Community Forums

Crnrpokt · 01-05-2020, 10:04 PM

Hello again all,
my wife and I took our rig out for a long haul recently. I know this is normal so I am asking for advice. We noticed that our slides were coming out - in some cases up to 6-8 inches going down the road. We would "pull" them all in when we got stopped. What could the issue be? Worn motor? Bad slide rails? Whatever it is it will be fixed but we were uneasy with this. Has anyone else had this issue?

schad · 01-06-2020, 06:28 AM

Assuming that you've had this rig for a while, that this problem hasn't been going on for as long as you've had it, and that you actually do mean ALL slides are extending:

Each slide should be mostly independent of the others. That is, separate rails, separate motors, etc. It would be very unlikely to suffer the exact same mechanical problem on all your slides at the exact same time. The most likely culprit is going to be a system that's shared by all your slides. I would start out looking at the control panel. My guess is that your coach has a panel with a rocker button on it for each of your slides. Even though each slide will have its own button, behind that panel it will be a mess of wires. It's possible that something is intermittently shorting as you go down the road and briefly activating the slides. On my coach (and also on my previous RV, a travel trailer), the slide motors would continue to "coast" for about a second even after releasing the button, so it would only take a few momentary shorts of the switches to extend the slides by 6".

People with more knowledge of your specific coach -- and the mods appear to have moved your post to the Fleetwood forums, which should help with that -- may be able to provide more specific guidance.

Crnrpokt · 01-06-2020, 08:02 AM

Thank you for the info. We just got the rig a couple months ago. Not all the slides are coming out the same amount. When I do press the rocker switch, the slide comes in then when I release the rocker it tends to move back out a little at the bottom. During driving the slide will move more and more.

Alan_Hepburn · 01-06-2020, 01:01 PM

On our 2007 Bounder the switches will not work unless the transmission is in N or P - if it's in D the switches are disabled for safety. So, if the slides are moving when driving it's most likely not because of a switch problem, but rather something mechanical with the slide itself.
Our slides are electrical, and the motors have a brake installed that is supposed to prevent them from moving by themselves. Make sure that brake is engaged - if it doesn't seem to help in either position then it might be time to replace it. I don't know if you can replace just the brake or if it only comes with a new motor - that's something you'd have to ask from Fleetwood, or a repair place.

Bigd9 · 01-06-2020, 01:17 PM

I don't know what Fleetwood model you have, so this will be real general. First like schad indicated, most unusual for all slides to do something like that. But you mentioned something that stuck in my mind. You mentioned the bottom comes out first. That is unusual. I think that may be a contributing factor. My Fleetwood Discovery the slides all go in flush, and come back out even. There are adjustments that can be made to make the rooms come in even. If the top is touching first, then that places a the room in a strain that will tend to push the room out.

On my coach there are brakes in the motors that lock the room in place. Some other models use a mechanical locking mechanisms built into the walls.

We were in Pahrump last October visiting a friend.

Gary RVRoamer · 01-06-2020, 03:01 PM

I think you have Power Gear slide mechanism (you should verify that) and those are supposed to be self-locking. What that means is the motor has a brake that engages when power is removed by the slide motor controller. Sounds like your brakes aren't engaging. The only think I can think of that might do that on all the slides is that the motors don't quite reach the shut-off point and don't brake. It still seems unlikely that would happen on all (2? 3?) slides, though.

Crnrpokt · 01-07-2020, 07:35 AM

Thank you all! I am suspecting the motor and/or brakes are bad on the unit. We will be bringing this in for some work to be done. When we bought this rig we also got the extended warranty so that will really help with repair costs. Would rather have it safe than to guess.

Bigd9 · 01-07-2020, 08:25 AM

Just know the ins and outs of your extended warranty and read the fine print. It probably won't cover 'pre-existing' problems so be real careful what you say or don't say in your claim.

redcolorado · 01-07-2020, 02:23 PM

Check your brakes on the motors. The previous owner may have released the brake for some reason and did not reset them. The brake has a handle inside a rubber boot on the end of the motor that moves about 15 degrees to engage or disengage. The brakes are replaceable if you can get the parts. I bought 2 extra brakes when I bought the 2008 Bounder 11 years ago and have used 1. They are easy to replace.