Our Eagle is getting slideouts

[andy]

After spending 2 weeks with my wife and 3 boys in a 40' motorhome with 4 slides I decided since our Eagle is still in the stripped stage its getting 2 slides. We spoke to Gary @ B&B coach and he was very helpful. He shipped out the rails & motor today. The front slide is going to be 16' the rear slideout is still in the planning stage,Gary is going to send some photos. If their is anyone who has pictures or a website showing their ideas please let me know. Thanks  Andy 

[makemineatwostroke]

Andy, I am going to drop in on the Eagle Rally at Quartzsite and take a look I understand some that attend have slides and maybe I can get some idea on what not to do. I get mine installed in Feb on my Eagle  good luck

[andy]

I stopped in for an afternoon in Arcadia, Fla. and saw 2 Eagles with slides and got some ideas. Are you doing the work yourself ? Its going to be a 6 week project for me since I cant work on it fulltime. Thanks for your reply

[makemineatwostroke]

No,Andy Featherlite in Sanford FL is going to do mine HWH would not sell me the slides. I am going to use a air seal on mine and no outside flange around the slide do you know yet what you are going to use.

[Dreamscape]

Andy,

Take lots of pictures when doing your project. I would like to see how it's done myself. Sounds like you have job security for a while.

[kysteve]

Andy,
    I'm putting 4 slideouts in our Eagle now.   I am restoring the frame and driveline as I go, so progress on the slideouts is slow sometimes.  I have one steel frame completed and I am working on the second now.  My web blog is   http://ourbusconversion.blogspot.com/    If you want to see some progress on the slideouts just go into the history along the right side of the page and look for slide out pics. 

Hope this helps..........Steve........

[HighTechRedneck]

Andy,
    I'm putting 4 slideouts in our Eagle now.   I am restoring the frame and driveline as I go, so progress on the slideouts is slow sometimes.  I have one steel frame completed and I am working on the second now.  My web blog is   http://ourbusconversion.blogspot.com/    If you want to see some progress on the slideouts just go into the history along the right side of the page and look for slide out pics. 

Hope this helps..........Steve........

Wow!  I just spent time looking at all the photos.  That is some impressive work you are doing on it, not just the slides but all of it.  Looks like you are just about building a new bus, using the original as a physical blueprint. 

[Gary LaBombard]

Steve,

Now you have committed yourself Steve and I am glad that you have.  There is so much good information here for all to see and if they click on each picture they can enlarge the view the full size of their Computer screen and be able to see the penetration of the welds nearly. 

Keep posting all photos of all operations from now on, your site will become very popular and something for Newbies in particular to view. 

Steve is doing all this work himself by the way, and outside under a tarp!!

Good Luck as usual Steve, I can't wait to start my entrance door using that new hinge template you sent me. 

Gary

[Jeremy]

I am also putting four slideouts in my bus - one in one side, two in the other, and the fourth one out of the back (which I've never seen done before, but my bus is shorter than most so it makes sense for me). The idea that I could get them done in six weeks working part time is amusing to say the least! I've been working for months and haven't finished the first one yet - although I am making everything from scratch as there is no way I can by an off-the-shelf mechanism here.

The first slide (the rear one) is probably around 2-3 weeks away from being essentially finished (I trial fitted the roof last weekend). There are some photos below showing the basic sliding frame when it was first fitted - you can see that I have gone for a very big extension for this slide - I was worried about this initially, but it was worked out fine. The rear slide is (I hope) by far the most difficult one to build of the four, because there are no straight edges anywhere in the rear body of my bus. Before I could start building the slide itself I had to do a large amount of work just getting a basic straight opening in the bus into which the slide could go. Also - my bus is mid-engined, so there is a baggage bay at the back - the hinges for the door for this bay sat precisely where the slideout mechanism wanted to go, so I had to spend time modifying and moving the hinges, then building 'tunnels' into the bottom of the slideout box to accomodate the hinges.

I'm hoping the side slides will be considerably easier to do, as although side of the bus is curved the slide openings themselves are just simple rectangles, and with nothing in the way to complicate the slide mechanisms themselves. The side-slides are all essentially the same, so they will all be built at the same time which should speed things up immensely.

My slides will all be recessed and flush with the body when closed - more work but worth the effort I think. I love the idea of pneumatic seals, but with so many other 'unknowns' I decided that was a step too far for me to attempt.

The other way my slides probably differ from the norm is that I am building the 'boxes' out of fibreglass, foam and plywood, rather than the usual steel tube and aluminium sheeting. I know this probably makes it sound like the construction of a S&S motorhome, but I think of it more like the construction of a custom-built racing yacht (I am essentially a boatbuilder by training). My slide-out rooms will I think be lighter, more rigid, and have much better sound and noise insulation than a conventional steel frame / aluminium sheeted room.

The two photos below show the rear slide at an early stage when the steel framework was first installed; the steel is fairly minimal as the stiffness for the structure will come from the box on top of it. You can see from the second photo in particular how far the slide extends outwards. The red thing in that photo was just there to make sure the slide was perfectly horizontal with the bus before everything was welded up




Jeremy

[kysteve]

     Andy, have you got any interior photos of the areas you want to put slides in?  Maybe you could post a few for us to see?

    High Tech, you hit the nail on the head there buddy.  I am rebuilding the whole shebang.  That was the reason I found the worst bus out there.  I knew before buying a bus that to put in 4 slides, I would practically have to rebuild both walls so I didn't see any since in buying what I would be throwing away.   Thanks for the slap on the back there bud.  It has been a year so far and counting.

    Gary, thanks for the kind words as aways, you have.  Talk at you on the tele soon, buddy.


..........Steve........

[andy]

Don't Worry there will be lots of pictures and to answer your ? I'm not useing the air bladder Gary @ B&B coach suggested somthing differant he said he did not like them as well as other methods at this point I'm not sure what I am going to use were still talking. Keep you all posted.  Andy

[David Anderson]

Not to hijack Andy's thread but Jeremy's rear slide concept is quite interesting.  Jeremy, are you going to telescope the slideout portion inside the bus, so the stationary portion is over the top of the slide portion to avoid leaks through the gaps while running down the road?   I'd really like to see this engineering.  Take lots of pictures and post them for us to see.  I think it is a novel idea, but tricky to engineer.  If your front end was facing down a hill and it starts raining, water may find its way into the coach.  Just thinking out loud.  Keep us posted.   

thanks,
David

[Jeremy]

Hi David

A telescopic system sounds a bit complicated; I did think at one stage of using a 'concertina bellows' type arrangement made of PVC fabric that would have meant the inner flange of the slideout was permanently sealed to the outside of the bus throughout it's range of travel, but in the end I decided to use two combination wipe/pressure seals as shown in the pic below, which I think is the standard approach for slideouts. There will also be a rain gutter above the slideout opening which should help prevent much rain water actually flowing over the seals.

In the image, the black bit is the bus wall around the slide-out opening, complete with recess to accomodate the outer seal and slideout flange. The red bit is the slide-out itself, and the blue bits are the seals. I'm hoping this approach will be sufficient to keep the bus dry and draught-proof, but I'd be interested if you disagree.



Jeremy

[David Anderson]

No disagreement from me.  I'll confess this is beyond my skills.  Keep us posted on the success because in the 9 years I've been on this board, I've never seen this attempted.  You are a true pioneer.

David

[Ednj]

After spending 2 weeks with my wife and 3 boys in a 40' motorhome with 4 slides I decided since our Eagle is still in the stripped stage its getting 2 slides. We spoke to Gary @ B&B coach and he was very helpful. He shipped out the rails & motor today. The front slide is going to be 16' the rear slideout is still in the planning stage,Gary is going to send some photos. If their is anyone who has pictures or a website showing their ideas please let me know. Thanks  Andy 

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