Community Forums

Willie B · 08-03-2019, 02:26 PM

So about 2-3 weeks ago, we took our new-to-us Tradewinds to a reasonably local camp ground for the weekend to get our sea legs. I noticed the front driver-side jack was leaking a little, so I decided to check it out today to see what I could see. With everything level and only a minor leak to be addressed, I decided to get the slider out and size the bottom corner edges to receive a foam pool tube - the plan is to slip these on only while the slider is out and remove when not. Why you ask? Because next time I have the slider out while working in the basement storage, and my head inevitably hits the corner of the MH, I'll be met with foam instead of the sharp pointy underside of the slider

Fast forward, when retracting the slider, the leading edge retracted nicely, but the trailing edge simply refuses to go all the way in, leaving it out by 4". I've tried pushing it out and retracting several times, but I just can't seem to get the slider flush with the MH exterior surface.

I suspect this isn't an unusual occurrence and hope someone could guide me through next steps. The thought of purposely banging my head on the protruding side (the opposite side of where I hit my head last time) crossed my mind as a possible fix, but I was concerned that when I woke up, I might not remember what I was attempting to fix

Thanks in advance for any help you could offer!

pops2 · 08-03-2019, 05:55 PM

there is a means to retract manually just check your manual

sgtjoe · 08-04-2019, 09:28 AM

If you're looking to move the slide manually check one end of the gear motor and flip the lever, this should allow you to manually push it.

BOOZE TRAVEL · 08-06-2019, 03:26 PM

If it is a Power Gear slide with 1 motor and a rack gear on each end you can put it out about 12”, pull the cotter pin on the rear pinion gear rear end, slide pinion gear to the front to disengage. Then manually move the rear of the slide to match the measurement at the front. At that point reverse process to put everything back in position.
If the rail is jumping the gear teeth there are 2 bushings that may be worn out on each side of the pinion gear. I aj e the revised part numbers for those if they are the same as mine. Simple to replace.

BOOZE TRAVEL · 08-07-2019, 12:30 PM

[ATTACH]256097

This is what the bushing looks like. There is one on each side of the pinion gear.

Willie B · 08-07-2019, 12:31 PM

Thanks everyone, I'm going to try and tackle this over the weekend.

Willie

rcalbuquerqu · 08-07-2019, 03:08 PM

Hi
It is very important to apply silicone spray to the underside of your slides.On my tradwinds the main slide rests on and moves on a long rubber piece...if you keep this clean and polished with the silicone spray the slide will move in and out real nice. resonantly my slide was moving slowly and noisy so I cleaned the underside with the silicone spray and boom back to working good.
As for the jacks keep them clean with the same spray and grease them often....this will solve many problems

Willie B · 08-11-2019, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BOOZE TRAVEL

If it is a Power Gear slide with 1 motor and a rack gear on each end you can put it out about 12”, pull the cotter pin on the rear pinion gear rear end, slide pinion gear to the front to disengage. Then manually move the rear of the slide to match the measurement at the front. At that point reverse process to put everything back in position.
If the rail is jumping the gear teeth there are 2 bushings that may be worn out on each side of the pinion gear. I aj e the revised part numbers for those if they are the same as mine. Simple to replace.

I really wanted a check in the "win" column, but I'm afraid I might be going down a rabbit hole. The unit is a Power Gear and I was able to pull the cotter pin out - at least the one on the outer side of the Idler Outer Rail. While looking at the bushings on either side of the pinion gear (both of which look fine), I noticed a second cotter pin located at the inside side of the Idler Outer Rail. I surmised this is why I couldn't get the pinion gear to move from the track. That said, I'm not 100% sure the problem is on this side of the slider - things appear to be very well engineered on this side without the gear able to pop out of alignment with the track. So although I think I could free up the pinion gear and manually pull the slider out to match the same distance as the trailing end of the pop-out slider, I suspect the problem is on the motor side and therefore this could become an issue again down the road.

So unfortunately, I'm going to admit defeat on this one and call in the experts and hopefully live to fight another day.

Thanks again for your feedback, it was very helpful.

Willie

BOOZE TRAVEL · 08-12-2019, 03:59 PM

The bushing may look fine. I put a jack under it and used a 2x4 on the gear to give it a push to see how much it moved. It had about 1/8 inch of movement which was enough to let the gears slip. The new bushings solved my problem. The picture I posted was one of the old bushings and it looked fine but it wasn’t.