Marathon built it regardless of what was said in that Ebay ad description..
The 2001 Country Coach XLII 40 that is silver and black painted featured on this forum main page was built originally as a no slide. It now sports a single slide that Rogue did. you can see it at http://www.motorhomefinders.com/rvs/117/motorhomes/2002/Prevost/Prevost-XLII-40'-S%2fO/
Today, Panterra Coach has all the "rights" to Rogue Coach slideroom technology. Another different characteristic of Rogue slides, they have a squeegee system to seal the slideroom instead of the air filled inner tube. This I believe is what Vantare used on some of their coaches and still do.
One key feature of HWH and Valid slides, like Tuga's Newell is the flat floor configuration.
Marathon used HWH slides in their H3-45's up to 2004. While the Marathon XLII had Prevost slides.
An exception are the few (4) 40 foot XLII Marathon did in 2003. These 40 footers have a single salon slide done by the British Columbia company VALID. Marthon in later year models, especially in coaches with 3 and 4 slides we were told, liked the Valid slide for its robust characteristics.
American Carriage, which is no longer, had the ability to do a full wall slide done with Prevost's blessing using a bridge/truss formation in the coach underbelly. I don't know if Mark at Carriage ever built one though before he shut.

Rule of thumb.
Bottom hinged baydoors under slide whether an XLI or XLII is a signature characteristic of Rogue Coach Medford Ore
Flat Floor salon area with slide, HWH (Iowa) or Valid (B.C. Canada)
Step up floor to slide, Prevost installed
Squeegee slideroom seal, either Rogue, Vantare
Air bladder seal, HWH, Prevost, Valid
One key downside to HWH sliderooms, particularly salon slide, the room must be removed for air bladder replacement.$$$ Cheapest repair facility is HWH.
HWH bedroom slide can be teased to recess into the coach like the prevost rooms, reducing seal replacement cost.
This is to the best of my memory since we did own Country Coach 60449 2 HWH slides a, 2001 MSO on a 1999 XLI rivet Shell with 2 HWH slides,
2001 Marathon XLII 45 single slide glued stainless Coach 740, a 2000 model year with Prevost installed single slide

Has anyone been to the Prevost factory and watched them install slides? When I was in California this year I met a young Canadian, as we were talking Motorhomes he told me he lived near the Prevost plant and his uncle had a business of building the slides for Prevost. I said that must been a while ago because Prevost builds their own. He said "they want you to think so".

I was there last August they were welding slides in the plant.

Jim,

Wow, what a great history lesson. You certainly know your stuff!


Thanks,

Jim -

Thanks for your post. I thought for a minute there I was losing it when I read I had a Valid slide. Ha. Not that my memory is not getting weak. Knock on wood, our slides have been trouble free. Prevost has checked the roof a few times when we have been in for other service to make sure their slide remains leak free.

Tuga,I said the "majority" I really don't think that Marathon and Featherlite are in the running when you total up the converted coaches from the last few years.I do know that Prevost will repair all of their slides that they have ever built and I also think hat they are engineered very well.

Thanks for all of the very useful info everyone! One other question i was thinking about is this particular coach i'm looking at has the larger bedroom slide (super slide?). Has there been any problems with that beings it is so big?

Is there any maintenance to the inside workings of the prevost slides like ujoints, pillar blocks etc. I think the slide would have to come out to do this?

Here is the Valid Site; http://www.validmanufacturing.com/index.php?pid=2

our 2000 Prevost Vantare has a 17 ft slide HWH on the drivers side which slides the couch and full kitchen,
It works great it moves allot of air so we always leave the door open and a window when we open or close it or it could cause enough pressure to blow a window out because it is moving so much air so quickly,

That's what I do also.

We have HWH slideouts... with the wiper effect seal and its awesome... never have to worry about air leaks in the seals which has happened to a few members and the new seals were back ordered so they ended up waiting almost 3 months for the new seals to come in...not to mention replacing it was challenging for them. I would not have been a happy camper about that, however someone said they changed manufacturers of the air seals so maybe that was during the transition? Anyone know?
HWH seals are simple and cheap to replace, don't leak and no squeaking or wind noise... most plastic coaches have HWH slides so they have builts thousands of them.We have had 7 HWH slides without a problem... I have heard only good things about Valid slides too... Newell for one wouldn't touch them if they weren't good.
It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me unless the bay doors hinged from the bottom... I couldn't handle that.
Can't imagine Marathon using a bad slideout either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coloradobus

Gil and others,
Marathon is still building coaches to start with. The coaches that JDUB and Alan and Mary Kay have are XLII's with Prevost installed slides. Prevost slides key distinguishing feature, is the raised up floor or step-up.
Marathon equipped slide coaches pre-2000 model XLII shell (RIVET coaches), using Rogue Coach slideroom installs. Marathon Coach 700, an 2001 build XLII 45 has the first Prevost installed slides for a Marathon Coach.
Some coaches (XL 40 and 45's RIVETED) had sliderooms installed by Rogue in Medford Oregon, before Marathon did the connersion, and there are some XL45 and XLII 45's out there that coach owners had slides installed by Rogue.They went belly up in 2003. Most notable, on www.Prevostsales.com there is 1996 40 ft Marathon Coach 409, green and white checkboard paint job with Rogue slides, was slided before Marthon converted it, have bottom hinged driverside baydoors. Bottom hinged baydoors is a signature Rogue Coach feature.
Another example of a coach whose past owners ( we know them, Bob and Ann Chambers) had Rogue do the slides, is found at http://www.transwestrv.com/pre_owned...R0&veh=2576590 is 1998 Marathon Coach 501, XL45 (Rivets) kitchen slide. Marathon did not build any kitchen slide XLI or XLII's so the 2001 XLII that showed up on Ebay last year was done later. There is another 2001 Marathon XLII 45 that periodiacally shows up on Ebay out of Washington state, with bottom hinged bay doors. This coach was converted to slides after Marathon built it regardless of what was said in that Ebay ad description..
The 2001 Country Coach XLII 40 that is silver and black painted featured on this forum main page was built originally as a no slide. It now sports a single slide that Rogue did. you can see it at http://www.motorhomefinders.com/rvs/...40'-S%2fO/
Today, Panterra Coach has all the "rights" to Rogue Coach slideroom technology. Another different characteristic of Rogue slides, they have a squeegee system to seal the slideroom instead of the air filled inner tube. This I believe is what Vantare used on some of their coaches and still do.
One key feature of HWH and Valid slides, like Tuga's Newell is the flat floor configuration.
Marathon used HWH slides in their H3-45's up to 2004. While the Marathon XLII had Prevost slides.
An exception are the few (4) 40 foot XLII Marathon did in 2003. These 40 footers have a single salon slide done by the British Columbia company VALID. Marthon in later year models, especially in coaches with 3 and 4 slides we were told, liked the Valid slide for its robust characteristics.
American Carriage, which is no longer, had the ability to do a full wall slide done with Prevost's blessing using a bridge/truss formation in the coach underbelly. I don't know if Mark at Carriage ever built one though before he shut.

Rule of thumb.
Bottom hinged baydoors under slide whether an XLI or XLII is a signature characteristic of Rogue Coach Medford Ore
Flat Floor salon area with slide, HWH (Iowa) or Valid (B.C. Canada)
Step up floor to slide, Prevost installed
Squeegee slideroom seal, either Rogue, Vantare
Air bladder seal, HWH, Prevost, Valid
One key downside to HWH sliderooms, particularly salon slide, the room must be removed for air bladder replacement.$$$ Cheapest repair facility is HWH.
HWH bedroom slide can be teased to recess into the coach like the prevost rooms, reducing seal replacement cost.
This is to the best of my memory since we did own Country Coach 60449 2 HWH slides a, 2001 MSO on a 1999 XLI rivet Shell with 2 HWH slides,
2001 Marathon XLII 45 single slide glued stainless Coach 740, a 2000 model year with Prevost installed single slide

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Several years back, Marathon Coach signed an exclusive with Valid to put quad slides in both XL2's and H3-45's for them.

We converted several 40-ft XL's that had the Valid slides, and as far a reliability, they seem to be as good or better than the Prevost factory slides (especially Generations 1-3). The latest version for Prevost, with the linear bearings on the lower side only, and no upper gear rack, has been the equalizer to that fact and have proven to be the best design Prevost has ever had.

Benefits to the Prevost slides:
1) The structural weight advantage from Prevost increased rigidity during the shell manufacturing process, rather than the "after-market" approach of welding in a giant truss system on that side of the coach in the bays, resulted in about a 1000-1500 lbs less weight for the shell upon arrival, as compared to any other after-market slides we have seen. In addition, the Prevost method allowed for better access to the bays on the driver's side of the coach (i.e. you could have a pass-thru slideout tray if desired).
2) Ease of pneumatic seal replacement. The Prevost slide rooms were designed to retract the extra 5-inches inside the coach to allow seal change without removing the room or dismantling the interior to allow the room to hyper-extend out far enough to gain access to the seal (the case with Valid), or having to remove the room all-together (the case with the Flat-Floor H.W.H. with a pneumatic seal).

Benefit to Valid slides:
They have had immense issues with their seal vendor, and we have seen some coaches requiring one or both seals to be replaced more than one time. I believe they have gotten this issue under control now, but the fact remains that a lot of seals were replaced during this vendor issue and could still have issues in the future.
Valid has had an EXTREMELY good track record with their pneumatic seals over time, as compared to every other slide room manufacturer which had inflating pneumatic seals.

We have also had great experience with Valid Slides. The few minor problems we have had have been easily repaired, and very inexpensive. I would agree with Ben, that they are a more reliable slide than the early Prevost slides. Their tech support is also very good, and they are quite easy to service/repair.

Where can you get service on valid slide out

Valid slides are used in some high end RVs as well as Marathon and Bruce conversions. I'd call Valid and ask them who is near you. I would also hope that Valid and Marathon would help with phone support.