Fix a Camper Slide-Out Making a Grinding Noise
RV Lifestyle & Repair EditorsThe Accu-Slide camper slide-out has completely changed the game when it comes to maximizing the confined living quarters of an RV. With an Accu-Slide, you can add much needed space to your RV bedroom when you reach your destination, and all it takes is the push of a button. But, like any RV component, there’s potential for malfunction and the occasional troubleshooting.
For any number of reasons, your Accu-Slide camper slide-out might take on an unpleasant grinding noise when being extended or retracted. Apart from the disagreeable sound this causes, that grinding is also bad for the camper slide-out itself, as it’s likely the result of faulty parts and/or debris. So in this lesson, we teach you how to find the source of the grinding coming from your camper slide-out, and show you some expert techniques for fixing the problem so you can get back to enjoying your time on the road.
Finding the grind on your camper slide-out
To help you solve the puzzle of the grinding camper slide-out on your RV, repair expert Dave Solberg walks you through a quick demonstration for determining the source of the grind. First things first, Dave explains why it’s important to stop retracting or extending your Accu-Slide as soon as you hear that unwanted noise.
You’ll need to ensure you position the Accu-Slide properly so you can inspect the cables and gears that move the space. Once there, Dave shows you what to look for, including loose cables that don’t sit flush in their pulleys, ill-fitting gears, and too-taut/not-taut-enough cables. He also demonstrates the best way to remove the jamb from your camper slide-out to check for any debris or screws that might be stuck in the side cables. With Dave’s simple tips, you’ll be able to scope out the issue and get your slide-out sliding in and out in no time!
If you have an Accu-Slide, cable slide, and it starts to grind really loud when you try to extend the room, stop before you go any further. You need to inspect the pulleys and the gear system. The pulleys are gonna be located up here and down behind our jam here. The first thing I'm gonna look at is the motor. I wanna make sure that that chain is in the gear of the motors.
Both of them are in there nice and tight, snug onto the teeth. I haven't got that out of the way. We don't have too much tension in here. It's less than half an inch, which is our tolerance. Then we're gonna make sure all these cables are in the grooves of the pulleys.
Typically, it's not gonna be so much this one as it is behind the jam. We're gonna take this jam off, and we got the room completely extended. We got the pressure off of this. If we had it halfway through, we'd have pressure. Gotta figure out a way to get it back, and that may mean take the cables up.
But we're gonna take this jam off first and show you those pulleys. As you can see, it just hinges in there with that little lip right to the inside. We'll put this back over here. You see our cables coming off of the top, and now we've got a set of rollers right back inside here. We got rollers that ride inside there.
We are gonna inspect those, pull these off to the side. We're looking for screws. We're looking for any debris. If we have any foreign objects in this system, it's probably gonna be inside this room. Something in the wall dislodged or a screw came out due to some pressure.
We're gonna look in those areas, and we got one on each side. We're gonna take a closer look in here. We see that that pulley looks good. We got everything in the inside of it. This pulley looks good.
It's coming up around here. These aren't binding. We got a little bit of touching right here, but that's common, 'cause they gotta come and criss-cross. They're gonna come down through this bottom piece. We're gonna take a look at the same ones in there.
If we got a grinding noise, we either got a screw in there, or we've got one of those cables is out of the pulley and we gotta get it back in, and then we have to look for adjustment. It might be this being adjusted a little bit. Our bracket, something is out of whack. Or like we said before, we have way too much slack in that cable system up at the top.
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