Electric vs Hydraulic Slides - Which is better? - Montana Owners Club

PennyC · 10-03-2004, 05:26 AM

Just spent Saturday looking at all the new 2005 Monty's. Loved them all and still trying to decide which one we should focus on.
One question... which is better..Electric vs. Hydraulic slides. I hear that the hydraulic slides have to go out in series, you can't put them out individually? They say that the electric slides can be used individually. What's the pro's and con's?

Thanks,

CountryGuy · 10-03-2004, 05:41 AM

Hydraulic can be taken out individually, if there is a valve set up in the front of the unit to do so. our 3295 has them and they work just fine. I'm sure some of the other MOC members will be along soon to give you very technical responses (we based our purchase on floor plan, and took the rest as it came

)

Welcome to the forum, Happy Trails

Treecounter · 10-03-2004, 05:53 AM

Our old unit had electric slides. We only had one problem with them and that was after six years. The drive gears on the large slide wore out. It was designed to wear one gear was brass and the other was steel. the brass side wore out and was easy to replace. Took about five days to get. It was only about $15. Seems like we had a switch for each slide so you could run them one at at a time. Hydraulic is quieter. Treecounter

Trailer Trash 2 · 10-03-2004, 06:43 AM

We have the Hydrolic slides and you can open indidually if they install the valve selectors on the pump, which is an option, and a great investment also.

TT2

BillyRay · 10-03-2004, 07:05 AM

I paid the extra money for the extra valve, but have never used it.I'm sure it's a great thing to some people, just depends on personal preferance. the last camper didn't have it and never had a need in that one either.

azstar · 10-03-2004, 11:10 AM

Excellent question!
Our last TT had Elect. Our new one has Hyd.
Never had a problem with Elect.
We're on our 3rd Hyd. pump in the 1st year. Our Hyd pump has a plastic reservoir mated to a metal pump. When the outside temp got above 100 deg. (happens often here in AZ) the pump would leak because the plastic tank had a different expansion rate and it would loose the seal. The pump factory guys have supposably fixed the problem with a different O-Ring seal. So far so good.
I would think if I were to have to fix either of these I be wishing I had the Elect. Easier to diagnose and much cheaper parts.
One of our members recently blew a piston seal and had to disconnect the lines under his rig and manualy push his slide in. On the Hyd. units two things can fail, the Hyd. pump and the Elect. motor that drives the pump. If I had a choice I'd vote for the Elect. but some of these slides these days are very heavy and need the horsepower you can only get from Hyd. pump systems. Leaves you with a tough choice. Happy Hunting.

Trailer Trash 2 · 10-03-2004, 11:16 AM

The only thing that I do not like about the three valve set up is they are very hard to turn, the nurling on there knobs seem to tear up your fingers real good, I made a slide over theres and mine is about 1 & 1/2" in diamiter much easier to turn now. there was another topic on the hydrolic pump a while back dont know where, but it's on the MOC somewhere.

TT2

HamRad · 10-03-2004, 11:41 AM

PennyC,
This question was asked at the MOC tour. The fellow conducting our tour said that all except one model of Montana used the Hydraulic slides. I'm sorry I don't remember which model he said used the electric. The Hydraulic slides come out one at a time not all at the same time.... or at least on mine they do. First the bedroom slide comes out or goes in.... then either the living room or kitchen slide. We have the individual selector switches on the pump in the front basement but we've never used them... but nice to have.

Good luck with your decision.

HamRad

palebluedot · 10-03-2004, 02:02 PM

We often stop for a quick sandwich at rest areas or truck stops. You can't get to the frig. on our 3280RL with the slides in. I just close all the valves except the sofa/table slide and open it just enough to get to the frig. Also if you ever had a tree or other object in the way at a camp site, you could keep that slide from extending all the way out. I would not buy/order a unit without the valves.

faeb and genb · 10-03-2004, 04:19 PM

We have to use the selector valve where we park at home the living rm slide would hit the side of house. Haven't had any problems with the hyd.so far. We liked the Montana so well that it didn't matter which it had.
Gene

Trailer Trash 2 · 10-03-2004, 04:25 PM

I used to have to open the front room slide one foot to squeese by the dining room table so I could get into the refrigerator, I dont have to do that any more I did what another MOC member did, I removed 2 chairs put them in the attic storage in the shop, then removed the screws that hold the table to the floor rotated the table 90 degrees and 6 inches from the large window and 8 to 10 inches frpm the small window. there are only two of us useing the trailer and if we have a large ( 4 ) groop we can use oue folding tables or the picknik table. the wife sits at the small end of the table so she can watch her soaps on TV and I can watch the activity around the camp through the big window. this has realy helped in being able to get to the back of the trailer, there are times that it could be unsafe to pop the slid open.

TT2

PennyC · 10-05-2004, 12:28 PM

Thank you everyone for responding. It sounds like the hydraulic slides are quieter and easier to use, but can have more problems and cost a lotta money to fix.

Thanks again,

PennyC

sreigle · 10-07-2004, 11:10 AM

One thing I was told about the hydraulic mechanism Montana uses is it is a positive lock. If you lose pressure the slides do not extend by themselves. That's why we don't need those bars inside the coach to keep the slides from coming out. Maybe the electric slides have a positive lock also but I don't know anything about those.

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