It’s been a while since we blogged as we were visiting my son and his family in San Antonio, Texas. However, I wanted to continue where we left off on our last blog after our ordeal with the slide popping out on the highway in downtown San Antonio.
Once we settled in at one of our favorite campgrounds at Canyon Lake in central Texas I immediately started researching what could have possibly gone wrong with our passenger side bedroom slideout. Web searching yielded few clues other than I might need to replace the motor so I decided that I would go ahead and clear out everything under the bed to get a good look at the slide motor and rail assembly.
This slideout assembly was originally known as a power gear slide system. Power Gear was bought out and is now Lippert. Once I could see the slide system I searched the support documents on the Lippert Support site to see how to troubleshoot my issue.
Not finding any useful documentation I was now ready to talk with Lippert Support via a phone call. After considerable discussion the Lippert Support tech could offer no guaranteed solution so they recommended a full assembly replacement. As long time blog readers might recall I replaced a slide out motor in our large living room slide so I knew what it looked likes inside a motor gone bad.
The issue I was now facing was different. When I would engage the slide using the switch in the bedroom I could hear the motor spinning effortlessly so in my opinion the motor was working well. However there is an additional gear box attached to the motor which I assumed controlled a toothed gear on the rail of the bedroom slide.
The Lippert Support tech had no diagrams of this Power Gear system and even after I explained in detail that I thought my issue sounded like it had something to do between this add-on box to the slide motor and a possible toothed gear on the rail, he still suggested full assembly replacement.
I decided my next step was to take out the rail system to look at what was under the steel box and see if there was a toothed gear attached to the slide out motor box. Lo and behold once I took all the bolts out and was able to remove the rail system I had discovered my problem.
There it was in plain sight!!! There was indeed a toothed gear attached to the rail and that toothed gear had come loose from the shaft thus, it was not able to match the teeth on the rail which would make the slide go in and out (see inside the rail box in picture above with the centered gear reattached over the rail).
Once I was able to use an allen key to retighten the toothed gear on the shaft so it would be in alignment with the toothed bedroom slide rail as in the picture above, I assumed it would be good to go. Thirty minutes later with everything reassembled I tested it out.
Voila! We now have a bedroom slide working correctly again. Even better it cost nothing other than my time and effort to fix. Yet, another successful venture on the Road of Retirement…
NOTE: We are now at Canyon Lake State Park until April 11th…
Well, that's good news. I imagine you were VERY relieved when you spotted the problem. The Lippert rep was probably reading from the company playbook. You know, the one they use to mitigate any liability.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was surprised that they didn't have some sort of blow-up diagram of the whole system but they didn't.
DeleteYou make it sound like an easy fix. I can imagine there were a few contortions you put your body thru to reach every thing.
ReplyDeleteNo, nothing is easy to fix in an RV! I got contorted into positions that if I were any larger it would have required someone to pull me out by the legs.
DeleteAnd that demonstrates exactly why there are so many broke RV owners! The answer to every question is "replace it". I admire you for digging into the problem and spending a few hours repairing a simple problem to save a bundle of money.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a constant fear of mine to suffer slide out problems, specially in Mexico where proper repairs are impossible to find. Down there you have no choice but to fix it yourself. A friend had a slide out failure and his solution was to physically tie the slide shut with a combination of tow rope and ratcheting strap going completely around his trailer to keep it shut on the highway.
If we had been in Mexico I am sure this is what I we would have done until we could have fixed it correctly.
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