Adjusting slideouts

[lgperri]

I'm new to the forum. I have a 2005 Montana 3400. The slides need to be adjusted upward slightly, especially the kitchen area slide since the bottom of the slide is dragging and making a mark on the linoleum floor. Anyone have easy do-it-yourself slide adjusting help/instructions?

[garyka]

I have the same situation.
Here is the answer I got from a moc member.I did some adjusting but it didn't seem to work but you could have better luck with yours


I am assuming that this is occurring on one of your main floor slide rooms. If so, it is an easy fix provided you have a set of combination wrenches.

The first thing I would do is extend the room to about mid way open or just slightly past that point. Go under the room and with your wrenches, make sure everything is tight. Especially on the adjustment plates that are located at the ends of the inner tubes just behind the skirting. What I am referring to is that the plates that have the head of that long bolt that points straight to the ground. You will notice that each adjustment head has two carriage bolts going thru the slots on those 2 flat plates, one located near each end of the room. These heads are where you are going to avert your attention, even if everything is tight.

The next thing I would do for grins and giggles, would be to go back inside the coach and use a tape to measure the gap between the bottom of the slide room floor and the floor or the carpet of the main room. Just note it, we are going to see if you can increase the size of that gap by about a half inch.

Go back under the slide room and at one of the adjustment heads, loosen the nuts on both carriage bolts that hold the 2 flat plates together. Next, loosen the jam nut on the long bolt that points to the ground. Don't worry, nothing is going to happen as long as you have the coach setting fairly level from front to rear before you start all of this. The next thing to do is to rotate the head of that long bolt counter clock-wise 3 to 5 complete revolutions. As you do this, you may notice that the outside edge of the room is lowering. That is a good thing. Now go to the adjustment head at the other end of the room and do the exact same thing and rotate that bolt the exact same number of revolutions in the counter clock-wse direction. While you are down there, if you have your tape measure handy, pick a point and measure the distance between the head of the bolt and the plate that the bolt threads thru. Both of them should be in the exact same position or distance. In other words, if you measure the gap between the head of the bolt and the bottom of the "L" shaped portion of the plate and get a measurement of say, 2", you should have the same measurement at the other adjustment head. That means the room is still fairly level from end to end in relation to the main floor of the coach. At this point, the "L" shape of the plate should still be setting on the tip of the bolt.

Remember the gap you measured earlier between the floor of the slide room and the carpet. Now would be a good time to go in and check it again. You should see that it is about 1/2" more than it was before. If it is, you are now ready to go back out under the room and tighten all 4 of the carriage bolts, FIRST. Then snug down the jam nuts for the long verticle bolts.

Now, go back inside and fully extend the room and seal it. Next, retract the room all of the way in and observe it closely. You should see an improvement in that it is not rubbing the carpet.

When you get this done, please let us know how it turns out.

Take care.



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And MIMF2, too
2005 Dk Grey metallic Silverado Ex-cab 3500 SRW D/A LLY
2005 Challenger 35RLQ
Trail Air LO5 pin-box
Reese 16K double-pivot slider
Prodigy controller

[lgperri]

Thanks kindly. Since I'm retired, I have time to try it but not a lot of agility or patience with stubborn bolts/mechanical parts. If I can do it and it works, great. If it proves too difficult, I'll just pay the price to have the dealer do it. Thanks again.

[jackel1959]

The above procedure does work and the bolts aren't that difficult to get to but they may be difficult to loosen, especially the jamb nuts. A little WD-40 or other penetrating oil should do the trick though. Good luck.
Jack

[8e3k0]

When doing any adjustments to slides, make sure the adjustment is made in very small increments at the adjusting carriage bolts, tighten then test the slide in and out to ensure you are heading in the right direction. I had to center my entertainment slide and it now works perfect with an equal space on each side. The large living/ dining slide was not even on the inside vertical seals when extended and made adjustments to gain an even seal. Will need more fine tuning later on but I prefer to use it a number times to ensure the slide does not bind else where. Ellis

[sreigle]

Good description, Gary. If I may add a couple of things... I like to count the number of "flats" on the bolt nut or head that I turn them so if things go awry I can get it back to where I started.

The other thing is that sometimes it can be difficult to move the slide around after you have loosened the bolts. With the slide 1/3 to 1/2 way extended, as Gary said, stand up and shake the heck out of the slide. It will rock the rig pretty good if you do it right. In other words, rock it as hard as you can. That usually will move the slide so the bolt is now at the end of the slot.

I was very reluctant to even try adjusting our slides for fear of messing them up. Then MIMF showed me how to do it. It's not difficult. Just a bit scary at first.