Bedroom Slide Seal Leak

[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.

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.


CAMPER

Jeff.jpg
BUS - PREVOST

Do you now see the difference? 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