Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 11, 2025 ...

Following.  I have the exact same issue and have an appt at FT in 3 weeks for repairs.  What shop are you in?  Woody.

number one - check for full deflation of slide bladder prior to pulling in the slide - if the bladder is not deflated, the drag created by the bladder on the slide often causes this condition

if you aux compressor is weak or not working this will cause poor inflation AND deflation of the bladder.

It sometimes helps if you run the engine and build pressure in the coach before you attempt to operate slide, it helps the aux compressor in my coach -

The neutral safety indicates that the lock pins have not been been locked and feed back information received from them.
The Hole was caused by either a failed upper slide sensor seeing that the slide is fully retracted or the top being pushed in. Is the hole on the bottom im assuming? The system will failsafe if the slide is not in the upper position setting two position sensors next to the upper lock actuators. So you have two holes on the bottom?
Scott

So the vacuum system will indicate ready when in reality it is not. The amber light comes on by a timer indicating a vacuum should be present regardless if it is correct. So first place the keyed switch on HWH slide panel to the on position and wait for amber light. Mine takes 41 seconds. Then walk out side and view the gap between the seal and the slide. It should not be in contact anywhere.
To take the guessing out of it I installed a combination gauge on the bladder line to show pressure or vacuum available during operation. New style bladders need 20 inches of vacuum to fully retract. And operate at 12 psi normally parked and going down the road. If your aux air compressor is weak it will not produce the needed vacuum. New bladders also require a improved vacuum system
Scott

In a 2001 coach there is no interconnection between the HWH air tank and the bladder manifold.  Unless there has been modifications made or chack valves have failed.

Make sure the HWH hydraulic oil tank is full. Your actuator arms may need lubrication.  The black marks on the bottom of your slide should not be there. Something is rubbing that should not be. You should never hear any squealing of the bladder rubbing on the slide, ever!  Wait unit the time controlled yellow light cones on and the visually check front and rear ends and upper corners when the slide is in for clearance, you will see light and about 1/4" of it.  Then extend or retract the slide.

Hopefully this will make sense.
Slide extended bladder inflated
Key switch turned to on
          1 timer starts running to illuminate amber ready light. 41 seconds
          2 by solenoid control air is shut off to slide and vacuum is applied
Once amber light is illuminated you push and hold retract ( verify bladder retracted on four side from out side)
            1 slide stow sensors do not see a signal because slide is out, because of this pressure is applied only to retract actuators
            2 slide starts to retract
              3 slide has fully retracted and both slide stowed sensors on top only see signal and open the lock actuator solenoid and lock actuators extend 4
                    A. If no stow or lock signal pump continues to run but is being overloaded
                      B lock actuators extend and each one has a open closed switch in each actuator total four
                4. Slide has retracted and computer has been watching for a retracted stowed dual indication and four lock actuator in locked position then finally 3000 psi shuts pump off with the retract still selected and pushed.

If any of these steps are not completed it will not allow transmission to engage unless in override. In your manual they expect one continuous motion. I was able to operate my slide mechanism with the slide removed and retracted to open the lock actuators to clean. If the stow sensors are engaged during the retract cycle regardless of position they immediately extend regardless of actual partial extend position. Vacuum is not used to prevent movement or as a input, only assumed, the amber light is strictly a timer and expecting vacuum has occurred regardless if it has. Curious your aux compressor is the larger 90 psi. Very nice. Mine is not.

With the side opened you can look underneath at the front and the back and see a opening. Your rams are inside. I would reccomend learning the system in the HWH manuals. Very similar to the 600 but actually a 680

Thanks for the run through. So my compressor has been upgraded? I thought it would have been OEM because it's needed for the awning operation.

Your room in sensors are on the top so they thought the room was in and sent the pins to locking.  The room was not in on the bottom thus the hole. I wonder if you have a glide that is off or you have a shim that is blocking it. This should not happen. You will need to look under the slide from the inside in the slide room. You can reach the shims that way.  I had an issue that it would not pin and could not see the slide in so I had to adjust the sensors and then at HWH they found a steel screw instead of brass that was causing the issues.  also it can be many different issues but the marks on the bottom of you r slide tell me it is dragging so that is where I would look first

Most all of us got rid of that air awning and went back to a manual ZipDee awning.  The original compressor that Foretravel installed on these coaches were not large enough to handle the air awnings and hence the issues many of us were having with that.  I  was told this by ZipDee and may be the reason you have the larger compressor in your coach.  A photo of it would help, but most likely, the PO installed the new compressor!  The slides have been a love hate relationship with just about every manufacturer and owner for years.  Lot's of different ideas on how these should work and it took awhile for Foretavel to come up with one that they were happy with as well as the owners.  Like Scott, DSD mentioned, lots of things have to happen for the slide to work and putting eyeballs on the gaps, etc. is most important.  Hope this helps!

I wonder if The black marks are from rubbing on the bladder? We've only used the slide twice since We've had it and I always made sure there was plenty of daylight around the perimeter before operating. I wonder if the previous owner did that? The hydraulic oil level is the first thing I checked the first time this happened and it is good.

Where are the actuator arms on this coach? There is a hydraulic ram in the bay on the ceiling right under the slide. Is that one of the actuator arms? I know other years there are hydraulic rams or arms on either side of the slide on the inside that you get to by removing the trim, but I know our year that's not the case. So where exactly are the actuator arms?

Also, what did you mean when you said there was no Interconnection between the HWH air tank and the bladder manifold? Does that mean that the bladder gets its air directly from the 12 V compressor? Or does the bladder get its air from the main tanks and then only use the 12 V compressor when the main tanks are too low?

Actuator arms are in what looks like an arm rest box at the front and a similar box at the rear of the J couch in the back. The ram in the basement bay is for coordinating the two end A frame actuators.

The HWH compressor fills the slide air tank which supplies air to the bladder manifold(sj. The compressor also supplies air directly to the leveling manifolds which are used when manually or automatically leveling the coach.

The air line #57 has a check valve in line which isolates the compressor, the HWH tank, and the bladder manifold from any other air source. If this check valve is leaking or has failed then engine compressed air or air from an outside source could leak into this part of the air system.

It is possible your air system has been modified from it's original state. It is worth the time to understand how it is supposed to work and see if it has been changed.

Thanks Roger,
Thanks for the info on where the actuators are, I'll have to look it over to see how to gain access.

So what You're saying is, if there's a bad check valve on line 57 then air could bleed back into the bladder causing it to make contact with the slide while retracting or extending?

Thanks Roger,
Thanks for the info on where the actuators are, I'll have to look it over to see how to gain access.

So what You're saying is, if there's a bad check valve on line 57 then air could bleed back into the bladder causing it to make contact with the slide while retracting or extending?