Slide Seal

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I am not sure an inflatible seal is necessary if the seal (like our car door seals) keeps out water. The consequences of water entering the coach can be measured in hundreds of thousands of interior work if moisture creates mold and mildew.

Parliament Coach is repairing a Marathon that had slide seal leaks and the entire interior had to be gutted.

With an inflatible seal the slide retraction and extension is a complex series of events including seal deflation, seal vacuum, pin retraction, slide room motion, pin extension, seal inflation, etc. To do that cycle there are numerous valves and controls as well as a control system that senses completion of the various portions of the cycle.

With a non-inflatible seal it is a much simpler control system and in fact we three looked at a plastic coach with non-inflatible seals and the set up looked very good. We aren't the engineers so these thoughts are nothing more than me shooting from the lip.

[garyde]

The seals keep the Coach pressurized inside. Not like an airplane but pretty tight. It is recommended that the toll window be opened prior to opening the slide beause of the suction and you can actually feel the air coming in the window when the slide is opening.
When driving with a broken seal, i will ge a fine residue of dust in the Coach so it is definately needed.

[truk4u]

There are a gazillion plastic slides out there and they don't use air seals. I had an 02 and 04 Country Coach and they never leaked. They were a PIA with hydraulic problems on the 02 and electric motor problems on the 04, but they were dry in rainy weather.

[rfoster]

Gary De: Curiosity is getting me- What life expectancy has Prevost indicated on the seals they have replaced for you?. And is there another way or means of measuring the life expectancy of an inflatable seal. My slide has no obvious counter although there may be one as part of the logic controllers.

I will assume that my coach went into service in 2003 and has 7 years of wear & tear on it although it would seem cycles would play a part in the life due to the design.

Many and Much thanks to Jim Keller and Jon W. for their assistance and help in the replacement of my rear slide seal. And thanks to Scott and Cyndie Parks for their help via the phone. Scott sure came in handy and at the right time!!

Plus the seal has 750 plus miles and and number of in and outs and is performing spot on.

[garyde]

I have never been told the expected life of a seal. From past experience, its not long. However, Prevost keeps changing vendors and the design from its original ( Scott has said the original seals had to be glued together)
My living room slide lasted until 2008 which puts it at 6 years, but I'm not the first owner so it may have been replaced one or more times prior to me owning the Coach. I am on the 3rd seal for the bedroom, and it has lasted about 3 years so far.
It seems to me, they should have a method of repairing these seals instead of replacing them, it certainly seems like it could be accomplished with the right glue and tools.
The other thing that bothers me is the original engineering of these inflatable seals, if your putting air into them and drawing air out of them , how does that effect their long term viability. Its not like a bicycle tube which you keep inflated all the time.

[merle&louise]

Gary De: Curiosity is getting me- What life expectancy has Prevost indicated on the seals they have replaced for you?. And is there another way or means of measuring the life expectancy of an inflatable seal. My slide has no obvious counter although there may be one as part of the logic controllers.

I will assume that my coach went into service in 2003 and has 7 years of wear & tear on it although it would seem cycles would play a part in the life due to the design.

Many and Much thanks to Jim Keller and Jon W. for their assistance and help in the replacement of my rear slide seal. And thanks to Scott and Cyndie Parks for their help via the phone. Scott sure came in handy and at the right time!!

Plus the seal has 750 plus miles and and number of in and outs and is performing spot on.

Roger,

My front seal is the original; it has never been changed. It does not leak air and it keeps water and dust out. I spoke to a tech at Seal Master Corp., Kent, Ohio (manufacturer of my seals) and he said that 12 years old was a long time for a seal to last. He of course touted the quality of their seals. I changed my bedroom slide seal (painter knicked it with a grinding wheel) in Feb. 2006, so it has lasted 4 years so far.

It seems odd that Prevost and Newell engineers would build a slide out using air seals if it could be done like the plastic coaches not using an air seals. Could they be doing it only to generate revenue? I really don't think that they would build a slide designed to give their customers trouble! So that leads me to believe that the seals are a very necessary part of the slide room concept.

Just my .02

[parksincpp]

Your welcome for the help/phone conversation/coaching. My pleasure. I think it's great you guys did this repair. I'm just sorry I missed the party. The drinking, the eating, the field trip etc. It sounded like you had a whole lot more fun than I do at work doing repairs. I've been at the Nashville branch for the last three days of the week and am just now seeing your posts. Glad to see it worked out.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I did not want to post how important Scott was to us in this process, but since he has posted I suppose Prevost is OK with him providing help.

He helped us at a critical moment.

We followed the Prevost shop manual for slides that Roger had. We were attempting to prevent the pins from engaging. Roger was in the bedroom operating the slide. Jim was standing outside relaying the messages and I was laying on my back in the second bay pushing on the button clearly shown in the shop manual to prevent the pins from extending. Unfortunately the button I pushed caused the pins to extend and the slide room was partially extended. The pins had extended against the glass. Roger could see the glass flex.

In case anyone is unaware, the technical terms expressed when stuff like that happens is "oh shit!"

Roger called Scott, and after some confusion between Roger, Scott and me we got the information we required to retract the pins from Scott and the rest of the project went very well. In the article that will be posted we explain how not to get in the mess we got ourselves into. Without Scott's help Roger would not be happy with us.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

I NOW feel a little better about all the trips up to Prevost Ft. Worth, to let them work on my slide issues. If they break it ( Prevost ) they pay for the fix. Luckily nothing ever was actually broken, it just took a number of tries to get the problems solved. And believe me, they bent over backwards fixing my issues, more than several times.

Everything looks good and fixed now, and Peg and I are happy campers.

Gary S.

[Jim Skiff]

Many thanks to Roger, Jim and Jon for this contribution!

Click here to read the article.