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The Slide Out On Our Wilderness Travel Trailer Goes In and Out Very Slowly

by Theresa
(Canada)

The slide on our wilderness trailer goes in and out slow. Is the motor going? Or is there a way we can adjust the slide. We greased everything we could think of. Would you please give use any suggestions. Would you be able to tell what kind of maintenance should be done on them every year?

Thank You Theresa

ANSWER: Greetings Theresa thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

I am going to assume that you have had this travel trailer for a while and that the slide used to go in and out faster. To answer your first question; yes it could be the motor or the hydraulic pump that is going bad. But there are a couple of other things that could be causing this problem that we need to eliminate first.

If when you operate the slide you hear a grinding or binding noise when opening or closing the slide-out then you need to take it into an RV repair shop to have it looked at. The problem could be caused by a misaligned slide out, or debris that has worked its way under the slide causing it to bind or damage to the slide mechanism itself.

If you have a hydraulic slide-out system you could have a hydraulic fluid leak in the system that has reduced the efficiency of the hydraulic system.

I have a hunch that your problem may be electrically related. Whether your slide-out is mechanically or hydraulically operated, the motor or pump needs full 12 volt power to operate. If this slowness only happens when you are not plugged into electric it could mean that your house batteries that provide the 12 volt power are not providing full power because they are not sufficiently charged or that the house batteries are going bad and need to be replaced.

The best way of checking for that is to plug your trailer into electric and see if the slide moves in and out faster. When the trailer is plugged into electric the trailers electric Converter is providing the 12 volt power. If the slide moves faster when your trailer is plugged in then you have problems with your batteries or the battery charging system.

As far as any adjustments you can make to the slide yourself, I would not be able to help you there, any adjustments or repairs to the slide systems are best left up to an RV Technician that is trained to work on the slide-out system you have. Any attempts of a non-trained do-it-yourselfer to adjust or repair a slide-out can cause more problems than they fix.

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Slide-Out Maintenance: There are a few routine steps you can take to keep your travel trailer's slide-out trouble free. You had stated that you greased up your slide-out, I am not sure what you mean by that but, there are products that are designed to be used to lubricate RV slide-outs such as Thetford Premium Slide Out Lubricant. This lubricant should be used every 2 to 3 months to lubricate slide rails and gears; it will also prevent rust and stops squeaks and binding. It also displaces moisture and protects the slide-out from road elements.

At the same time that you are lubricating the slide-out you should use some Slide Out Lube & Rubber Seal Conditioner on the weather seals of your slide-out. Even though the slide-outs have weather seals on them; the weather seals could get damaged and crack due to exposure to Ozone, freezing and hot temperatures. This could allow moisture to enter into the living quarters of your travel trailer causing damage to its contents.

One last maintenance tip is to keep the roof of your slideout clean. Before closing your slide-out always check the top of the slide-out for any debris that may have fallen on it while it was open. This debris can damage the seals when the slide-out is being pulled in can also bring all of this debris to the inside of your trailer. One of the ways to prevent this debris problem is to invest in some Slide Topper Awnings.

Hopefully all of the above information has been helpful to you.

Happy RVing

RVing Al

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