Community Forums

RV8 · 10-16-2014, 08:00 PM

Spent a great week at the factory service facility in June 2014. Two fabulous techs worked for eight hours a day, for the entire five days to fix everything on our 2014 33.2 hit list. This included a total rebuild of our slide with the latest in Schwintek technology for the 2014. We were delighted! And for the rest of the summer everything went well with the slide as we finished a 2 month tour of the south and Midwest. Home in August and 33.2 is put into storage.

Fast forward to tonight. The motorhome has been in front of our house, has been fully loaded including the fridge and freezer. We are heading to AZ for a nice holiday before some ugly surgeries. Drive the MH to our local community center so we can put out slide to make the bed, then pull it in and hook up toad. Can't do this at home as we are on a busy corner. Level up, push the extend button as we have always done without an issue and all heck breaks loose. HUGE noises (like massive firecrackers) in the rear quadrant, the entire motorhome shakes so hard the dishes rattle. Scared the living bejabbers out of
us!! Attempted the reset as instructed at the service facility. More of the same terrible noise and shaking and no good result. The front of the large slide is still fully extended, the back of the slide still has failed to extend by about 4 inches and the teeth on the bottom are chewed up. No way we are touching this until the Thor experts tell us what to do. Thor is closed for the day as is Lippert. No help from that end at the moment. Will see what they all have to say in the morning.

Meanwhile our HOA is being very understanding about the MH which may be in their parking lot for a very long time.

We'll keep you all posted as this new adventure unfolds!

gmadams · 10-16-2014, 08:05 PM

Call Thor and leave a message if thy don't answer. There is someone on call that will return your call.

RV8 · 10-16-2014, 08:36 PM

After hours emergency service tech said lower gear sounds as if it is broken. Go to slide control box, disconnect motors, look for square hole, push white button inside square hole six times, hold down on seventh and wait til the lights flash. Then go inside and retract slide as normally.. Call in the morning and we will try to find you someplace you can take it to be worked on. Having read the manual and learned that there may be slightly more to it than this and that in fact we may need several people to manually move the slide in, we will be needing a well trained tech on the site

It's pitch dark here and we think that a couple of margaritas will improve our outlook on life.

TK IV · 10-17-2014, 05:59 AM

Sorry to hear of your problems. I have a friend that had that problem. We did remove the rear motor and with three of us we pushed the rear in while he push the retract button to pull the front in.

TK IV · 10-17-2014, 06:04 AM

I have used the override. You might try that first. Push the override button 6 times an hold it down on the 7th until you see flashing red and green lights. You then have 60 seconds to go inside and push the retract button.

RV8 · 10-17-2014, 07:03 AM

Thanks Ron. We'll be trying that procedure as soon as there is enough daylight in CO to give it a go. Appreciate the 60 second heads up as neither the manual nor the service tech mentioned it. Once the slide is in we'll be calling back to Thor for someplace to get things fixed. Hoping we aren't going to need three people to shove the slide back into place!

RKNOLA · 10-17-2014, 09:45 AM

Hi RV8,
I am so sorry you are having these troubles. I have included some info on Thor Contacts. When you call you might also ask to speak to Steve Reed. If he isn't there they should be able to contact you with his voicemail. Between Steve Reed and Mark Stanley, someone will be in contact with you. If possible deal with Thor directly, keep very good documentation of all communication and all of the repair steps you take. (Such as the override button, re-syncing the motors etc.). This will help the repair people in the long run. If you have to bring it to a repair facility like a dealership, stay in contact with Thor. Even if the repair facility tells you they are doing the contacting, stay on top of it! The best way to get a true answer about your repairs/parts/communication with Thor, etc. is for YOU to do the communicating! You will be surprised how understanding Thor is about this. Sometimes, the repair facility won't be as understanding but stand your ground. I would rather "bother" someone and get it right than trust someone to do it right and be disappointed!
PM us if there is anything we can do to help.
Good Luck!

Customer Care Contact Form:
Customer Care | Thor Motor Coach #1 Brand of Motorhomes | Diesel Pushers,Class A,Class B,& Class C RV s

Customer Care
(877) 855-2867 Retail Customers

Warranty:
Warranty@TMCRV.com
(574) 584-3388

Thomas Overton
Warranty Advisor
toverton@tmcrv.com
701 C.R. 15
Elkhart IN. 46515
PH. 877-855-2867
FAX 574-294-3618

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Mark Stanley
Technical Manager
mstanley@TMCRV.com

RV8 · 10-17-2014, 10:50 AM

Thanks for your response Karen. Much appreciated. At this point we are still dead in the water. Mark Stanley is out til Monday. We have all the contacts you gave us (from our week at the factory service center in June when the slide mechanisms were completely replaced). Left messages for both Steve Reed and Tom Overton. Tom returned the call, reiterated the mode for bringing slide in with override methods. Said that if this did not work, we should call Good SAMs, which fortunately we are already members of, and they will send someone to get us back on the road.

HOWEVER, having already contacted the mobile RVtech service companies in Denver, we are somewhat anxious about how long this will take. One company has not returned calls and the other is not currently available to make on site visits.

Going out to attempt retract mode. Hoping we do not do further damage to unit. Will keep you all posted.

Thanks for your concerns!

RV8 · 10-17-2014, 03:26 PM

Update......
Still haven't heard from Camping Worlds mobile tech service. No return call from Steve Reed either. Tom Overton has been exceedingly helpful. Unfortunately the attempted retract of the slide with pushing the button override in the control box, which he suggested, was a failure. The slide cocked itself even more severely in the rear. For those of you who have not attempted this maneuver, the box is on the ceiling of the middle compartment under the big slide, handily stashed behind a large wire harness. Access for ours was possible only by lying on your back and working over your head with your legs hanging out, a somewhat tricky effort for a 70 yr old with a bad back. A call back to Tom produced a series of maneuvers with harness changes and alternating motor usage which resulted in the slide being fully retracted in the front but still hanging out about 7" in the rear. A hefty push by four burly members of our HOA ground crew failed to bring the slide in any further. According to Tom, this will be sufficient for us to limp to AZ. There we will take the MH in to Luxury RV Service in Mesa which will fully replace the entire slide mechanism once the parts from Thor arrive. Tom has promised that he will expedite them and they will ship on Monday.

Obviously we are very pleased that Thor continues to stand behind their product and we cannot say enough about the service reps and techs who have walked us through this ongoing issue as well as numerous others! However, we must admit that this will be the third slide mechanism replacement for our unit in sixteen months (making four mechanisms total...including June 2014's latest and greatest with the hexagonal rods...which have been in the unit). Six different RV repair shops have worked on the unit's large slide and seals. We are beginning to wonder if there may be something inherently wrong with our slide which makes it even more prone to slide mechanism failure than other Palazzos.

We value all the good knowledge out there in the community and are grateful for all of your input and PM's as we try to work this problem through.

Travel safe!

Bill and Pat

Redridge · 10-18-2014, 11:11 AM

sorry for your triubles, maybe you can ask for a 3rd rail upgrade... I know it was done to someone here on the forum.

streamcamper · 10-18-2014, 11:12 AM

Hello Bill and Pat... what are the hexagonal rods you refer to in your last post? Thanks...

TK IV · 10-18-2014, 11:26 AM

The rods connect the motor to the upper and lower gears. They changed these to steel last year. My rear rod jumped out of the bottom shoe that it rides in. My guess is that is what happened here.

RKNOLA · 10-18-2014, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redridge

sorry for your triubles, maybe you can ask for a 3rd rail upgrade... I know it was done to someone here on the forum.

Good idea! The 3rd rail wasn't offered to us, but since it is a 2013 Thor told us it was "Not Retrofitable". Hopefully our slide health continues.

streamcamper · 10-18-2014, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TK IV

The rods connect the motor to the upper and lower gears. They changed these to steel last year. My rear rod jumped out of the bottom shoe that it rides in. My guess is that is what happened here.

Got it. Thanks. The rod is the torque shaft. Does anyone know if they were all changed to steel on the full wall slides, or only those with problems that were subsequently repaired.