Own A Newmar With Electric Slide Outs... Read THIS!

[VP Chianese]

Originally Posted by Winemaker2

It has been mentioned before but haven't seen it lately...
Good practice to add bright paint witness marks on bolt head and bracket.
EZ visual check of whether the bolt has loosened vs torque check.

Speaking of that one thing that entered my mind was if you wanted a real fool proof one time fix a weld spot on the bolt with the plate would cure it from ever coming out. Never a need to check it again. Really only need to do any two of the four. With no movement at all even the no welded bolts would not come loose and if they did there would be no harm.

BTW I have addressed the torque check once before. There is no such thing. The only way to do that is break the bolt or nut loose and then torque it to the proper value. The reason is once a bolt is torqued to x pounds it is done. The bolt is somewhat stretched so to speak and it is set. The amount to move it again in either direction will be greater than the actual value applied to the bolt in the first place. For instance if it is torqued to a value of 50 ft/lbs. it will take more than 50 to move it in either direction. So if you try to tighten the bolt to check it you may have to go to 60 or 65 to break it loose yet a 40 ft/lbs bolt might take the same 60 to break it loose just depending on how long it has been there and what temps it has incurred over that length of time. So you prove nothing and loosening requires the same effort so you are never sure where it was. The correct way is to break it loose and then re torque it.

So the paint is a good reference.

[SLS]

AMEN.....

I think that everyone has the choices and will need to make a decision on how they want to approach this problem now.

I approach most problems with no gray area i.e. 100% correct or 100% in-correct. I did read #93 - #102. I am always open to information or better ideas. I am somewhat amazed at how long this problem has existed.

I will ad to my way to solve this problem.........paint the nuts!!!!! Thanks

Thanks for all the input.....

[Olroache]

Originally Posted by SLS

AMEN.....

I think that everyone has the choices and will need to make a decision on how they want to approach this problem now.

I approach most problems with no gray area i.e. 100% correct or 100% in-correct. I did read #93 - #102. I am always open to information or better ideas. I am somewhat amazed at how long this problem has existed.

I will ad to my way to solve this problem.........paint the nuts!!!!! Thanks

Thanks for all the input.....

i didn't read the entire post but did anyone state whether this bolt checking is done with the slide in or out.

[Olroache]

Although mechanically inclined i am new to the motorhome. Does anyone have any pictures of what bolts we should be looking at for re-torquing. I certainly don't want to touch anything that has to do with the FWS set hard limits etc.

[Craig36]

Tom helped me find mine and they were loose.

Open the mid section bins and look up. One bin on each side has your front motors. Bolts hold on the motor and all but one of mine was reachable with a socket wrench with extension.

Easier to work on with the slides closed, but accessible either way.

[reubenray]

I checked all of my bolts except the one's under the bed and they all are tight. I will check the bedroom slide the next time I open that slide.

I did not take a wrench to them. Being my motorhome was one of the last one's made in 2017 I am assuming they had Blue Loctite on them. If I tried to tighten them more with a wrench won't this break the Loctite? Should I take one off to verify the Loctite?

[harleyjt]

Originally Posted by reubenray

I checked all of my bolts except the one's under the bed and they all are tight. I will check the bedroom slide the next time I open that slide.

I did not take a wrench to them. Being my motorhome was one of the last one's made in 2017 I am assuming they had Blue Loctite on them. If I tried to tighten them more with a wrench won't this break the Loctite? Should I take one off to verify the Loctite?

Lay a wrench on them and if they feel tight (without actually moving them) then personally, I'd leave them alone. I'd make it a point to check them at least annually depending on your usage. If they stay tight - it really doesn't matter if there is any Locktite on them. You just want them to stay tight.
jt

[vettenuts]

I just checked mine while the coach was in storage, they were all pretty much tight although I check them annually as part of my post-storage preparation.

[eddiehop]

Can you show the plastic cover that has to be taken off to see the slide out bolts?

[tom chelbana]

I have never seen a plastic cover on the 4 bolts that we are talking about that come lose. The head of the bolts are 9/16 and remember the fix is to put blue Lock Tight on each bolt one at a time then torque to about 35 ft. The bigger slides seem to be the ones that come lose.

[Winemaker2]

Originally Posted by tom chelbana

I have never seen a plastic cover on the 4 bolts that we are talking about that come lose. The head of the bolts are 9/16 and remember the fix is to put blue Lock Tight on each bolt one at a time then torque to about 35 ft. The bigger slides seem to be the ones that come lose.

It is model dependant...
Our 2913 Ventana pass side bedroom slide motor is in the DEF bay and somewhat exposed to the outside.
It has the plastic cover over throtor & shaft.... 4 screws hold the cover in place.
Look at a shaft & motor in a basement storage bay to see what the set up looks like. Then look for the same shaft for bedroom and you will either see the motor exposed or a plastic cover surrounding the shaft.
Slide motors in closed basement storage bays... no covers. Under bed motor inside under bed... no cover

[VP Chianese]

Originally Posted by Olroache

Although mechanically inclined i am new to the motorhome. Does anyone have any pictures of what bolts we should be looking at for re-torquing. I certainly don't want to touch anything that has to do with the FWS set hard limits etc.

Page 7 post #96. Pictures of a 2015 DS 4369.

Slides opened or closed does not matter, the motors do not move locations. They are in the lower bays except for the one in the bedroom slide which is under the bed but again it doesn't move or get covered up.

Also might I suggest to you and others that you should set up a signature and within that list your motor home year make and model. That will help folks answer questions related to what your specific problem. You can't take for granted that all of the DS are the same nor all of the Ventenas are the same even within the same year. Within the brand items do change between year models as well as floor plan.

[JMH]

My bolts seem to come loose pretty regularly. About every 5-7 slide operations. I went to the factory for the recall fix, but this did not take care of the problem. I told the tech I was concerned with the bolt stripping. He said that since this was a normal maintenance item there should be no problem as long as I did not over tighten them.

When I tighten the bolts I do not tighten them as much as the tech showed me just to be on the safe side.

On our current trip I checked to make sure all the bolts were snug. My coach has a really odd behavior. When the bolts start to loosen the slide will make a popping sound at full travel. Well, passenger side front slide started popping so I did what I usually do -check the bolts. Sure enough first three were loose by about a quarter to half turn got to the fourth bolt, and to my horror the bolt just turned. In the process of the coach twisting going down the road the bolt somehow stripped it’s threads.

Emailed Newmar and am waiting to get their advise on how to proceed. Bottom line: these bolts can strip out. In my case quite easily. Not sure if this is just a defect in my coach or systemic to the slide system.

[Buly]

If I ever had to remove a slide motor for service, or install a new one, I would install helicoil inserts in the threaded holes
http://www.noblefix.com/key-locking-...ed-inserts.htm
I used them on aluminum blocks, and they are no big deal to install, and improve greatly on the threads in aluminum .