Micro Minnie Slide Out Issue

[SactoSteve]

One thing that I forgot to mention is that when they did the slide assembly they also added rollers to the inside to help with the slide sagging on the inside when closed which really helped.

Hello RonW58-
This supplemental roller element is the thing I was most curious about when I first heard about the Vroom system. I haven't been able to find any specifics about where the rollers go/attach. Maybe you could post a picture? I can't visualize where inside rollers would go on a 2108ds?

Thanks,
- Steve

[RonW58]

Hi Steve, I will do that when we get home tonight or tomorrow.

[RonW58]

Hi Steve, Attached are pictures of the rollers and how they mounted them. Let me know if you have any questions.

[RonW58]

One more picture.

[SactoSteve]

Ron-
Thanks for posting these pictures.
Honestly, I am having a hard time visualizing how this is positioned.

It appears the wood structure to which the rollers is mounted is a “platform” attached to the floor of the trailer. In “operation” the bottom of the slideroom, presumably, rolls across the platform.
It seems the “platform” would be fairly close to the wall so the support “benefit” would be somewhat limited? Meaning, having w sets of rollers would be better than a single, width of the roller, pivot point, but still not providing support to both edges of the slide room in the retracted position.
I guess I’m not sure what the “problem” is, that the additional rollers are intended to address.

Thanks, steve

[RonW58]

Hi Steve, The platform the rollers are mounted to are flush with the backside of the dinette facing, there are rollers on the right and left side and helps with the sagging of the dinette when it is on the closed position. When we picked up are TT the first thing I noticed was the dinette did not sag as it did before. Ron

[SactoSteve]

Originally Posted by RonW58

The platform the rollers are mounted to are flush with the backside of the dinette facing

Hi Ron-
My apologies for being so dense in my attempts to grasp this.
I believe your description means the “platform” is attached on the backside of the slide room “facing”, of the front (trailer interior-side) of the slide room, and therefore the rollers would roll across the trailer floor during the operation of the slide room, thus supporting the room?
Thats the only way I can imagine them providing the support you mention.
But that seems to collide with how I think I am interpreting the photos. Believe me, I understand how difficult it is to capture photos in cramped quarters and how hard it is, at least for me, to grasp what I’m looking at with out recognizing any reference points.

But if I’m right with my description “the “platform” is attached on the backside of the slide room “facing”, of the front (trailer interior-side) of the slide room”, then I get it and it would seem to be very helpful!

Thanks, again!
- steve

[tinglett]

If the rollers are rolling on the flooring, over time will they create wear marks across the floor?

[RonW58]

All, Heading to Nantucket tomorrow, when I get back I will try and clear this up. The rollers are not on the floor they are under the dinette plate form.

[SactoSteve]

Originally Posted by RonW58

All, Heading to Nantucket tomorrow, when I get back I will try and clear this up. The rollers are not on the floor they are under the dinette plate form.

Appreciate that but I’m surprised Vroom is missing touting the rollers more?

- steve

[reeman]

Originally Posted by tinglett

If the rollers are rolling on the flooring, over time will they create wear marks across the floor?

They may indeed, but because they are white nylon and smoothed and rounded on the edge of the roller they will do the least damage possible. The biggest problem they might create is if an object obstructs or is ground into the flooring as they move. I am very careful to make sure our slide never has any possibility of needing to push a foreign object in to the floor stop. It did happen once to one of our 2 year old grand daugthers dolls that fell behind the slide. The doll did not survive the accident unfortunately.
Both my wife and I learned an important lesson about using slideouts with a trailer. Our next trailer certainly will not have one, IMO they are by and large definitely more of a pain than worth the small extra space they create and the expense of fixing them if they go south is not worth the headaches they do create over time if anything is missed both maintaining them and using them. They make camping in even slightly off level spots a nightmare which it should not be. Electric leveling jacks can also easily become a maintenance nightmare. We find it is far better to carry 10 cut pieces of 1/2 inch plywood roughly 12"x8" to use to level the tires as the stabilizers are not meant for trailer leveling purposes. My wife, bless her soul has learned to set them up properly so that I can either back on to them or move forward on them to level things up adequately to make the slideout as level as possible, before dropping the stabilizers. We can now be set and level with the slideout out in 10 minutes or less, while some with big units and slideouts take half an our and a bit of a gong show setting up.

Point of this post is that leveling the trailer as close to perfect as possible is absolutely essential otherwise one will over time damage the slideout gears and mechanism. The same as setting up a mobile home in a trailer park so the doors open and close and the windows don't bind.

Hope you easily resolve issues and have happy camping days with trouble free years in the RV!

[crumjack]

Originally Posted by reeman

Both my wife and I learned an important lesson about using slideouts with a trailer. Our next trailer certainly will not have one, IMO they are by and large definitely more of a pain than worth the small extra space they create and the expense of fixing them if they go south is not worth the headaches they do create over time if anything is missed both maintaining them and using them. They make camping in even slightly off level spots a nightmare which it should not be. Electric leveling jacks can also easily become a maintenance nightmare. We find it is far better to carry 10 cut pieces of 1/2 inch plywood roughly 12"x8" to use to level the tires as the stabilizers are not meant for trailer leveling purposes. My wife, bless her soul has learned to set them up properly so that I can either back on to them or move forward on them to level things up adequately to make the slideout as level as possible, before dropping the stabilizers. We can now be set and level with the slideout out in 10 minutes or less, while some with big units and slideouts take half an our and a bit of a gong show setting up.

Point of this post is that leveling the trailer as close to perfect as possible is absolutely essential otherwise one will over time damage the slideout gears and mechanism. The same as setting up a mobile home in a trailer park so the doors open and close and the windows don't bind.

Hope you easily resolve issues and have happy camping days with trouble free years in the RV!

Re: Leveling - we recently added a LevelMate Pro to our Micro and it's a gadget worth the money. No more hopping out of the truck to look at the level and reduced arguments during parking! It's also great for Harvest Hosts and other spots where you have some parking flexibility. We can just drive around until the app tells us where we are most level.

[reeman]

Originally Posted by crumjack

Re: Leveling - we recently added a LevelMate Pro to our Micro and it's a gadget worth the money. No more hopping out of the truck to look at the level and reduced arguments during parking! It's also great for Harvest Hosts and other spots where you have some parking flexibility. We can just drive around until the app tells us where we are most level.

Looks interesting. I guess you mean this device? Seems like it will work fine for side to side axle level. Does it also work for front to back to establish flat plain with the front jack at the same time. I just use a 6 inch level on the floor across from the slideout first establishing side to side and then turning it front to back and jacking the trailer. My wife watches the level bubble for me so I do need to run back and forth or put the blocks under the tires when I back up. Much cheaper than 220 Canuck bucks for a device that will need batteries and to be mounted on the wall perfectly level with the floor. I guess mounting one perfectly level on our bathroom wall might be ok but the way we do it now is quick and trouble free without batteries to change One must remember though to actually go through the steps in order, first axle side to side level and then front to back level, then stabilizer jacks, otherwise the process of properly leveling the trailer can quickly become a gong show. One trailer park we frequent has the tilted tree effect because it is on a mountain side. When the trailer is perfectly level you think that it is about to fall over when looking at the forest you are in... LOL There was a tilted forest near Revelstoke BC on a side hill that was rather famous but I think that one closed for the dam on the Columbia when they moved the highway and flooded the hill side it was on.

Either way putting out slideouts when not perfectly level is a crap shoot and causes more to fail perhaps than any other cause. Though I guess driving down the road with a slide slightly out might come a close second.

[crumjack]

That’s the gadget though you should be able to buy it on its own. We mounted ours in the under bed storage area. It is supposed to compensate for the slide. When you connect the app it will tell you which side needs to be raised and by how much. It also tells you if the nose should be raised or lowered. Battery is the CR2032 watch style battery so it should give plenty of life. Guess we’ll find out next spring.

[tinglett]

Originally Posted by RonW58

All, Heading to Nantucket tomorrow, when I get back I will try and clear this up. The rollers are not on the floor they are under the dinette plate form.

I will guess, then, that the rollers are just inside behind the panel along the floor facing upward so the underside of the slide has support while it would otherwise hangs in space when it is inside the rig. This would make sense to me, and would also make sense for the fact that the slide is quite some distance from the floor!

Originally Posted by reeman

Both my wife and I learned an important lesson about using slideouts with a trailer. Our next trailer certainly will not have one, IMO they are by and large definitely more of a pain than worth the small extra space they create...

Boy, I find this statement very hard to swallow for my 2108DS. There is an absolute night and day difference for usable living space between slide out and slide in with my 2108DS. It gets down to what you can pack into a 21ft trailer. Without a slide I'd probably need a 26ft trailer or bigger to match the living space with my slide out. Then I'd be left with the icky choice between dealing with a slide or dealing with a bigger rig to tow. I chose the former. I think it gets down to that.

[Marine359]

Originally Posted by tinglett

Boy, I find this statement very hard to swallow for my 2108DS. There is an absolute night and day difference for usable living space between slide out and slide in with my 2108DS. It gets down to what you can pack into a 21ft trailer. Without a slide I'd probably need a 26ft trailer or bigger to match the living space with my slide out. Then I'd be left with the icky choice between dealing with a slide or dealing with a bigger rig to tow. I chose the former. I think it gets down to that.

It’s the Goldilocks conundrum.

[SactoSteve]

Originally Posted by tinglett

I will guess, then, that the rollers are just inside behind the panel along the floor facing upward so the underside of the slide has support while it would otherwise hangs in space when it is inside the rig. This would make sense to me, and would also make sense for the fact that the slide is quite some distance from the floor!.

That does seem to be the only thing that makes sense. Still seems to be a long section of cantilevered slide room unsupported. Some improvement but I still would suggest not using the retracted slide room.
Not enough to drive me to the Vroom, yet.
- Steve

[tinglett]

Seems to me that a simple workaround if you really need to sit in the retracted slide might be to fashion a couple of support blocks to wedge in place. Other than the silliness of it, I suppose the real issue is forgetting they are there when extending the slide, so they'd need to be clear just enough to take weight when you are on it, but not when you are extending the slide.

I think I'll just stay off mine while retracted, but for the case of a big storm I maybe should think about what I'd use to wedge under it. Hmm....

[KGs2108DS]

I'm having a similar slide FRAME issue (motor, gear, mechanics are OK).

What I noticed is that the slide is not closing flush with the trailer surface. Also the hard black plastic cover over the frame screws shows protrusion of the screw heads bulging outward.

As described below, the (according to Lippert manual - #10 1" self-taping) screws holding the outside of the frame to the trailer have loosened, sheared off, etc., as described below (front/leading edge of frame)...

I removed the black plastic cover over the screw heads.
I found 4 of the screw heads had sheared off and two others were loose – 1 seemed to tighten and the other is stripped. So, of the 11 screws originally installed 6 are no longer contributing to holding the slide framing in place! I am surprised at the number that have sheared off!

starting from the top of the front/leading edge with
#10 Screw 1 – screwed in at an angle, not flush, but is tight
2 – sheared off
3 – sheared off
4 – sheared off
5 – tight
6 – tight
7 – loose
8 – loose
9 - sheared
10 – sheared - off, about ¾” of the screw was sticking out of the screw hole. I had to use my drimmel tool to cut it off in pieces, and removed

So, what to do to repair? My thought is to use the next size larger, a #11 1” self-tapping screw into the existing holes (where I can; otherwise drill new pilot holes through metal Frame only), using threadlock. Stainless steel, NOT aluminum screws.

what do you Winnebago friends recommend for this repair?
Thanks



Also, the top screw holding the rubber gasket that seals against the slide when extended – this screw head has pulled through the gasket. I think the screw should be removed and a washer (fender washer?) placed on the screw, then replaced. Thoughts?

[SactoSteve]

Check with Winnebago to see if you are part of the Lippert “issue”

- steve