Slide-out Maintenance

What have you all done for maintenance on your slides / landing gear?

If I interpret Lipperts instructions, they say that you don't need to do anything, no user maintainable (is that a real word?) parts.

But, my slide and landing gear have been stopping partway through retracting. After I hear the breaker reset, it comes the rest of the way in. Is there some type of cleaner / lubricator that I should be applying to the rails? I don't want to get out there with grease since that's a major dirt magnet and looking at the slides, they look pretty clean / lubricant free.

Mattebury :
But, my slide and landing gear have been stopping partway through retracting

You need to redo your breakers as we did. I had the same problem with it stopping half way in and the landing gear half way up.

You add an extra 40a breaker and wire it in parallel like the picture .

Heres the link to the solution that works ., no more stopping.

http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/gallery/Wildcat-owners-Gallery/DIY-Repairs-photos/Breaker-Connection-diagram-pic_189.htm

Mark,

My slides were making a really loud squeak when I opened/closed them. I uses CRC dry lube spray and the squeak went away. That's the only maintenance I've done.

But my landing gear legs are starting to get a little rusty, guess its time for some steel wool for that.

Since my landing gear is powered by an electric motor I can't comment on that, but my slides are hydraulic, so here's what I do:

When I pull the Cat out of storage at the beginning of each season I extend the slides and use a power washer on the racks under the livingroom slide. That gets all the collected grime and grit off and cleans them good. I then apply a good coating of the spray-on slide lube that's available at most RV dealers and I also lube the rubber seals around both slides. Since the bedroom slide gear is not exposed to the elements or road dirt, I've not had to do anything with them.

Not had a problem since owning the rig.

Hi Mike,

Your landing gear is electric? That's odd that FR would put both electric and hydraulic in the same unit.

I went out to check mine to be sure I wasn't imagining mine just hydraulic, and its only hydraulic. No electric motor and I have the round canisters with the thumb screws on them for the manual over ride. I've marked them with LANDING GEAR and SLIDES so I remember which is which.

I also have the electric landing gear and hydraulic slide. Of course mine is the SE model which translates as cheap.

I have electric landing gear too. My dealer recommended against the optional hydraulic landing gear on our 2008 because of the problems many of the Wildcat units had with the hydraulic landing gear. So I went with his recommendation and ordered our cat without.

As to maintenance on the slide out, I didn’t do anything with our 2004 Wildcat and I don’t do anything to the 2008 model we now have. Mine is not an SE model, we have a 2008 RKBS and love it.

I like to keep the sides of the S/O coated with automotive wax to cut down on the friction and surface scratching caused by the rubber sliding against it.

oldelmer1 wrote:Hi Mike,

Your landing gear is electric? That's odd that FR would put both electric and hydraulic in the same unit.

I went out to check mine to be sure I wasn't imagining mine just hydraulic, and its only hydraulic. No electric motor and I have the round canisters with the thumb screws on them for the manual over ride. I've marked them with LANDING GEAR and SLIDES so I remember which is which.

Tom,

When I ordered my 29RLBS at the January 2006 show in Boston I had no idea that hydraulics were available for the landing gear. I'd read that the slides were hydraulic but didn't know that option was available for the gear. I was used to an electric motor for the landing gear, because that's what I installed on my previous 28RKLS from R-Vision. Imagine, the rig came standard with a hand crank. I had to install the motor myself.

Both of mine are hydraulic and I have had no problems. I use the slide lubricant occasionally. I have not done the breaker upgrade either.

oldelmer1 wrote: I went out to check mine to be sure I wasn't imagining mine just hydraulic, and its only hydraulic. No electric motor and I have the round canisters with the thumb screws on them for the manual over ride. I've marked them with LANDING GEAR and SLIDES so I remember which is which.

Seems odd they would do both, but a lot of things they do seems odd. Don't forget the hydraulic pump is run by an electric motor, some might confuse that.

Admin wrote:You add an extra 40a breaker and wire it in parallel like the picture .
Heres the link to the solution that works ., no more stopping.
http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/gallery/Wildcat-owners-Gallery/DIY-Repairs-photos/Breaker-Connection-diagram-pic_189.htm

The breaker that is not identified in the drawing is from the truck power feed. On mine, that is 30A. The hydraulic system breaker is 50A and the breaker to the interior breaker panel (converter) is also 50A.

Photo

On my '04 Cat (29BHBP), I clean the hydraulic slide mechanism and lube it with a dry lube. When camping, or just pulling in the slide if has been out for a couple of days, I always spray water on the outside slide walls to minimize the friction. Works fine. I do have some pure silicon spray that I use on the slide seals.

BTW...my landing gear is electric as well...

My slides and landing gear are both hydraulic. The unit is three years old, and to date the only thing I have done is occaisionly spray the LR slide rails with a teflon/silicone spray, wax the slide sides ever so often, and I usually spray the slide sides with water before retracting, like someone else mentioned.