Lippert Electric Single Rail Above Floor Slide-Outs Failure

[e4services]

I thought I would pass this on, as a responsible dealer/repairman should.
Working on a Bed Slideout (Slide out) that would no longer move, you just heard the motor spin.
To sort out the issue, the slide had to be out for the motor is on the wall end of the slide rail. Doing some reading, there is a 5/8 hex nut on the gearbox shaft you can turn with a socket, painstaking, on the floor, reaching in, a half hour of quarter turns.
The motor/gearbox comes off easily with the removal of a 5/8 bolt.
Now the search. Through Lippert I found there are two versions used on these Above Floor Rail Systems, made by two different manufacturers. And, as it turns out, both have a similar design with exactly the same failure. The primary gear that interfaces with the motor is nylon which cracks and falls apart.

The Two similar Lippert refers to as a Tuson Motor/Gearbox and a Venture Motor/Gearbox. While you actually can find a replacement gear set for the Venture, I could not find any parts for the Tuson. Lippert and RV Parts places sell the entire assembly, motor, 16-1 Right Angle Gearbox, Drive Gearbox and axle, $567 MSRP and around $380 online. I almost went that way figuring just pull of the motor/gearbox and replace the old. THe rest a waste.
BUT, me I kept digging. Tuson, as it turns out, is the assembly manufacturer. Reaching out to them I find out that this gear has been failing across the board and they have now put the replacement part up on their web site tusonrvbrakes.com , parts. It is the only part listed, a 2 1/4" nylon gear pressed onto a small steel pinon, $50. I know it seems a bit steep, but it is a easy replacement, 4 screws to open the gearbox case, slip off the gear (and the pieces that cracked off), be careful to notice the little washer on top of it and insert the new.
BUT if you feel that why not replace the motor also, then $375-$380 for an a part listed as Model: 014-133612 and Lippert 045-133612 or through Lippert as SKU: 133612 for $566.95.

Good Luck and hope this helps someone

[Skip426]

An all plastic gear ( from the Venture ) is available on e bay and works well in the Tuson as a replacement for the compound gear .

Due to problems it can't be advertised as a Lippert part , I think it's under RV, slide drive ,18/1 gear reduction , replacement gear.
I've got it written down somewhere , and I'll re-post when I find it .

JMHO: Just bad PR on Lippert's part not to offer it , but I guess they need all the money to continue buying up the competition.

[Skip426]

E bay listing in automotive / RV repair parts.

Full listing is .

RV Motorhome slide out motor universal actuator gear 18:1 Ratio.

Other listings for motor home slide drives ,from Lippert describe the Venture and Tuson gear drives as 18:1 not the 16:1 in e4services original post , I believe that may have been a typo.

I installed one of these plastic gears in a Tuson unit 4 years ago , so far so good , the original in the same RV only lasted 3.

[e4services]

Interesting. When I spoke to a seller of the replacement Venture gear set, I was told to count the teeth on my smaller gear "The plastic gear measure 2-1/4" in diameter with 24 teeth on the smaller gear & 64 teeth on the larger gear." I counted 25 teeth on my Tuson gear. This gear has 25 teeth. Interesting. So I go to the picture of the Venture set and count the teeth, there are 25! Not sure how he sells these.
Anyway, that is a great find!
Here is the Tuson replacement gear:


It does appear to be identical
And yes, typo, the original gearboxes are 18-1

[Skip426]

Originally Posted by e4services

It does appear to be identical

I would think because every failure I've seen on the Tuson gear; 3 personally and a number of other posts here in the forums; that being identical wouldn't be a good thing. Seems they all snap away at the points . Too much load on the six points , maybe a good replacement would be redesigned with multi tooth splines as contact between the metal and plastic.
Designed to fail to protect the motor in case of a bind in the slide system, we come back to " Why doesn't Lippert sell the part ?"
Other companies sell the sheer pins ; etc ; that their systems use.

[e4services]

My guess would be that Lippert just buys the assembly from Tuson, as they do with most of their products. I would bet the suggestion to sell a replacement part would have to come from the manufacturer, Tuson in this case. They women I talked to there told me they just realized from the many inquiries that this part was failing (probably took years) in numbers to warrant producing replacements. Lippert probably didn't tell them, they dont exactly have good CS, it probably came up when they started selling a high number of replacement assemblies.
Venture and Klauber Manufacturing were probably more proactive, knowing full well the Nylon gear would fail over time, it just drys and shinks from heat and time

[Skip426]

I've had similar issues with Klauber / Newmar , wanting to sell a complete gear box over a gear set ; apparently Newmar holds the patent and Klauber just builds the unit . There was a gear package available , but it didn't include the one that failed the most often .
Motor is good housing is fine , and a metal gear that should sell for approx $80/100 not available for the repair , so you have to spend $600.
The two teeth that are engaged to the drive motor when the slide is being held in , break. Every other gear in the reduction was available.

[PeteandDeb]

"To sort out the issue, the slide had to be out for the motor is on the wall end of the slide rail. Doing some reading, there is a 5/8 hex nut on the gearbox shaft you can turn with a socket, painstaking, on the floor, reaching in, a half hour of quarter turns.
The motor/gearbox comes off easily with the removal of a 5/8 bolt."


Mine just failed and I ordered the gear. Does the slide actually have to be cranked out? (It was hard enough to get it fully retracted). I can see that it would be fairly easy to pull off the cover, shaft cover and hairpin ... and the screws.