Thor Aria, Leveling and Slides

[Rshepard]

Here is my first technical post/question. My wife and I are new very happy and excited (2017) Thor Aria owners. We are keeping our Aria at National Indoor RV Center and decided to have it cleaned and detailed. When they parked it after the detailing they didn’t level it, and then put the slides out. The Aria manual says it should be leveled before putting the slides out for obvious reasons associated with torque in the motors and components.

Prior to them washing it I had filled the fresh water tank to make sure there were no leaks. SO NOW, our coach is sitting with the slides out and the rear of the coach lower than the front.

I’m very concerned with operating the slides while its unlevel. My current idea is to try and dump the fresh water out of the tank (5 gallons at a time with a large bucket) and see if it levels and THEN pull the slides in. Am I overthinking this?

Thank you very much for all guidance in advance.
Roland

[m1noel]

I would just level it, then put the slides in. We just came back from Yellowstone, staying at Bay Bridge where the sites aren't close to level. In order to level in our site The rear wheels would have been 6 inches off the ground. We got as close as we could with manual leveling, but rear was noticibly low. Slides went out and came in great. If you did want to drain the fresh water, why not just open the drain?
Mike

[halfprice]

Just put the slide in. Imo doing this a couple times isn't going to hurt it. I've open closed my side for several years in my driveway where the front is almost 5" lower than the back with no problems

I think you'll cause more damage trying to use the levelers when the slide is out

Jerry

[Beau388]

Originally Posted by Rshepard

Here is my first technical post/question. My wife and I are new very happy and excited (2017) Thor Aria owners. We are keeping our Aria at National Indoor RV Center and decided to have it cleaned and detailed. When they parked it after the detailing they didn’t level it, and then put the slides out. The Aria manual says it should be leveled before putting the slides out for obvious reasons associated with torque in the motors and components.

Prior to them washing it I had filled the fresh water tank to make sure there were no leaks. SO NOW, our coach is sitting with the slides out and the rear of the coach lower than the front.

I’m very concerned with operating the slides while its unlevel. My current idea is to try and dump the fresh water out of the tank (5 gallons at a time with a large bucket) and see if it levels and THEN pull the slides in. Am I overthinking this?

Thank you very much for all guidance in advance.
Roland

Slide problems are caused when the slides are move the the chassis is twisted (wracked). The jacks work in pairs to take the twist out of the chassis. Re-leveling the coach after the weigh distribution has changed is done all the time as the slides cannot be moved with the engine running and the engine must be running for the jacks to deploy. If your slides are all on one side (like mine) then it is necessary to re-level (to keep the passenger happy). After a while you learn to re-calibrate the auto level to compensate for the slides going out after leveling the coach.

[Rshepard]

Thanks everyone. I fired up the engine, pulled the slides in, leveled and then pushed the slides out again. All good. This storage facility is use to Newmar coaches who require the exact opposite approach. I’ll create a placard For the people here.

From this point forward I’ll do what Thor says. Level first, the engage the slides.

Thanks everyone!!

[Beau388]

Originally Posted by Rshepard

Thanks everyone. I fired up the engine, pulled the slides in, leveled and then pushed the slides out again. All good. This storage facility is use to Newmar coaches who require the exact opposite approach. I’ll create a placard For the people here.

From this point forward I’ll do what Thor says. Level first, the engage the slides.

Thanks everyone!!

Thor MC plant 850 assembles the coaches sitting on the bump stops with the air bags deflated. They are not moved during assembly. When finish and before road test and painting the air bags are inflated and the ride heights are adjusted. Newmar REDs (and Entegra REDs) assemble the coaches on a assembly line where the coaches are moved down the line every two days. The chassis are aired up the first day of production and kept on air during the production. So Thor coaches slides are installed on a level floor and Newmar slides are installed while the coach is on airbags. Also Entegra REDs and Newmar REDs use in floor slides. Palazzo and Aria use Schwintek in-wall slides.

[Bob Denman]

Glad to see that you got it all worked out.

[TurnerFam]

Originally Posted by Rshepard

From this point forward I’ll do what Thor says. Level first, the engage the slides...

you'll learn, maybe quickly, but certainly with time and experience, that most any of these 'rules' by any manufacturer is up to the owner to decide what works best for them.
While the engineers and factories 'say' certain things, most of it is in the light of 'guidance' for the owner, not set on 'black and white' rules of physics. Although it might be 'normal' to level, then run out any slides, there's no 'law' that says that it 'must' be that way - certainly every motorhome and rv dealer in the COUNTRY has broken these laws on a daily basis!

You'll find that your slides don't 'care' whether you are exactly level, or not, as there really is no 'exactly perfect' level in the first place, only 'close' to level. You might could imagine, from a physics standpoint, that slides, like anything, might need a little more 'power' to go 'uphill', if that's any concern, though unlikely to really affect anything with your RV - you're not talking about being almost totally 'off kilter' and almost 'falling over', which is really near impossible, anyway. Your slides are well designed to run in or out ANYTIME you wish, level, almost leveled, or not at all.

If 'having' to be level was any huge problem, there'd be few RVs with slides being sold, as few folks would be able to operate them. Almost NO rv site or campground is 'exactly' level. Even when your coach 'automatically' levels your motorhome, it won't be 'truly' level, to every extent possible - it's just NOT really possible. If the coach is 'level' enough for you, comfortably, then it's good enough.

My coach requires the engine to be OFF before operating, or even being ABLE to operate the slides. Yours may be right the OPPOSITE, which is another 'difference' between makes and models and designs. Neither is 'better' than the other.
My coach, by Thor, says that the engine should be 'running' in order to level it, but I've found that simply turning the ignition to 'ON' will engage and power the Leveling system, and it will level regardless, either automatically or manually.

Nothing is going to 'break' or suddenly be without 'warranty' simply because you chose to do one way or the other.

Many things RV related are like this - don't make a big deal about the 'rules', just follow common sense and sometimes you actually find that since the engineers don't typically 'camp' in these RVs, they also may not realize the 'truth' about the 'real world' realities of how these things work.