[Bill]

My rear slide on mine did the same, it looked like the brain box was dead, I bumped the box with the palm of my hand and it came on, I retighten the hold down bolts because there was a grounding problem, all was well Darrell

[tom]

On my coach, which is on 2000 shell, and with Prevost slides, for the front slide to operate cannot have level low or any otherl leveling sytem operating. It must be in the drive position. The rear slide will work with the bus leveled, but not the front since the bus actually unweights the tag axle during the process on the front slide.

I do not know if your bus is Prevost slides, or if you have a different generation slide controller than I do, but thoght this might help.

[Archived]

Prevost has had multiple versions of slides. This is one instance where any advice we offer might not only be wrong, it might result in damage to the coach, such as causing slide pins to fire when they should not.

I would urge you to contact Prevost and have Prevost walk you through the issue.

At the earliest opportunity when you are at a Prevost facility you should have a knowlegible technician walk you through the emergency manual procedures to operate the slides. All Prevost slide coaches have provisions for extension and retraction of the slides manually and the process varies depending on the version of slides. Manual operation over rides all safety features so it is important to get a full understanding of your specific version. I do know manual operation requires the deflation of the slide seal along with setting the valve that controls the slide pins to a position that prevents slide pin operation.

In fact everyone with a slide coach, regardless of who built the slides should know the procedures for emergency operation, including driving the coach when a sensor or component has failed to indicate the slides are in a safe position for driving. It is not a situation that anyone should ignore because all slides at some point are going to have a failure.

To help me remember the procedures for my coach I have written detailed instructions on tags and hung the tags on the various valves and devices I need to operate to make the slide do what I need it to do.

[Chip & Pam]

It could also be a slightly stuck pin. Try moving the coach, maybe driving around the block and trying it again. Sometimes there is a slight bind and the slide will not operate. Good luck and let us know

[Archived]

Just double check that your level low is in travel position and NOT set to left, right or front. The slide will not operate unless level low is in travel position. The reason i bring this up is that you mentioned you leveled the bus. That should be done after the slide goes out.

[Steve]

We went home today and when I pulled it into the driveway I left the bus in drive position, pressed the button, and the slide went out no problem.

I didn’t know that you had to have it in drive height for the front slide to work. I guess it’s not obvious since the rear slide works.

This happened to me a couple other times before and I thought I had an intermittent problem, but now I think it was just me having leveled the coach and then taking the coach out of level low and not realizing that was what was needed.

I had another problem before that had to do with the headlights that seemed intermittent but turned out that it wasn’t. It only happened when the headlights were off. But t until I knew that it was a ghost of a problem. Interesting how that happens.

Our bus has Prevost slides. When I called marathon they confirmed that.

Thanks all! The level low info seems to have been right on.

Walt

[Brian]

Walt,

Glad it was something easy and just “user error”. The only reason I know this, is because I did the same thing over Christmas this year. We travel at ungodly hours. Like leaving a campground at 3-4am. If I can’t sleep, I might as well be driving. At 3am, I totally forgot to get to ride height before pulling in Front Slide. Panic attack.. Then I calmed down, had a cup of coffee and thought thru the issue.

[Archived]

I’m not suggesting anyone does this as a normal practice, but slide pins will release and the slide will come in or go out no matter what position my coach is in, Further, if the pins will not release the next step is going to be to try to twist the coach every way possible to free up whatever pin is binding, and then adjust the pin(s) as needed to prevent a recurrance. At least that is how it is on my coach.

[Archived]

Not sure if Jeff would concur with this recommendation but on a previous coach, front slide would not open and determine the “lower pin” would not release. Access just behind driver seat as used a long 2′ x 4′ (about 5′ long) and set the end on the pin and tap with a hammer and the pin released… Tight area and only enough room to get the board ontop of the pin…..

[Archived]

Brady is correct. In fact if the slide won’t come out because a pin is hung up a long extension with a 17MM socket to loosen the pin housing bolts will allow enough movement to release a stubborn pin.

Giving the stuck pin, if it can be accessed, a real good smack is the easiest first response.

[Rodney]

Waltshires wrote: “We’re at a friends house – camping before their daughters birthday party (and sorta of trying to coax their wife into wanting a prevost) and the front slide won’t go out.”

Were you successful in helping your friend coax his wife into wanting a Prevost?

Quite a few of us are wondering if you got the job done.

[Rodney]

Getting close on the convincing. The biggest thing people say (pun intended) when they see the bus is how it’s so big. Heck, even to me when I first saw one I person I was like WOW maybe this is a mistake! It’s big for the un-initiated. Now it doesn’t seem big to me at all but I remember that first shock. Of course she said the same thing.

Their kids love the bus now, and they have an airstream already so although it’s a big step…. It’s only a step towards a Prevost. The slide situation could have been better but I think that she’ll get to see it the next time. Everything else worked as designed so that was good.

We plan on doing it again soon so that the kids can hang out by the entertainment bay. This time was slightly rushed as it was the birthday party for their daughter and it was raining.

Her husband and I want to find just the right 100 acres in Oregon to put in a few pads for the busses so we can take the kids camping… But the ladies can live resort style while we roast marshmallows on a campfire.

It’s a process but I’m keeping at it!!

[Jerry]

Not picking on you Walt, but lately based on phone calls, emails or posts I am seeing a lot of problems we owners experience are either directly self inflicted, or are the result of not fully understanding what the bus is trying to tell us.

I am in a bitching mode about this so everyone should take my remarks as coming from a cranky bus owner. Far too often people that should know better buy a coach with almost no inspection, and worse, almost no training. Then the first thing that happens is they cannot get something to work. I fully admit the converters have some operating steps for things that are not intuitive. To turn on a Cruiseair on my coach a minimum of three switches need to be on and two are obvious, but the final “switch” is on a touch screen, and then out of the five touch screens in the coach, the A/C control is only on two of them. But a new owner that does not know how to turn on the A/C has failed to do an inspection, and likely never got any training. If he did an inspection or he got training he would know how to turn on the A/C or the Webasto, or the toe space heater, etc.There are other examples on the forums, but my point is far too many are so excited about getting a coach and hitting the road they ignore the fact this is not their father’s Oldsmobile and there is a lot to learn.

Then when we as drivers are heading down the highway we fail to have done a good pre-trip inspection so when lights and buzzers start going off we go into panic mode. Or we don’t get a chance to get a buzzer or red light. We get an exploding tire or some damage to the coach or systems.

Despite a lot of bandwidth dedicated to discussions about tires, or a DOT brake check, or a pre trip inspection, or taking the time to learn the coach, how many of us can wave our hands and say we did a comprehensive pre-trip inspection, did a brake check, and took the time to at least know what a specifc button on the dash does or what a warning light is telling us?

To address the slide issue……….Slides add complexity to our coaches and because of that complexity we as owners should have a complete understanding of how to properly operate a slide. But we need to go further. At some point the slide will fail to operate. That’s not an “if”, but a “when”. Do slide owners know and understand the procedures to extend or retract a slide manually? Do slide owners know how to by-pass a failed sensor so when the slides are retracted the coach can go into gear and be driven?

When we show our coaches to others they are amazed. No question about it, our coaches leave most people in awe. But how many of us are willing to stress to potential owners how important it is to actually learn our coaches before we take to the highway. Not only to protect our own safety, but that of others around us. We don’t because we are showing the decor and the flat screen TVs or the Crestron system, but we never talk about how long we need for training.

I’ll step down off the soap box now, but to all out there, spend some time with your coach learning it and understanding how to do a basic inspection and how to operate it, not only on the road, but when parked.

[Rudy]

Jon, I fully agree with you….just remember what you have said..It is like drinking water from a fire hose..and you dont know what you dont know I mean if you are not mechanically inclined it is very difficult add in the fact that different converters doing things differently and many of the coaches being as mine 16yrs old with alot of stuff changed by vairous owners / mechanics and this only multiplies the issues. as I get older I forgot some of what I learned since I am not allways traveling and have to relearn it It does get easier each time and thanks to this site for all the help and guys like you and tom

[Archived]

Victor, I don’t care how long any of us have our coaches, we are still going to learn something. I am learning more and more every time I work on the coach, drive it or live in it.

The worst time to learn something however is just after we needed the knowledge.

As owners we have to understand we are not driving our car, but a complex, large, heavy and ponderous vehicle that usually requires training and a special license. At the very least each of us should do a good pre-trip inspection that includes a brake check. Commercial drivers of our type vehicles are obligated by law so it makes sense we should do the same.

We should respect the coach and its potential to compromise our safety or the safety of others. So at the very least we should aspire to operate it as a professional would, and that includes not only understanding how to turn corners without driving over the curb, but knowing our stopping distances, our gauges and what they mean, our warning lights and what they mean, and our limits, such as how many feet are required to come to a stop from a certain speed.

Learning the operation of the house is a secondary consideration. I cannot think of anything that compromises safety in the house, but our enjoyment in the coach does come with the confidence of understanding the basics of operation of all the house systems.

We were like a deer in the headlights when we got our first coach. I had no clue. But by luck I had Don Hoffman of Hoffman Coach do my pre-purchase inspection and I followed him around picking up knowledge. Then Harvey Mitchell (he sold the coach to the person I bought it from) offered to teach me the coach and I spent 4 days on our first trip getting training from his people.

And to be honest I was still in awe, but less so. Our first coach was basic compared to the ones of today, but it was still intimidating. As I applied the knowledge, continued to learn, and gained experience things fell in place and my confidence and comfort soared. I never worked on it until we had owned it for about 5 years. So I was mechanically inept, but we do not need to be mechanical to know our coach.

My point in the above is do not think any of us need to be mechanics to fully enjoy our coaches. We do need to understand what our coach is telling us so we can respond properly, we do know how to make the various systems work for us, we do need to learn how to safely operate the coach, and we definitely need to amass links, books, or sources for help and information.