Slideout moves VERY slowly or stops...

[dkperez]

Our new Cougar 5th wheel has a bed slide and a dining slide. They appear to use a motor above the slide and a series of cables to move the slides.

The bedroom slide works perfectly, but the dining area slide is VERY slow. A couple times it didn't extend all the way on battery and I'd have to plug it in to get full extension. Even closing it would move very slowly, a couple times coming to almost a full stop.

Last week I had slide toppers installed, which I presume shouldn't have any effect on the opening and closing, but the dining slide now moves even slower than before and I've actually had to PUSH the thing to get it out all the way. The bed slide still works quickly and normally.

I've got an appointment with the dealer Friday morning. I'm HOPING they'll prove to be competent and will actually fix whatever's wrong, but I"m interested in thoughts on what's likely to be the problem (I presume either a bad motor, binding cable, or binding slide?), and how best to ENSURE this gets FIXED the FIRST TIME...

[JohnBoyToo]

some possibilities:
Your Dining slide is bigger ?
Your battery is down by the time you get to dining slide ?

Sounds like you have a power problem not a slide problem if it works when plugged in (or am I misreading ?)

And slide toppers WIll affect your slides... more (only slightly more) but still more to pull out

[dkperez]

I'm headed for the dealer in a couple minutes, but I found the service document for the slide online. It says if the cables are too tight the motor will have a hard time moving the slide. It also give specs for the amount of slack on which cable when in or out...

On mine, you could strum a chord on the cables whether in or out...

It doesn't go out even when plugged in without pushing on the slide, so I suspect it needs a cable adjustment. I'll know (hopefully) this morning.

[jimcumminsw]

If you have read the owner’s manual that comes with the Cougar it will state that you must always use an additional electric source for the slides to operate them correctly. You could even damage the motors by just using the battery to open and close the sidles.

I never relied on just the battery from the 5er on any of my 5ers that I have owned.

I always either have the truck engine running and the electrical cord that connects the two together hooked up or I am plugged into shore power before the slides are moved in or out.
I believe the amperage load that the motors require to operate efficiently is more than the battery can provide.
Jim W.

[dkperez]

Actually, unless I"ve missed it the two times I've been through the manual, the owner's manual for mine doesn't state that I need shore power to move the slides. It doesn't say ANYTHING about power, other than the battery needs to be charged.

Spent the morning at the dealer as they tried to adjust the slide. It was VERY educational, and I'll do future adjustments myself. At least things aren't so bound up now that it won't go out... It now moves fairly well, sort-of levels at the end, and closes with a decent seal.

[wa8yxm]

You are describing low voltage, Clean and check the battery terminals, the ground end of the negative terminal and then every conneciton in the path to the motor and back, About the only thing you don't check is the motor's ground, but do check the controller's ground (The motor grounds via the controller) .

[dkperez]

Lemme throw yet ANOTHER oddity into the mix...............

After going through all the adjustments, the slide now moves. It doesn't move FAST, but it moves...

BUT, there's a HUGE difference in speed between using the remote, and using the button in the trailer....... From the remote, the slide moves out all the way, and at the end of movement, it tips the slide up and the lower stops go into place. So, it is pretty level, and fairly well in place.

ON THE OTHER HAND, from the button inside the trailer, it moves MUCH more slowly, and when it gets all the way out, it DOESN'T tip the slide up and it DOESN'T push the lower brackets into position......

The battery is clean, tightly connected, and works just fine. Besides, ALL the adjustments and tests were done while the trailer was plugged into a 30 amp circuit.

And no, it's not the switch - they swapped two of 'em. SO, at the end of several hours of messing around, I got the traditional mechanic's shrug... The service manager is going to call the manufacturer, but he's already said "They're not going to let us rewire the circuit with wire of heavy enough gauge to have the slide move properly from the wall switch."

Anyhow, having watched the service people (yes, at one point there were THREE of 'em standing around looking at the slide) read EXACTLY the same service document I printed, trying to figure out how to adjust the slide movement, I figure ANY FUTURE adjustments I'll make myself.

SO, it's the BAL cable adjust system. Can someone provide the REAL process for adjusting this thing - NOT what's in the document, HOW YOU ACTUALLY GET IT ADJUSTED SO IT WORKS PROPERLY AND HALF THE CABLES DON'T HAVE 3 - 4 INCHES of slack...

[dkperez]

Hello? Anybody got a procedure for actually adjusting this thing?

[3665RE]

Unfortunately you have a Keystone product. Don’t expect any help from Keystone they will only refer you to a dealer.

Keystone doesn’t audit their dealers service department. The dealer you get may not even have any trained RV technicians on staff.

Get all the documentation from every dealer you use. Don’t let a dealer tell you there isn’t any documentation there always is.

When you find a dealer that has qualified technicians you will need the documentation so they can better guess at what the last bunch screwed up.

3665RE

[dkperez]

Somehow, I"m less surprised than I should be... Apparently, the service manager talked to Keystone about the difference in slide speed between the remote and the wall switch... It seems their response, was something to the effect of "Yeah, so?"

And, BTW, I have SOMETHING that's supposed to be documentation on the trailer, but it's essentially devoid of any useful information. Our former trailer was a Jayco and I had a big, thick manual that detailed stuff on just about everything in the trailer. Quite a difference...

[jimcumminsw]

Originally Posted by dkperez

Hello? Anybody got a procedure for actually adjusting this thing?

Here is the Lippert site for their manuals which can be down loaded and stored on your computer.
Owners Manuals
You will need to search for the correct manual for your style of slide.
Jim W.

[3665RE]

Dkperez

Keystone is a “sales oriented” business model.

That means that the customer service representative you or the dealer gets on the phone is there only to avoid warranty claims until the year warranty is up.

Here is the e-mail address for the head of customer service.

Holms@keystonrv.com



In the subject line of the e-mail to Mr. Holms put the last 9 digits of you trailers VIN.

Give him a good description of the problem including the absence of the documentation. Keystone does produce an owner’s manual for their products. . Give him the Dealer name and address, dates and times of the phone calls.

Keystone has had problems getting the hole for the slide the correct sizes. I have seen post where the hole was too big and other post where the hole was too small.

It sounds like the dealer you purchased from didn’t do a pre delivery inspection or at least not much of one. They should have noted the absence of the owner’s manuals for the trailer and all installed equipment.

3665RE

[dkperez]

Thanks for the information. I'll give the email a try......

I DID find "owners manuals" at the keystone, site, but it appears to be a totally generic manual to cover ALL their various units for the whole year. At Cougar I couldn't find any additional manuals - the owner's manual link just points back to the Keystone manual. And, of course, High Country or the specific model didn't turn up anything I could find......

It looks like my slide system is the BAL (I'm not sure where Lippert fits into the whole equation), and I've got their documentation. One of these days, when it cools off, I'll make sure everything is level and I"ll redo the slide adjustments so I know they're right. Beyond that, I'll do the same thing I did with the Jayco - once I got it home, the dealer never saw it again.