Identify the slide system in a minute

Look at the sides of the opening from inside, under the coach, and at the room corners, then find the controller label. Pull that system's manual before you touch a reset or override, because procedures don't carry over between systems.

The short version

• Columns at both sides of the opening with racks on the room sides: in-wall (Schwintek) or SlimRack.
• Tubes through the frame with an actuator and a crank extension at the rail: electric through-frame. Same tubes with a cylinder and hoses: hydraulic.
• A gear motor with a brake lever on rails under the room: Lippert's rack and pinion Electric Motor Slide-out. Cables and pulleys at the corners: a cable system.
• Photograph the controller label and any system tag: in-wall H-columns carry a variant code tag with the build date, and Lippert power units carry a serial number and date code.
• Pull the Lippert system manual and the OEM manual for breaker, controller and override locations.

Look inside first

Run the room out and stand inside facing it. On an in-wall room you'll see vertical aluminum columns at both sides of the opening, behind trim and a wipe seal, with gear racks on the sides of the room. Lippert puts the motors near the top of the columns, held by a retention screw.

A SlimRack looks similar from inside: a vertical channel with a 12 V DC gear motor and gear rack arms in the sidewall opening. The wall control is often a touchpad with a set stops/clear faults button on the back instead of a plain rocker.

If the sides of the opening are just trim and seals with nothing that moves, the drive is under the floor or in the corners.

Then look underneath

Under a through-frame room you'll see two tubes running through the chassis rails. Lippert's electric version has a ball-screw actuator on one tube (the active tube), a crank extension with a pin that comes out past the main rail, and a stop can with three nuts on the actuator's threaded shaft. The other tube is passive. Lippert describes it as a rack and pinion guide system moved by a ball-screw actuator with an automatic clutch.

Swap the actuator for a cylinder with two hoses and you have Lippert's hydraulic through-frame. Its manual override is a hex coupler under a protective label that you drive with a drill. Lippert's hydraulic manual fills the reservoir with all slideouts retracted, so on a coach where rooms and jacks share a power unit, check fluid with rooms in and jacks up.

Lippert's Electric Motor Slide-out (the Power Gear design) is rack and pinion driven directly by a 12 V gear motor. Inner rails carry the room, the motor has a brake lever and a rubber boot, and the override is a 3/4 in hex nut on the gear box. Lippert's Above Floor system for motorhomes is also rack and pinion, with a drive box and cross shaft, and a hex override that takes a 5/8 in wrench.

Cable systems

Cable systems pull the room with cables run over pulleys at the room corners. Look at the corners with the room partway out and you'll see cables, anchors and adjusters. Jayco's owner's manuals give Norco (BAL) slides their own section, separate from Schwintek and Power Gear.

On a cable room, square and seal come from cable tension, so the adjustment is specific to that maker. Don't borrow a procedure from another system.

Read the labels

The controller label is the fastest ID. A Lippert in-wall controller has a green and a red LED, a mode button, and labeled motor 1, motor 2, switch and power junctions, and its fault code chart is on the label. Lippert has shipped revisions A, B, C, C1, C2, an 8 amp controller and D-0. B and C-1 are no longer available and are replaced with C-2, which needs two new motor harnesses and a modified power wire. Motors come in 300:1 and 500:1 (high torque), so record the part number.

Lippert power units (motor and actuator) carry a serial number and date code. In-wall H-columns carry a variant code tag with the build date, and Keystone's KSB-220630 with Lippert TSB 146-001-2022 uses that tag to decide whether an inverted-rack system is in the affected build window.

Lippert's manuals say the RV maker's documentation shows where the breaker box and the controller breaker are. Find the controller before you start: you'll need its LEDs.

Which manuals to pull

OEMs post the component manuals they install. Forest River's component manual library and Tiffin's owner hub carry Lippert and HWH documents, and Lippert posts current revisions at lci1.com.

On the job

1. If the room moves, run it out and look at the sides of the opening from inside for columns and racks.
2. Look under the coach at the room for tubes, an actuator or cylinder, hoses, or rails with a gear motor.
3. With the room partway out, look at the corners for cables and pulleys.
4. Find the controller, photograph its label, and note the revision, part number and LED status.
5. Photograph any system tag: the in-wall H-column variant code tag, or the power unit serial number and date code.
6. Pull the system manual and the OEM manual for breaker, controller and override locations before you troubleshoot.

Numbers

• Lippert in-wall controller revisions: A, B, C, C1, C2, 8 amp, D-0; B and C-1 replaced by C-2
• Lippert in-wall motor ratios: 300:1 and 500:1 (high torque)
• Override, Lippert electric through-frame: 3/4 in socket or fifth wheel crank on the crank extension; clockwise retracts
• Override, Lippert Electric Motor Slide-out (rack and pinion): 3/4 in hex on the gear box, after releasing the motor brake
• Override, Lippert Above Floor: 5/8 in wrench on the hex head, two people
• Override, Lippert hydraulic through-frame: Hex bit in the coupler with a drill; a standard 38 in room takes about 45 s to retract

Shop tip

Photograph the controller label and the system tag on every slide call, even when the fix is a fuse. The next time that coach comes in, the part numbers are already on the RO.

Where this comes from

• Lippert, In-Wall Slide-Out Owner's Manual, CCD-0001602, rev 07.12.18, pp. 5 to 7, 11, 13 to 16
• Lippert, In-Wall Slide-out Service Manual, rev 06.14.2016, pp. 5 to 8, 13, 23, 24
• Lippert, Electric Slideout System Motorhome Operation and Service Manual, revB, pp. 3, 6 to 8, 11, 17
• Lippert, Electric Motor Slide-out Owner's Manual, CCD-0001615, rev 04.04.19, pp. 2 to 4
• Lippert, Above Floor Slide-Out Owner's Manual, CCD-0001598, rev 07.12.18, pp. 3, 7, 8
• Lippert, SlimRack Slide-Out Owner's Manual, CCD-0001459, rev 07.30.18, pp. 3, 5, 12
• Lippert, Hydraulic Through Frame Slide-Out Owner's Manual, CCD-0001616, rev 11.14.19, p. 9; Hydraulic Slideout System Motorhome Operation and Service Manual, p. 7
• Keystone KSB-220630 with Lippert TSB 146-001-2022 (via NHTSA)
• Jayco 2020 NorthPoint owner's manual, table of contents, section 5

Try it on a service call

Put the lesson to work on a hands-on troubleshooting case.

• Slide comes in crooked

Keep going on slides and leveling

Learn it

• How a slide room is built and carried
• The in-wall controller: versions and fault codes
• Ball-screw actuator slides: clutch, stops, diagnosis
• Rack and pinion drive: electrical diagnosis
• How a cable slide is built and pulls the room

Prove it

• Slide stalls halfway out
• Slide comes in crooked
• Hydraulic slide crawls and stops
• One side of the slide won't move
• Auto-level leaves it crooked

See it in 3D

• In-wall slide 3D wiring model
• Hydraulic leveling 3D wiring model

Codes and specs

• Slides: schwintek
• Lippert in-wall and through-frame slides
• Leveling: ground control
• Lippert 5th wheel hydraulic auto level

On the job

• Slide-outs
• Leveling jacks