Vehicles from the Forest River are well known for their quality and livability. These forest river vehicles come with an extra panel called slide-out, which makes sense, given the vehicle type. But more often, adjusting this slide out gets a bit tricky for many.
How can you adjust the forest river slide out? The process of slide out adjustment involves multiple steps. Firstly, you need to check the battery charge. After that adjust the locks and inspect gaps. Lastly, you have to carry out vertical and horizontal adjustment.
Do not worry. I will provide proper guidance regarding slide-out adjustment and relevant information. Therefore, without wasting a second, let’s check it out.
A slide-out is a recreational vehicle component, primarily a type of panel that you can extend. It’s mainly used when the vehicle is parked.
To make it more precise, it’s a common feature of an RV with which you can create additional space for living. That means you can extend or retract it on your camper depending on when you require living space.
You can extend or retract this slide-out using hydraulic, mechanical, or electric means. Each of these processes requires quite a few steps, which you need to pull efficiently to have the proper adjustments.
The slide-out operations in the forest river recreational vehicles are pretty simple. It has an electrical control system, which you can control through a button.
The button is right up in the control panel, and the slide-out comes in when you push it in one way. Again, the slide-out comes out when you press the button the other way.
I always preferred to let the slide-out come out and go in smoothly rather than halting their function in the middle. That said, there are motors for each slide that runs the process of going in and out. Moreover, in my case, the need for adjustment was minimal as no significant issues existed.
Most often, some issues might prompt the need for slide-out adjustment. In the case of River forest recreational vehicles, Lippert hydraulic slide-out system is used. This system is a rack and pinion guide system.
Before trying, remember that you should only use this system to actuate the slide-out panel or room. I don’t recommend other things as they may result in serious injuries.
Some of the precautions that you can take before adjustments are listed below:
That said, I’ll be explaining the steps in the process of adjusting the river forest slide-out in the section below:
The first step involves the proper operations of the frame slide-out. Here, you must ensure that your battery is fully charged and operational.
Check whether you have travel locks in your room. If a travel lock exists, you must remove them.
Now, push the switch and hold it until the room is fully extended and the seal in the unit is fully sealed.
There are chances of the inner fascia not sealing. In that case, you can adjust the out stop by adjusting the nylock and jam nut.
Loosen up the jam nut with the help of a wrench, and then adjust the nylock nut to tighten everything. Eventually, this will adjust the inner seal.
In this step, you must retract the fascia so that the fascia gets wholly sealed with the unit. If sealing isn’t proper outside the team, you must adjust the jam nut and the stop can.
Use a wrench to loosen the jam nut and move it back to seal the unit adequately. After that, tighten the nut with the can, and the room will be fully sealed.
Now, if you see one side of the room is fully sealed, but the other side isn’t, you need to re-sync the room.
You must navigate to the idler arm and loosen the bolts. Then, you need to push or pull the room on the drive side.
You’d need vertical adjustment if the top and bottom of the room need the proper seal.
Firstly, you need to measure between the bottom of the room and the outer arm / inner arm.
If the distance isn’t within the tolerance level, it needs adjusting. You can do so by using the carriage bolts on the head assembly and marking it while doing. It will ensure that the room bar is loose from the head assembly.
After this, loosen the jam nut and the bolt that makes the room down. Now, tighten up the jam nut and re-take the measurements. When you are within the tolerance levels, tighten up the carriage bolts.
Repeat the similar process on the other side and maintain quarter-inch tolerance.
In this step, you must run the room back and forth and see whether any gap exists while sealing.
In this step, you have to check the horizontal adjustment. Firstly, you must measure the distance between the unit’s outside and the inside walls from both sides.
Here, the room is slightly off-center, which needs a horizontal adjustment. The first step in this process would be to loosen the carriage bolts on both head assemblies. Keep the bolts loose and manually push the room.
Measure if the room is centered in the opening of the unit. Lastly, tighten the carriage bolts and ensure the room is tight to the head assemblies.
Adjusting the slide-out may invoke a lot of questions in your mind. That is why I have gathered some of the most-asked queries for your convenience.
Lippert hydraulic slide-out system is primarily used in the Forest River recreational Vehicles. This system operates as a negative ground system, and before actuating the system, you should take all necessary precautions.
Yes, you can manually retract the slides in a Forest River RV. It is when the slide-out gets stuck after extracting out or stuck halfway while retracting.
Most forest river trailers are of top-notch quality and can last up to 10 years or more if you ensure proper maintenance.
Owning a recreational vehicle has a lot of things to deal with. Mostly, when you see that there are spaces between seals of the slide-out, it would feel frustrating.
I have added a complete guide for your convenience that will help you deal with the issues of your River Forest RV. I have addressed the problems relevant to vertical and horizontal adjustments in the guide.
Since the River Forest RV’s mostly use Lippert hydraulic system, the guide here will be relevant to fix the issues. Still, if anything you feel is missing, do let me know.
Zayan is an accomplished author and a go-to expert for all things RV and camper-related. With a passion for adventure and a knack for problem-solving, he has spent years exploring the open road and fine-tuning his knowledge of recreational vehicles.
Zayan’s writing is a testament to his expertise, offering readers practical solutions to common RV dilemmas. Whether it’s troubleshooting mechanical issues, optimizing space, or planning the perfect road trip, Zayan’s insightful advice and engaging storytelling make him an invaluable resource for both seasoned travelers and newcomers to the world of RVing.
