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Think of your slideout as a box sliding thru a rectangular hole in another box. The cylinder that moves the slide in and out is on one end. Picture pushing on the box on just one end ... you'll find the box wants to jamb in the rectangular hole in the larger box. That's why Lippert put the two gear racks connected by the square shaft underneath the slide ... it in effect applies the force of the cylinder evenly to both ends of the slide ... no jamming. If the bolt breaks, all that happens is the slide jams sideways and eventually stops moving ... nothing drops or falls away. You want a grade 8 bolt for the strength to hold both sides in sync as the cylinder does all the pushing ... the connecting shaft only keeps the alignment. Breaking these bolts is really rather rare ... just carry a couple of spares for those rare times. If the bolt does break, just use a crescent wrench or pipe wrench on the shaft to square up the slide to the sidewall and align the holes in the round shaft ... install a new bolt and you're goood to go.
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