# Slide problems??



## onthecoach (Aug 4, 2006)

Hi All--

I need some help from those with slide-outs!  We have 3 in our 2005 Bounder TD, the kitchen one is not going out....why??

Took it to Coach Care in West Chester, Ohio, but they are not yet trained on slides.  I am taking it to Holman RV next week.  

I would appreciate any experiences you can share with me....I am told this is a 'minor' adjustment....but it seems like a coach only 14 months old should not have these problems.

thanks!!!


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## seawolf67 (Aug 6, 2006)

RE: Slide problems??

I can certainly relate!  I am familiar only with electrical (gear & motor driven) slides.  Hydraulic slides are different colored horses.

With electrical, you can begin trouble shooting by ear.  If you hear the motor turning when the switch is activated, then you probably have one of two problems:  Either the gears have jumped out of alignment somehow or you have sheared one or both of the two pins (one in the motor gear, one in the slide drive gear).   If this is the case,  replacement is relatively simple, but is best performed by a qualified maintenance person because the location of the motor assembly may require the removal of access panels and involve gymnastics that are difficult for an aged senior citizen such as myself.

If you do not hear the motor turning, then electrical malfunctions may be the culprit.  Most of the drive motors are controlled through a fused relay system, meaning that the problem may be as simple as a blown fuse (on older models) or circuit breaker (newer models); or the power relay may be inoperative.  These relays are usually located near the batteries and may also be in the area of the DC electrical distribution panel or buss.  Trouble shooting can be accomplished with a DC volt meter and ohm meter.  Repair and replacement usually can be accomplished with parts from your local auto parts dealer, since the circuit breakers, fuses and relays are generally automotive in nature.

Good luck & hope this helps.


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## onthecoach (Aug 17, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Thanks!  Turns out it WAS the motor....and fortunately, still under the original warranty!!  We are waiting for the motor to arrive, as Power Gear was closed for inventory all of last week!

One MUST learn patience in this RV lifestyle!!


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## rlmurraysr59 (Aug 26, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Since the product was built by Fleetwood I would also suggest opening the compartments where said motors are housed and vacuuming out all the debree they leave in them.  Mine was full of aluminum shavings, pieces of the ceiling carpet material, and wood chips.  It actually jammed the mechanism and caused the slow blow fuse to go out.  I tracked it down to the fuse by exchanging the fuses from the living room to the bedroom but then removed the cover on the bedroom slide mechanism under the bed.  I am surprised I didn't find someone dead in there.  

I wrote to Fleetwood but got no response.  Haven't had a problem since I cleaned and lubricated my slide mechanisms.  The one for the living room was a dry as a bone.  The roller wheels had never seen a spot of grease even though there are grease fittings in them.

Good luck.


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## onthecoach (Aug 26, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Thank you, Ron!  Excellent advice!! 
 :laugh:


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## rlmurraysr59 (Aug 27, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Your welcome, Lynn.  You are so right about the patience.  I have had my motorhome for over 5 years now and I think I have finally worked the bugs out of it to a point.  I have a ice maker that wants to leak but only when the wife is visiting the grandkids and I ain't around to fix it.  The little plastic tube keeps blowing holes.  Then the inside of the motorhome gets wet.  I am going to have to replace the laminate in the kitchen because it is buckled now and the carpet has a stain.  I had a leak in my living room slide that I finally fixed with some eterna-bond tape but the "J" couch needs to be scrapped and a new hide-a-bed put in it's place.  The "J" couch is really uncomfortable.

When I picked up my motorhome from the dealer I drove it about 90 miles to our site in an RV Resort in Lexington, MI.  I stopped at a gas station to fill it up and as soon as I started pumping the gas in it started pouring out on the ground.  You can imagine my reaction.  I drove it to the resort and crawled underneath.  Some genius had put the hose clamp for the gas tank rubber connector hose around the neck of the tank but not on the hose.  And it was tight.  I had to get a long screw driver, loosen the clamp, push the rubber hose down on the neck, push the clamp in place, and re-tighten it.  And this was all covered in a sprayon rubber rust inhibitor that turned mushy under contact with gasoline.  

While I was driving the motorhome it seemed that it kept getting louder and louder.  When I crawled under the motorhome to investigate the gas leak I also found that the mufflers had fallen off.  Seems the pipe that slipped over the exhaust from the muffler was just a tad to big and although the clamp was tight it didn't squeeze down against the exhaust pipe.  I removed the mufflers and used a hack saw to cut slots in the end of the pipe and re-installed them.  The added slots in the pipe allowed them to squeeze down against the exhaust pipe.  I also discovered that one of the tail pipes was held up by a rubber mounting bracket but the other one was just swinging in the air.  The only reason it didn't fall off was a double spacer bracket mounted on both pipes.  I had to go to a parts store and buy another rubber mounting bracket to put on the tail pipe.  The bolt holes were there, just no bracket clamp.

I called the dealer to talk to the service department about some other items I found and the operator kept putting me on hold, and this happened over a period of months.  I ask to talk to the saleman and found out he had been fired. I finally gave up when Fleetwood gave me the cell phone number to the Service Manager and when I called it a recording came on that said, "The wireless number you have called has been disconnected."  

I have a list of 35 items, major and minor, that I personally have had to fix on my motorhome because Walt Michael's RV Super Store in Belleville, MI wouldn't answer the phone.  And when I contacted Fleetwood they sent me a letter pretty much telling me to stick it where the sun don't shine.  Fortunately, after I moved to North Carolina I found a small dealership in Fayetteville, NC called Allsport RV Ctr that fixed some of the problems I couldn't.  And they worked with me to show me how to fix some I could.  My roof airconditioners stopped cooling and I found out that it was the control units being sensitive to the frequencies from the converter.

I had to replace the converter, Allsport did it once and when that unit went bad they gave me a replacement under warranty and I replaced it myself.  Simple job but I relocated it away from some of the spagetti wiring that Fleetwood had stuffed under the refrig.

Darn, this turned into a book.  Anyway, I agree with your statement about patience.  

Good luck and happy Rv'ing.  Got to get ready for church.


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## TexasClodhopper (Aug 27, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Gee whilikers, this makes my Winnebago look really good fer awhile!


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## rlmurraysr59 (Aug 27, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Yea, Texas, I think it should.  Fortunately mine is looking pretty good too.  Tell you another story.  I was driving back from Michigan down I-77 through the mountains of West Virginia.  As I crested the top of a mountain the motorhome shut off.  I mean dead.  There were semi's on both sides of me and I had no power at all.  I tried the ignition but nothing.  I eased it over onto the shoulder of the e-way and shoved down hard on the brakes and got it to stop.  I had my butte pinched into the seat.  I opened the engine compartment and the serpintine belt was shredded.  I called Good Sam Emergency Road Service and they sent a wrecker to tow me back to a Western Star truck shop in Beckley, WV.

About 6 months prior to this the air conditioning pump had gone out on my 8100 GMC engine.  It was still under warranty so I called Workhorse and they told me to take it to Bobby LaBonte Chevrolet in Greensboro, NC as they were a Workhorse dealer and sold Holiday Rambler motorhomes.  

When the mechanic at Western Star got into investigating the cause of the belt failure he discovered that LaBonte's mechanic had left a harness bracket off the bolt in the pump.  The bracket swung down in front of the engine and proceeded to shred the serpintine belt.  Odd thing was I had a front tire repaired at LaBonte's at the same time at a cost of $90 and it went flat when I got home.  I called a local man who fixes tractor tires and when he took the tire off the rim to fix it Labonte's had put a bicycle inner tube patch on my motorhome tire.  I thought the old guy was going to bust a gut right there in my yard.

So Gee Whilikers is right.  I have learned a whole bunch over the last five years about maintaining a motorhome.  I do my own oil changes, grease jobs, and maintenance items listed in the owners manual.  I even have a service manual for the Workhorse Chassis and a complete set of electrical wiring diagrams for the motorhome.  I don't  have a lot of faith in the $7.00 an hour high school mechanics dealerships employ.  And I keep detailed documentation so the next owner will know just what was done and when.  Of course I will be dead then.


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## TexasClodhopper (Aug 27, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Well, ain't you funny talkin' about them Labonte's.  Why it was probly Bobby hisself that worked on yer machine.  Might of been Terry moonlighten.

I can tell you a funny story or two 'bout them Labonte brothers seans how I growed up around their reputations on the dirt track down there in Corpus Christi.  Can you say balin' war?


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## onthecoach (Aug 28, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Well, Gentlemen,

I have similar stories about my first coach: 1995 Pace Arrow 38J (yes, I bought another Fleetwood product!).     Same old story, except that neither my husband nor myself are in ANY WAY prepared to do all the nitty gritty stuff.  I would love for someone to show me how to do all those things, I am not afraid to learn, but I am afraid to try and make matters worse!!  

Besides, how cool would it be to know a Jewish American Princess who not only drives her 40' Diesel Pusher, but also can do all the work on it, too?!?!?!!?  :laugh:


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## rlmurraysr59 (Aug 29, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Funny thing, Texas Clodhopper, it is Terry Labonte Chevrolet in Greensboro that I took the rig to.  Very nice people but who ever worked on it just wanted to get it out the door.  It wasn't a Holiday Rambler.  Bailin Waar.  Yea, I can say it.  Sat on the side of a stationary hay baler many days.  My job was to feed the Waar back through the seperation boards so the bail could be tied on the other side.  That big old bailer was a piece of work and never failed.  

Before I bought this motorhome I had a 32' Holiday Rambler travel trailer.  Always wanted one because a friend of mine had one back in the '70's that was built like a tank.  Hauled it around with a big Cadillac.  Anyway, it had three waste water tanks on it.  One black and two gray.  The shut off valve for the kitchen gray was under the slide for the livingroom.  I got under there to empty it one time while we were on a trip and the handle pulled off in my hand.  OOPs!  So I got my tools and took all the screws out around the belly pan.  When I dropped it down I found out it hadn't been sealed all the way and water had gotten into the insulation along with a whole lot of dirt.  The valve assembly was held in with four little bolts.  I bought an new valve and proceeded to take the four little bolts out.  When I had it ready I pulled on the broken valve and out came 35 gallons of sink water.  And guess who it came out on?  I couldn't get out of the way.  I fixed the valve, resealed the belly pan and put everything back together.  Wonderful.  But the next time I went to dump the tank the same thing happened.  Enough is enough.

I went to the hardware, got a can of glue, two abs couplings and a short length of abs pipe.  I got back under the belly pan, pulled the broken valve out, got another bath with dirty sink water, cut the pipe, glued the couplings and pipe in place, and sealed it up again.  Then I went to the RV store bought another complete valve assembly and put it on the pipe where it all dumped.  Never had a problem again.  Wasn't as pretty as original but I never took another gray water bath.  And when I dumped the other tanks the kitchen tank got dumped too.

Want to hear more.  I got tons of them.
 :laugh:


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## TexasClodhopper (Aug 29, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

"Funny thing, Texas Clodhopper, it is Terry Labonte Chevrolet in Greensboro that I took the rig to."

That was my point. Terry and Bobby Labonte are Texas boys and learned their NASCAR racing skills on a dirt track in Corpus Christi.  We used to go see them put their cars back together any way they could to get it back in the race.

There.  Now I've spelled it out ...


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## rlmurraysr59 (Sep 2, 2006)

Re: Slide problems??

Seems like those NASCAR drivers just love North Carolina.  Must be the moonshine.  I worked the races for about 5 years.  Never really tried to get close to any of the drivers.  We were walking around the pits one time and ran into Dale Earnhardt a few years before he died.  We said Hi and he just kept on walking.  Guess he was busy.  I never really cared for the guy much as a personality but after his death I learned a lot of good things about him.  Guess he was just a private type of guy.

I still watch NASCAR when I can.

I always root for the Chevy that is in front of everyone else.  Wish they still had Pontiacs and Buicks in the mix.  Going to be hard to take seeing a Toyota fan at NASCAR but I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.  Kinda wish there was someway they could go back to the original Stock Car races.  Drive them out of the dealer, equip them for safety, and have at it.  That ain't going to happen either.


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