Slide-Out Beams

[Jeremy]

Thought it might be of interest to some if I posted details of how I am arranging my slide-out mechanisms. As with most things on my bus, I seem to have come up with a solution which is somewhat different from the norm - the reasons in this case being the desire to minimise the structural alterations required to the bus to accomodate the slides, and keep the slide-out mechanisms themselves simple given that I don't have access to machining facilities, and it is not possible to buy off-the-shelf slide-out components here.

I have just completed the first bit of the project, which are the upper slide beams. Doesn't look like it, but it took me weeks to make these:



These are simply lengths of thick wall box section with a long slot cut into the bottom face. The holes in the side of the beams are there to provide access to the telescopic slide rails which are mounted inside the beams. These slide rails are really just an industrial version of the kind of drawer slides used in furniture, but are an ideal solution in this application as I don't need to worry about rollers or bearings or rails or anything else to do with the sliding mechanism itself - the telescopic slides are a totally self-contained, ball-bearing system that also has the advantage of being manufactured from stainless steel so no rusting problems in the future. The units have a load rating of 75kgs each when fully extended, but I am arranging them so they are fully closed when the slide-out is out. There are six units per slide-out, and the slide-out will also be supported by rollers as well, so I am confident that the whole arrangement is substantially over-engineered for the task.

This sketch shows the general arrangement of the upper and lower beams mounted into the bus:



The upper beams are mounted into the ceiling; the two 'long' ones go all the way across the bus and handle two slide-outs. The two short ones handle the third slide-out on the right side of the bus. The lower beams haven't been fabricated yet, but are really nothing more than brackets mounted to the floor. Although these are above floor level they will be entire hidden inside cabinets and furniture if everything works as planned.

You might also have noticed that my slide-outs don't reach floor level; whilst I would have loved to have huge, walk-in slide-outs, the structural work required was equally huge, and the the extra steelwork to re-inforced the body openings would have impacted significantly on the baggage bays as well. If the furniture is arranged along the lines of the sketch below, I see my small slide-outs as sill offering a big increase in useable floor-area



Jeremy

[HighTechRedneck]

Looks really good.  That's a clever solution for situations where full height slides aren't feasible.  Thanks for the diagrams and detailed explanation.

[TomC]

I was going to use slide outs on my truck conversion, but decided against it since it is just one more thing to go wrong.  And the slides take up alot of interior space when slid in or if they happen to break.  I am making my truck conversion for long term full timing.  I suppose slide outs would be good for snow birds, or those that go to one place and stay there for weeks.  I can't imagine having to deploy them every day for months on end without some sort of problem.  Good Luck, TomC