2003 Beaver Patriot Thunder slide out of square

[Mike Grevers]

I have a 2003 Beaver Patriot Thunder 505 C12 with two drivers side slides.

The main front slide appears from the outside to be out of square to the opening. With the coach aired up and all leveling retracted there is a 1-1/4"" gap at the rear top and 1/8" gap at front top. The rear bottom is 1/8" gap and front bottom is 1" gap. The rear is also sagging about 1/2" low. I have read the forums on shimming the rear and that should be no problem. However I am hesitant to do so since high school geometry tells me that will actually make my problem worse and make the slide even further out of square.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone else had this issue and fixed it?
2. Is there adjustment at the top to pull the top front or top rear of the slide forward or backwards?

There are a lot of other little issues with the coach that I want to ask about later but this is the major one for the time being.

History is, I bought this at auction 3 years ago. It has 35,000 miles on it and did not run when I purchased it. After a lot of corroded wiring repair and many thousands in maintenance, tires, paint, fiberglass weather cracking repair, and many hours we have now taken this coach to Florida three years with minimal issues.

Thanks to anyone who has any experience with this issue and I am hopefully successful in attaching pictures of the issue.

[Mike Shumack]

Your Coach looks like mine (which is a 2005). Do you have this mechanism?

[Mike Grevers]

Yes mine has the same mechanism. I once had it leveled and tried to retract the slide and one side skipped a tooth. That was a fun half a day with ratchet straps and jacks trying to get that back on.

[Mike Shumack]

Your paint lines look pretty close. Most align the slide room so the paint lines match. There is an adjustment screw at the front where each arm attaches to the front face of the slide. That would lift, or lower one side of the front a little if needed. There is one set of adjustment bolts per support arm.

But that wont do much to lift the entire slide room or shift the entire room left/right - if that is what you're asking about.

It's a Power Gear mechanism. They show a set of rollers inside the tube, at the far end (inside end) of the tube. If those rollers were worn out or broken, I think it could let the room tilt out when extended. But I don't think those rollers matter much when the slide is fully in.

[Mike Grevers]

Thanks Mike,

[Mike Grevers]

I agree the paint lines are close and don't bother me. I am more concerned with the gaps top to bottom on the front and rear ends. I don't see any way of adjusting those by adjusting the bottom as that will just raise and lower each end of the slide. The top back is too wide and bottom back is to narrow, reversed on the front. What I am trying to figure out is if there are any rollers, guides, etc that ride along the sides/walls at the top to push the ends of the slide square to the opening in the side of the RV. Did beaver just rely on the outside skin and framework to hold the entire slide square or is there some kind of roller that pushes it back to square when it retracts?

[Mike Grevers]

Mike,

Looking at your drawing it looks like where the ends of the arms connect to the "face" or outside skin of the slide, the holes are oblong. Is this where the adjustment screw you are talking about is at? That may be what I am looking for to get this square in the hole of the RV. If I can basically rotate the whole slide 1 degree clockwise (looking at the drivers side of the slide) it will make the top and bottom gaps equal on either side. Thank you for taking the time to help me out on this.

[Mike Shumack]

Here's a closer view of the slide room height adjuster screws.

It looks like Beaver adjusted the height when building the Coach then installed a bolt below the slotted holes to lock it in place. So that lower bolt would need to come out and have the hole redrilled or slotted to make any changes. Maybe not - you will need to take a closer look. It could be that the top bolts are loosened for adjusting and that bottom bolt doesn't get loosened (it's holding something else).

[Jim Nichols]

Ignore the arms and trying to adjust in that area. Concentrate on what the slide sits on while closed. I don’t know the name of the material but reminds me what a white polymer cutting board, about the length of the slide,  looks like. Very slippery. From the inside while slide is out lift the lip of the carpet assuming yours has one. Then you will see it the white plastic polymer. I have seen coaches with 12” or wider thick aluminum screwed to the bottom of the slide on one end to raise the slide. I think the rough roads we’re all experiencing compromises the slide floor.

[Joel Ashley]

I think Jim refers to UHMW or high density polyethylene (HDPE) products.  If there is a TAP plastics outlet nearby, you can see the stuff hands on.  My brother was a fan of UHMW and often suggested it for my odd projects.  It works easily with common tools.  It comes in various formats.

https://www.hornplastics.com/products/sheets-parts

https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/hdpe_sheets/529/2033?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp2033&sc_intid=2033&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyePZ46OM8wIVdQnnCh2h4Al6EAQYBCABEgL0vPD_BwE

Joel

[Eric Maclean]

Mike
Does one side come and contact the coach before the other?
Perhaps the front or the rear seats first causing the sideways shift