Who has Prevost slides?

[garyde]

Hi Tuga. Featherlite does their own fabrication from scratch on their slides.

[jack14r]

Tuga,My 05 Liberty has Prevost factory slides,I wonder from an structural standpoint if any other slide would meet Prevost strength and quality.I have not had a single problem with my slides.I agree that the new superslides in the H seem to be the way to go.I don't know about American Carriage but in the last several years all XLII slides are Prevost that I am aware of,I wish that they would put the superslide in the XLII.

[rmboies]

Debi,
Thanks for your reply, it's nice to hear from an owner who has had slide coaches from two different converters. Does Bob hold a world record for having owned the most Prevosts?

Do you know if Vantare cuts the hole in the shell and then installs the HWH slide or does Prevost?

Tuga, to our knowledge Vantare cuts their own slides in place. Millennium normally orders theirs from Prevost.

I have no idea if Bob is the world record holder for having owned the most Prevosts but I would be willing to bet he holds the record for owning the most within a short time frame!! I worry that when he gets up to the point of owning a new one he will have no place to go I see the '99 H3 Vantare we owned is up for sale on Prevost-Stuff.....it was a nice coach...no slides but beautifully done.

Hi to Karen, her Mom and Debbie :-)

[merle&louise]

Gary,

Thanks for the info on Featherlite. That is amazing!

Jack,

I'll bet those super slides are awesome inside. Glad to hear that your Liberty slides have been trouble free.

Debi,

Thanks for the info on Vantare slides. I'll tell Karen, Debbie, and Marilyn hi for you.

It is good to hear from everyone on this slide issue. Personally, I feel that having Prevost factory slides is better than having the converter just cut a hole in the bus and do some bracing and then install the slide room. Maybe I am wrong but it just seems like it would be a better fit. I guess the true test would be to actually see how both processes are done.

I wonder why the H3 has Valid slides and the XL's have Prevost slides? Do different divisions of Prevost make H3s and XLs?

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, I appreciate your input.

[gtoccalino]

06 american carriage 14'x30" in salon ;14x24" in state ;42000 miles ;no problems designed and install byA/C

[jack14r]

Tuga,I think that both Prevost models come out of the same plant.When Marathon orders a H3 shell they contract with Valid to install the Valid slide at the Valid manufacturing plant which by chance is in Canada as well.I have seen the Featherlite slide being built and it is not just a cut and install,they beef up the structure to support the slide,I have heard only good things about the Featherlite slides.Newell only uses Valid slides and they have had great success after they worked out the seal problems.I have not heard about a lot of problems with the newer slides from any manufacturer lately.

[garyde]

The engineering that any of the converters do should be kept in context to the overall conversion as well as the slides. Featherlite was one of the first to do their own, and they had cooperation from Prevost. From a service point of view its an advantage to have Prevost slides , they have more Geographic locations, & they warrenty their products even to third owners.

[rff105]

We recently had some issues with our Featherlite slide but they were owner induced and lead to a domino effect of issues. I hope that someone can learn from our mistakes if you happen to be traveling in the north during a blizzard, I know not likely. We learned that snow, ice, and freezing rain don’t go well with slides. The slides went out well fine at 10 AM at 40 degrees in the rain but did not come in so well at 9 PM in 15 degree wind driven snow.

I think our problems began when the canvas awning over the slide froze solid, and when the side retracted instead of rolling into the drum it folded and fell into the top slide seal. Because the top of the side was held out by the awning and possibly some additional ice build up around the sides of the seal the pins at the top of the slide were not going into the pin pockets. I find out later in my investigation that the position sensors on the rails at the bottom of the slide were thinking the slide was completely closed and triggering the next step in the closing sequence of engaging the pins. These pins were hitting the side of the slide about ½” short of the pin pockets, I found out later from Featherlite that the pin motors will run continually until their limits are reached when the slide switch is held. This eventually burnt out both 24v pin motors.

We also found the repeatedly changing the direction of the slide without completing the cycle is a very bad idea. The rail synchronizers eventually lost track of their position for what I think was a combination of problems including the cold temperature and not completing the cycle. The slide eventually got out of square by as much as 4” and had to be manually persuaded back to square. The synchronizers on the Featherlite are little wheel sensors that ride along the rail and detect the position of the slide relative to the other sensor. However, they only detect relative position of the rail not absolute, so if one wheel slips on the rail for any reason it will lose track of where it is relative to the other slide rail. This is why it is not a good idea to stop the slide mid cycle. The small differences in position introduced with each reversal of direction eventually get amplified to being very out of square. I also think the wheel sensors had a tendency to slip on the cold steel. Featherlite did upgrade the wheel sensors to their newer design but I have not had a chance to investigate them yet.

Anyway after about 1 ½ hours of trying to get the cycle to complete so the green light would come on. I gave up and finally tried to engage drive on the transmission, and what do you know it worked. The owner’s manual says the transmission would not engage if the cycle was not complete, we had the slide in completely but I could visually see the pins were not engaged. Without any other options we drove home in the blizzard conditions safely, and I was quite impressed with the H3’s handling and stopping in the snow. It was a little difficult to get it going, and with how quiet the engine is, you really had to watch the tack to know how much you were spinning the wheels, but after you got it up to speed it maintained very well.

After getting the coach back into the warm garage and having a night to sleep in it I started to investigate how the slide works. I found the electrical schematics, located all the side and pin sensors, and the main control module. Although it does not mention anywhere in the owner’s manual I found in the electrical schematic on the transmission cut-out relay a designation for “transmission override switch – bay 6L”. I eventually located the toggle switch in the rear electrical bay that is unmarked and does over ride the bays control over the transmission. We just happened to be lucky that either the previous owner or the factory had left it in the override position or we would likely have not gotten home that night.

We took the coach to Featherlite last week and they replaced both pin motors, upgraded the synchronization sensors, and re-aligned the slide for about $2400. I feel I have much better knowledge about how the slide operates and what its limitations are, and I feel we could make most repairs ourselves if needed in the future, but it was an expensive learning experience. I came across a lot more information on Featherlite slide than I posted here that is probably specific to Featherlite so if anyone has any Featherlite specific questions they can drop me an email or just post. I tried to keep this post general to issues that could occur with any manufactures slides.

[truk4u]

Richard,

Great post... I saw a guy in a campground with a new Beaver get on top with a broom and knock ice off the awning toppers so he could close the slide. No wonder the plastic machines have rear ladders!!!

[merle&louise]

Great post Richard! I love that paint job!
Aside from retracting the slides during a blizzard have you had any other problems? I am assuming since you have an H3 that your slides are Valid? How have your inflatable gaskets held up? Have you had any pin problems?

Gary, I agree I believe that the Prevost slides are the way to go from a service stand point.

Jack, it is good to hear from someone who has actually seen the installation of the Featherlite slides. I am happy to hear that the frame is beefed up to handle the stress of the slides moving in and out. I sort of guess that it was reinforced but it is nice to hear from someone who has actually seen the process from start to finish. Glad to hear that no news is good news regarding the newer slide coaches.

gtoccalino,

Thanks for the response; it is good to hear from an American Carriage owner. A 14' bedroom slide must really be nice! Are you planning to attend any POG rallies - I would love to see that bedroom slide. Glad to hear that you are happy with your 06 American Carriage bus. Are you slides Valid or HWH? Could you post a picture of your bus?