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Slide Wall “Gap” - Solved
Although this occurred on a Winnebago, I’m posting in the general Class A section as there is nothing here specific to the manufacturer in my opinion, however Mods please feel free to move if there is a more appropriate section.
Earlier this summer, our drivers side slide out developed a gap where the rear wall met the ceiling cap. (Pictures below which should make it clearer). This was discovered in a strong rainstorm when water started dripping from the ceiling. At the time I thought my seals were having issues and retracted the slide. (This was a strong storm). The drips stopped very soon after the slide came in. This was of course during the start of a week long trip.
The next morning I extended the slide to take a look. Our Coach has the digisync system which started flashing a code for a motor stall. The slide did extend fully, however there was proof that something was going on.
Once On the roof, it was pretty easy to see where the water was getting in. The place where the wall meets the roof cap on the slide out had a gap, the top of the fiberglass wall was below the roof, and as such had popped out slightly. For the week, I sealed the gap with duct tape (which being black matched the coach well) and watched the skies for rain which thankfully, we didn’t get. The first three pics below show issue form a few angles demonstrating the gap and my duct tape patch circled in blue to show the location.
Needless to say I spent a good deal of the trip on google and have now read almost every post I could find on slide issues, I didn’t find a match to this issue and began to see $$$$$$ in the future.
We had a couple trips planned through Aug and Sept, and the slide continued to deteriorate quickly the next trip, by the end the slide would not extend fully without multiple attempts, and needed to go into manual mode to retract. What was odd was the slide could be pushed out by hand with very minimal effort. The rest of Aug and Sept the slide stayed retracted as I’ve read enough horror stories here of people getting the slide stuck out that I was fine with the reduced space! (Our trip in Sept involves a campground nearby that lets you buy one night get one night free on weekends AND leave your rig setup on site during the week, so the rig was used on weekends but left at the campground during the week, and the reduced space was annoying but not a big issue)
In early Sept I contacted Winnebago asking for any advice they might have. I can’t speak highly enough of the team there, a service rep and engineer from the factory and I spoke multiple times and I now have MANY copies of the plans and diagrams for my slide wall and all the mechanisms that make it up. Much of this is avail online however the effort from them was top notch and having all the data specific to my coach emailed to me versus a “it’s online look here” was nice to see. In the end it simply couldn’t be diagnosed remotely and I was referred to a couple “local” dealers. (Local is a loose term here, there are no Winnie motorized Dealers in VT)
After some digging I elected to take the coach to Hills RV in Conway, NH. Conway is about 3 hours from here. We had an appointment for Tuesday, however it was easiest for my wife and I to take the coach over on Friday. We arrived and the owner came out and looked through the coach. Although we were not due to go in until the next week, he asked if we could stay in town for a bit as he would try to repair while there and save us a round trip. This was a very pleasant surprise to say the least, and the first of a couple with this dealer.
The Dealer was not able to fix that day as he didn’t have a couple of the parts in stock. (Diagnosis to follow). The dealer apologized profusely for getting our hopes up, which was amusing as he was attempting to do us a favor and save us a return trip. Lastly, the dealer had taken the slide rams apart and found the damaged parts. The easier and more profitable solution would have been to simply sell us a new slide ram arm at $700 + labor, however by taking it apart, a $30 in parts was all that was needed. Cannot say enough good things about Craig Hill and his team at Hills RV, if you want it fixed like it’s the owner’s personal RV, this is the place to go. The team is trained on Winnie slides and is the one Winnie will send you to here for the more current slide out issues and the subsequent warranty replacements/repairs.
Diagnosis. First and formost, the stop screw on one side had broken off, causing the slide to “overextend”, twisting the slide out box and causing the wall and the roof to separate. As part of this, the slide was too low,either over time or from the above, and causing friction which was detected by the motor stall error above. Once the slide was readjusted the wall popped back into place. Lastly, the stress had stripped out a plastic gear box, this was the part that needed to be ordered and from the owners comments, not the easiest to locate. The owner jokes he’s now keeping a couple in stock with how common my type of slide mechanism is. I’m not going to post the bill details, but the amount was VERY reasonable for 6 hours of labor and was definitely less than I was expecting.
The last photo shows the slide now, wall back in place. My apologies, the slide was retracted when I took it so it’s not the best shot. With the slide extended, you can never tell there was an issue. It was 10 degrees the day I picked the coach back up, I did test/inspect everything before I left, but with the cold, getting the coach warmed up and home was my main concern, not grabbing pics! The winter gods smiled on me, bone dry the whole trip home, our first snowstorm of the season and subsequent road salting came the next weekend.
Although the cause can be different as to why the slide out may be dragging/twisted, my hope here is that should anyone have a similar issue with their slide, it will give them a way to narrow down what’s going on. Thanks for reading!
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2015 Winnebago Vista 35B. "The Vistabus!!"
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