Slide adjustment advice? How are cable slides centered?

[dcg9381]

Originally Posted by slow

I also suspect that the stainless steel cable rubbing on soft aluminum is not fraying the cable when the slide is being deployed or retracted. Rather the cable is fraying because it was kinked of rubbing on steel within the frame (off a guide roller?), or the cable end is being bent due to misalignment or catching on the aluminum frame. Another possible cause of cable fray may be a loose cable being pinched when the slide is closed and the slide is bouncing around while in transit.

If I recall correctly, Jim at Accuslide said I should be concerned if the slide is in-contact with the aluminum jamb-clamp when the slide is in and the RV is in "travel" mode as the RV is subject to a lot of stress/vibration.

The way those things are cutting through the aluminum on my trailer - and honestly, I should have caught it earlier, just doesn't seem right to me.

[slow]

Originally Posted by dcg9381

If I recall correctly, Jim at Accuslide said I should be concerned if the slide is in-contact with the aluminum jamb-clamp when the slide is in and the RV is in "travel" mode as the RV is subject to a lot of stress/vibration.



The way those things are cutting through the aluminum on my trailer - and honestly, I should have caught it earlier, just doesn't seem right to me.

On my TT, when the slide is fully retracted for travel, the barrel of the cable end on the pull side (outside cables), not the cable is in the vicinity of the aluminum frame. The inside cables are clear of the aluminum frame. Therefore I may be in a better situation than others.

IMO, because of the physical constraints and challenges routing cables in a relatively small space, the cable slide system is a compromised design that is adequate in most cases. But drives us anal owners nuts!

[slow]

Originally Posted by dcg9381

Accu-slide:

So I've just started reading up on how the cable-based slides work. Up on the roof today, I noticed that the living room slide was scarred on top, at an aluminum "trim" piece, for lack of a better word.

There are rollers on the bottom of the slide, but no rollers at the top. Checked the kitchen side, same thing, no rollers, so I assume that this is built correctly, at the vertical rollers at the bottom do the job.

I'm just to electric/hydraulic slides that move an a very robust rail/track. How do these cable slides stay adjusted (centered) in the wall cutout?

It looks like mine isn't correctly centered and is starting to eat itself...

Advice?

Do you have access to shim the lower vertical roller (on the side of the frame)? If you do, you could shim the roller away from the aluminum frame of the slide to increase the side clearance at the top of the slide.

Another thought: The aluminum slide frame may not be installed "square" in your wall cutout or your slide "box" has gone out of square. If you were able to measure the diagonal dimensions of the frame opening and the outside diagonal dimensions of the slide box, it may conform that this is your issue. Backing off the tension on all the cables and then remounting the aluminum slide frame to the wall ensuring it is square could solve the issue you have.

[dcg9381]

Is there a vertical roller? Meaning one that prevents the slide from going too far forward / too far rear? I haven't seen one. I thought the slide basically "floated" on the horizontal rollers roughly centered by the cables. I haven't seen vertical rollers in the Accu-side cut-away either, but I could totally be missing something. If there are vertical sliders, I'm pretty sure I could get creative. Adding them would likely resolve this, but not having seen the RV constructed, it'd be hard to know the right point to attach them.

Dealer still has not been able to solve this, so it's booted out of the bay again.

Additional photos (link form):
http://i.imgur.com/6lg6dvS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DYRI2f7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/giRA84A.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NuK8kYG.jpg

[slow]

Your slide components appear to be the same as mine. My slide frame has a roller with a vertical axis located near the bottom of the slide on each side. To see it, I have to pull back the free edge of the outside vertical seal.

I will try taking a picture of the location and roller tomorrow.

BTW: The roller looks like PN 854599 Slide Out Tracking Roller in the BAL Accu-slide material list.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Quiroule]

I checked my roller yesterday. On the bedroom slide, the front roller is about ¾ of an inch away from the slide, the back one is about ¼ of an inch away.

The LR slide ones, the front one contact the slide, the back one is about ¼ of an inch away and the window robs hard as goes out.

I sure would like to find a way to adjust them.

[slow]

Due to a sloped driveway, my slide biases to the front. With the front of the slide touching the roller, I have 1/2 inch gap with the rear slide roller.

Here is the front roller:


And the rear:





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[dcg9381]

Slow,
Many thanks.. Let me poke around in there again and see if I can find a roller. Simply having that roller in the right place should prevent the damage that my side has on it... Assuming that the slide opening is cut squarely.... Your post is a big help. Even if the opening isn't square, that roller could be shimmed outward...

[gregrc75]

I went to do some maintenance on my slide today and discovered I have the same problem. My slide sits too far forward. It is rubbing in the front. The aluminum trim on the bottom of the slide is down to bare metal and shavings are present. The back side of the slide is not even touching the roller. My cables seem to be centered in the holes.

Front:





Back:

[slow]

While someone else activates the slide, I found I am able to push the slide into position, front to back. You may want to do so to get a better look at what is going on.

BTW: The Darco material on the underside of the slide is also wearing from the bottom sweep. The sweep is a dual compound durometer extrusion and the "hard" (lower) part is positioned too high. I had the same issue and repositioned my sweep lower to address the situation.

[gregrc75]

Originally Posted by slow

While someone else activates the slide, I found I am able to push the slide into position, front to back. You may want to do so to get a better look at what is going on.

BTW: The Darco material on the underside of the slide is also wearing from the bottom sweep. The sweep is a dual compound durometer extrusion and the "hard" (lower) part is positioned too high. I had the same issue and repositioned my sweep lower to address the situation.

Thank you. I noticed the Darco wearing as well. That sounds like a fairly easy fix and will give that a try.

[Dave W]

That slide bottom cover wear is barely showing on our 5er but on the last 5er, a Titanium, there was a plastic of some sort on the bedroom BAL Accuslide bottom that would crack. If the trailer was still in or at least close, to warranty, Glendale supplied a full sheet of aluminum. Mine was well out so I made up some of my own out of three 1/8" plates, jacked the slide up and fastened them in place with recessed FH screws and sealant. This may be a fix for those of you that have torn material:



Yes, I fixed that gap before I finished

[dcg9381]

Another update: Dealer is checking over the install location of the pulleys on my RV. They indicate that incorrectly installed pulleys can cause what I'm seeing - basically a floating slide that grinds itself on one end or another.

The rollers that slow pointed out are "optional" - per my dealer, they're installed when the slide won't center itself with the cables. Those rollers prevent the metal on metal that my slide (and others on this forum) are going though. I couldn't see rollers on my RV, so I assume they were not installed.

If you've got rollers and are still scraping metal on metal, my guess is they didn't correctly size the roller offset.

Next steps are to confirm the position of the pulleys and install rollers (if absolutely necessary).

[slow]

dcg,

What year is your TT? I wonder if the rollers were added as a "design improvement" in later model years.

Please keep us updated on what you learn from the dealer as they repair your TT.

[dcg9381]

5/2015. Service manager told me that the rollers were "optional" and I don't remember seeing them... Now that I know where to look, I'll report back the next chance I get.

Without rollers, I understand how mine is binding on the opening. With rolllers, that shouldn't be happening.

[Quiroule]

Originally Posted by slow

dcg,

What year is your TT? I wonder if the rollers were added as a "design improvement" in later model years.

Please keep us updated on what you learn from the dealer as they repair your TT.

My FW is a 2010 and it has roller.

[dcg9381]

And we've got one member here with a roller that's still cutting metal. I assume the only way that can happen is due to a not-so-square opening.

[dcg9381]

Latest update:
My slide does have rollers, dealer was incorrect about them only being installed if "necessary".

My slide is sitting against the rear most roller - which is the side that doesn't have interference issues. It also means that it cannot move towards the rear of the RV and is inherently binding at the front. It didn't "float" to the front position.

The front roller is not touching the slide, but it is binding metal-to-metal on the top. This means that something isn't square.

Dealer has had it for 45 days at this point and I'm getting very persistent about it. Keystone has not responded to my inquiries on status and when checking with the dealer, they said that they won't use Keystone for Accu-slide support as they've ended up in worse shape after Keystone's techs try to help. So Keystone may not be responding because they don't have anything to add.

Tim Belle @ Accuslide is working with the dealer.

At present, they've remove the front exterior aluminum trim that is around the slide opening. Tim suggested that they move this trim forward, which will do a better job of aligning the cables and will perhaps stop the metal-to-metal contact. When I went in today, that trim had been loosened. Dealer said that when they try to move it forward that it wraps bends and there may not be enough adjustment left...

[slow]

With some luck, Tim will make a road trip to your dealer to get it sorted out.

[dcg9381]

This came back "complete" today. Just shy of 60 days in the shop.
The "fix" in my case was to extend the slide, remove the outer aluminum frame (vertical piece). Behind this piece was a spacer. Remove the spacer, slide the frame forward, re-attach frame. The slide now touches the roller before grinding against the front of the slide opening. Dealer installed new trim - I see no binding/scraping.


They were also to adjust any cables that were grinding on the inside jamb-clamp (aluminum). Service manager indicated that they installed rubber spaces at the ends of the slide guides to move the cable in the desired direction. I couldn't find these spaces. And I found that my slide cables were still grinding and one had started to fray. Got the service manager - asked him to show me the spacers. He said "I thought they did it" - asked for an "IOU" and we'll be going back...

The spaces he's talking about are simple rubber grommets that you'd use to insulate a metal hole. I'm not sure that they're worth anything for holding cables in place, but maybe I'm wrong. My solution may be to grind out the jamb-clamp, undecided... But the dealer fixed 2 out of 4 issues, so they're 50% and I don't know if I can handle another 60 days in the shop...

I'll see if I can get some pictures to better explain it.