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Old 04-04-2019, 05:27 PM   #1
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"Bulletproof" slide motor mounting solution

As mentioned in many previous threads, these slide motor bolts loosening up are a major concern, and keeping the bolts tight is important. Loctite, longer bolts and studs are all a step in the right direction. But not the only problem with these gear motors.

The bracket's slotted mounting holes, on most of the installations i've seen, are severely compromising the stability of the mounting bosses (threaded holes) cast into the housings. Each of the 4 mounting locations has a very thin section of contact on each side. This small contact area smashes the aluminum underneath it from the torsional flex of the mounting plate. As soon as a small amount of aluminum wears away, the bolts will be loose with or without locking methods.

My parent's 2014 baystar sport has broken parts of the bedroom slide (welds broken and now the motor housing of the living room slide. The motor housing broke it's bosses just like all the pics on here and other forum posts. They bought it new 3 years ago, and I have checked the bolts a few times since then. The bolts have never been loose.

The bracket is very flimsy (read thin). Its supposed to be by design. The bracket has been engineered to flex. The flexible mount allows the motor to move up/down and side/side in this application. (but rotational movement should not happen as it does) The welds that secure this bracket to the coach were terrible on this installation, and cracked in many places. The mount plate was also cracked at the 90 deg bends do to rotational force.

Some of the blame belongs to the incorrectly adjusted intelitech controllers allowing too much current draw (and ultimately toque) on the motors. Even with that in check, these brackets are twisting more than you would believe! (check for yourselves!) When these brackets twist, the bolts are being pulled and rocked at the same time. If the bolts dont give, the housing does.

Fixing this gear motor's problems requires the mounting surface to be solid, stay flat, proper current limiting adjustment by the controllers and I think that the motors need another secondary mount on the other end of this oblong gear housing. Im designing and fabbing a pair of sandwiching braces that will use all 4 mounting holes and 8 of the screw holes on the other side of the housing. I plan to extend these braces far enough to the other end of the housing to create an outboard mounting surface for a simple triangulated support bracket to halt rotational movement.


ps..... I'm documenting the build dimensions and process in case I have the opportunity to build more of these things for others. I think this design will solve the weak housing problem and the bracket issue without limiting the flex too much.
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Old 04-04-2019, 05:42 PM   #2
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The first step for this particular repair was to remedy the cracked bracket and cracked welds of the original mounting. Since this housing was already damaged, I started by removing the slide motor and stripping all of the paint from the mount and surrounding areas. I used paint stripper instead of a wire wheel so that the cracks would not be smeared and hidden by the action of the wire wheel. After stripping and cleaning it was evident that there were cracks forming at more places than originally thought. The old welds were ground down, the cracks were cut out and bracket was completely rewelded. Welding in this area was no fun..... The motor is mounted inside of a compartment. The carpet had to be protected, as did many wires etc.... A few welding burns and minor fires later.... I had the bracket repaired sufficiently.
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Old 04-04-2019, 06:10 PM   #3
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My 5 design goals were:

1 create a rigid and stable mounting surface without the slots compromising the aluminum mounting bosses.

2 strengthen the mounting structure by use of the gear case bolts on the opposite side

3 incorporate braces to stop rotational flex of the mounting bracket without severely limiting the flex designed into the bracket.

4 install easily without complete removal of the motor and shafts.

5 adaptable to other applications of this klauber k900 gear motor




I started with a simple 4 bolt plate made from 1/8th inch steel with a hole sawed into the center for the shaft. This plate could be slotted to allow installation without motor and shaft disassembly, although that was not needed in this application. This plate will be installed directly up against the mounting bosses of the motor housing.

I then built 2 plates for both sides of the housing, 4 total. With all 4 plates drilled and bolted onto the housing I welded end cap plates onto them creating my main two c-channel like housing supports.
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Old 04-04-2019, 06:21 PM   #4
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How will a normal person be able to do anything other than fix the bolting?

Maybe NEWMAR changed the setup since...... Hope
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Old 04-04-2019, 06:27 PM   #5
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The rotational braces were next on the list. I used some ss strap material that I had around and made triangulated braces to strap the housing reinforcements to the coach. These were drilled and nut bolted into the coach but the final length of the braces was left adjustable by the use of a slotted overlap in each leg. ... to be locked down after installation was complete.

In hindsight, I should have used some slotted strap steel for these braces, like the stuff used in steel shelving for diagonal bracing. Would have been much simpler.... but wouldn't have looked near as cool!
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Old 04-04-2019, 06:36 PM   #6
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Almost done... I promise.

Now that the parts were all ready, I finally received the new motor. (ebay)
While installing the case supports, I couldn't get more than 3 threads of the now longer case bolts to thread in. The original bolts appear to have been a semi self tapping screw (1/4 20). The resulting threads in the case were not fully formed, so I had to tap them out before assembly. Otherwise the new motor and bulletproof (overkill?) reinforcements installed without a hitch.
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Old 04-04-2019, 06:54 PM   #7
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Looks great, but way above my skill level.
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Old 04-04-2019, 06:57 PM   #8
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Sideburns - Please send this fix to Newmar, get a name to work with, and show them in your pictures and description what it takes. You solution is way outside the normal old man who owns these things, not that I cannot do it, I just don't have the equipment to do it, nor maybe the physical stamina. Maybe you could start a business doing this. As stated above, hopefully, Newmar has gotten this figured out, but not sure. Please try to work with them on this, and don't let some "engineers" try to talk you down.
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Old 04-04-2019, 07:57 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by Old-RVer View Post
Sideburns - Please send this fix to Newmar, get a name to work with, and show them in your pictures and description what it takes. You solution is way outside the normal old man who owns these things, not that I cannot do it, I just don't have the equipment to do it, nor maybe the physical stamina. Maybe you could start a business doing this. As stated above, hopefully, Newmar has gotten this figured out, but not sure. Please try to work with them on this, and don't let some "engineers" try to talk you down.

In my previous dealings with Newmar for warranty repairs, they just simply wore me down. They treated me and my parents very poorly and we just ended up forced to take care of everything on our own. Even just trying to get approval and materials to fix a simple issue took multiple phone calls and technical arguments... playing phone tag... waiting on hold for engineers... then hours of time wasted- were granted .25 hours labor at a miniscule labor rate to fix the particular problem... etc..... After doing this over and over, my folks who own this rv, just refused to keep fighting. Most of the local rv shops in the area even refused to do warranty work for newmar. All this left a bad taste in my mouth.....

Sorry for the rant..... but I'd rather help other newmar owners who are stuck with issues like these directly.

If the opportunity presents itself, I'd love to produce things like this for owners in the future. -If nothing else It still makes for a good read for similarly technical minded folks on the forom!
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Old 04-05-2019, 04:41 AM   #10
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Looks great, but way above my skill level.
X2.
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Old 04-05-2019, 05:13 AM   #11
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Great job. I bet working inside the tight compartment was not fun.
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Old 04-05-2019, 10:17 AM   #12
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Looks great, but way above my skill level.
And, my pay grade.
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Old 04-05-2019, 03:55 PM   #13
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Installing the completed reinforcements and braces was gravy. Shaft removal and reinstallation, welding and grinding inside of a box.... not so much. If all works out as planned, I wont be doing that part ever again!
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Old 04-05-2019, 05:13 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by sideburns View Post
As mentioned in many previous threads, these slide motor bolts loosening up are a major concern, and keeping the bolts tight is important. Loctite, longer bolts and studs are all a step in the right direction. But not the only problem with these gear motors.

The bracket's slotted mounting holes, on most of the installations i've seen, are severely compromising the stability of the mounting bosses (threaded holes) cast into the housings. Each of the 4 mounting locations has a very thin section of contact on each side. This small contact area smashes the aluminum underneath it from the torsional flex of the mounting plate. As soon as a small amount of aluminum wears away, the bolts will be loose with or without locking methods.

My parent's 2014 baystar sport has broken parts of the bedroom slide (welds broken and now the motor housing of the living room slide. The motor housing broke it's bosses just like all the pics on here and other forum posts. They bought it new 3 years ago, and I have checked the bolts a few times since then. The bolts have never been loose.

The bracket is very flimsy (read thin). Its supposed to be by design. The bracket has been engineered to flex. The flexible mount allows the motor to move up/down and side/side in this application. (but rotational movement should not happen as it does) The welds that secure this bracket to the coach were terrible on this installation, and cracked in many places. The mount plate was also cracked at the 90 deg bends do to rotational force.

Some of the blame belongs to the incorrectly adjusted intelitech controllers allowing too much current draw (and ultimately toque) on the motors. Even with that in check, these brackets are twisting more than you would believe! (check for yourselves!) When these brackets twist, the bolts are being pulled and rocked at the same time. If the bolts dont give, the housing does.

Fixing this gear motor's problems requires the mounting surface to be solid, stay flat, proper current limiting adjustment by the controllers and I think that the motors need another secondary mount on the other end of this oblong gear housing. Im designing and fabbing a pair of sandwiching braces that will use all 4 mounting holes and 8 of the screw holes on the other side of the housing. I plan to extend these braces far enough to the other end of the housing to create an outboard mounting surface for a simple triangulated support bracket to halt rotational movement.


ps..... I'm documenting the build dimensions and process in case I have the opportunity to build more of these things for others. I think this design will solve the weak housing problem and the bracket issue without limiting the flex too much.

I have to say, that is a seriously poor weld on that bracket! I'm glad mine don't look like that.-Paul
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