Full Wall slide dependability

[RRTom]

Thinking about getting back into rv'ing. Have they now got full wall slides that are dependable and trouble free? I know it might depend on which brand. We are looking at Holiday Rambler 30' and Coachmen Mirada 29'.

[JoeH]

I do not have a FWS on our Newmar Dutch Star. We liked the 4 slide layout better. That being said, we have had 3 of the 4 slides break ( 2 of them twice) during the 5 years we have had it. A chain broke, a weld broke,a gear case split open, and twice internal gears in the gearcase broke. It is a very poorly and crudely designed and implemented mechanism. If you look on the Newmar owners forum, you will see pages upon pages of issues with their slideouts. Now compared to the Fleetwood I had with a powergear mechanism, I had one failure in the 13 years I owned that coach.

[Mile_High]

Our Power Gear full will slide actually crushed a Dish remote, nearly in two! I about had a heart attack when I heard the crunch, but it never phased it a bit 🙂 Had that of been the Schwintek on the other side.................

[eheading]

We have a bottom of the line Newmar diesel, a 34' Ventana LE. It has a full slide on the driver's side. We actually could not have our floorplan without the full slide. We have traveled over 40,000 miles now and only had one problem. We had an obstruction at one end of the slide when we extended it. Not good. However, the good news is that after about a 10 minute call with Newmar technicians, everything was realigned and working fine again. I cannot speak for other manufacturers, or for the new hydraulic slides on more expensive Newmar motorhomes, but for the Newmar electric slides, I would NOT hesitate to buy another unit with a full slide again.

All of the theoretical analysis that has been presented on this thread has been very interesting, but actually owning one and using it in the real world is the real test - and ours has certainly exceeded our expectations.

Ed Headington
2013 Newmar Ventana LE

[Thunder_Mountai]

We are on our third winter in a 2016 Winnebago Journey 40R with a full wall slide. So far not a hiccup. I know that some of the earlier Journey and Tour models with full wall slide had some serious issues but that a Schwintek mechanism.

[Mile_High]

We have a giant full wall slide (~32 ft) on a 3 rail system with 2 motors underfloor by Power Gear (Power Gear has been bought out by LCI). I have far more confidence in that slide operating trouble free than I do the smaller kitchen slide on the other side of the coach that has the in-wall Schwintek system.

As stated, Some of the manufacturers went to Schwintek and got a little carried away as to the size of slide they used them on, including mine, but I wouldn't hesitate to get one with the underfloor mechanisms. The full wall slides make for a nice open floor plan.

I'm on the roof all the time, and I've never even noticed the difference over the slide. I've never had any concerns for the structure of the coach.

[two_travelers]

We had a 2014 Newmar Baystar 29' model with full wall slide. After about a year when going to set up, I noticed chunks of metal in the storage bin where the rear mechanism is. Turned out it was some kind of thrust bearing. After many calls to FL dealers, I finally found one that could see us in 2 weeks instead of 8. When the dealer was fixing the rear he looked at the front and that was about to break also. Even after the fix the slide was not right. This was the final straw in a year and a half of constant repairs and we traded it in.

[Hikerdogs]

Just got back from Forest City late yesterday afternoon. We had the factory service department replace the original Schwintec extend/retract mechanism on our full wall slide with an "upgrade" to the Power Gear system.

It took about 10 hours to complete the job (8 hrs Monday and 2 hrs Tuesday). They brought out the coach at about 3:00 pm Monday so we could stay over night in it. The new mechanism was fully functional, but they still wanted to adjust a roller under the kitchen island and do a bit more cleanup work.

The new motors are a bit louder than the originals and seem to draw a bit more power. At this point everything is functioning "as designed" and is much smoother than the original. The new racks on the side of the slide have much deeper teeth as do the pinions. There seems to be a much better and more secure mesh between the racks and the pinions.

One noticable difference between the new and old mechanisms is the fact that you can hear the new motors schyncronize at the end of each stroke. Before when holding the swich after full extension or retraction there was a deafening silence. Now at the end of the stroke you can hear the motors check schyncronization and make changes if necessary.

The "upgrade was no longer completely covered by the factory. However after a conversation with our service writer Winnebago was willing to reduce the price by approximately 1/3 due to our previous experiences and attempts to repair it.

The slide was tested 6 times before we left and was extended again this morning so we could clean and winterize it before putting it back in storage. Hopefully the new system will be functional for as long as we own the coach. We kept our last one over 12 years and put on over 110,000 miles. This coach is a little over 5 years old and is just shy of 40,000 miles on the odometer. Time will tell.

[DSDP_Don]

Well......let's look at the answers to your question.

-Those who don't have one, wouldn't own one.

-Those who have them, like them. Oh yeah, the industry is making millions of them....must be a bigger issue than we thought!

-Those who bought coaches where the manufacturer went cheap and tried to use Schwintek slides on something that they shouldn't, didn't work.

My favorite.....are the engineers explaining the math. The only thing they neglect to mention is that the stress is on the chassis, not the roof line. If the RV had a second floor, yes, the opening could be an issue. Show me someone on here who's opening collpased under normal use.

[Hikerdogs]

Chum lee wrote:

Hikerdogs wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
As an RV Tech for 38 years, I would NOT want a FULL wall slide. I have seen too many problems with them. BUT, there are exceptions. It all depends on the TYPE/BRAND of the slide mechanism. I would have NOTHING designed by LCI/Schwintek. I would want NOTHING that has the tracks mounted on the outside sidewalls. Doug

I would agree. We have a 2013 Winnebago adventurer with the original configuration Schwintec 29' full wall slide. It's been repaired 3 times and will be going in for the 4th time when we get finished with our current trip.

The last time it was repaired in December of 2015 at the Winnebago factory in Forest City. The repair lasted until last week. The first day we were on the road the slide refused to work properly. The back would extend but not the front. We'll be on the road for another 7 weeks without the use of the slide.

The motorhome has just over 37,000 miles on the odometer which equates to about 6,000 miles per year. We certainly wouldn't have considered a full wall slide if we had known it would need to be repaired every 9,000 miles.

Sorry to read this. Your experience is EXACTLY what I'm talking about in my previous post. Without seeing it, my bet would be that the whole wall/slide/roof/floor/frame of your RV needs to be taken apart and reinforced so that it is much more rigid. At the age of your RV, it's out of warranty and probably not something the manufacturer wants to admit or even attempt to tackle fully on their dime.

Chum lee

I went through a quick diagnosis last week. The motors both run fine, but the front pinions will not engage the rack. I believe either the motor coupling or the torque shaft has broken.

Today I got a call from a Winnebago tech and went through the problem with him. He concurred it was either a broken coupling or shaft. That being said he advised that rather than repairing the slide mechanism now and possibly again in the future we replace it with the Lippert designed mechanism.

I know that Lippert is now owned by Schwintek, but apparently this slide mechanism was designed to compete with the Schwintek design before they were bought out.

We did not discuss price, but the tech did mention that this particular mechanism was designed specifically to replace the failed Schwintek mechanism. The "kit" comes with all the hardware to not only replace the current mechanism, but also the necessary cosmetic hardware to fill nd cover the old holes where the original mechanism was secured to the slide. Just the fact that they have such a kit for this specific application means they are well aware of the problem and have taken steps to correct it.

I do intend to approach Winnebago for some assistance on the matter. I do have all the records as to when the previous repairs were made and what parts were replaced. I also have records as to when the motorhome was used between the repair periods. It shouldn't be too difficult to calculate the number of times the slide was extended and retracted between repairs and since it was last repaired. In the past they have been more than reasonable standing behind their products. Hopefully they will again.

[Mommalu]

When we bought our A the gent showing us how things worked repeatedly stated "Level first, the slides have 2 motors, once you push the button to extend or retract you continue until its done, if you do not the motors may no longer be in sync with each other. Also its all in or all out so they stay in sync." So far we have had no issues as we continue to follow those instructions.
Though he knew nothing about batteries they both had the bulge from being frozen and needed to be replaced from sitting at the dealer through the winter.

[tropical36]

dougrainer wrote:
As an RV Tech for 38 years, I would NOT want a FULL wall slide. I have seen too many problems with them. BUT, there are exceptions. It all depends on the TYPE/BRAND of the slide mechanism. I would have NOTHING designed by LCI/Schwintek. I would want NOTHING that has the tracks mounted on the outside sidewalls. Doug

My thoughts exactly and even without 38yrs in the business.
I mean that's one big hole in the side without any uprights for reinforcing. Then there's gotta be more than one motor on the electrics and for being in sync.

[Chum_lee]

Hikerdogs wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
As an RV Tech for 38 years, I would NOT want a FULL wall slide. I have seen too many problems with them. BUT, there are exceptions. It all depends on the TYPE/BRAND of the slide mechanism. I would have NOTHING designed by LCI/Schwintek. I would want NOTHING that has the tracks mounted on the outside sidewalls. Doug

I would agree. We have a 2013 Winnebago adventurer with the original configuration Schwintec 29' full wall slide. It's been repaired 3 times and will be going in for the 4th time when we get finished with our current trip.

The last time it was repaired in December of 2015 at the Winnebago factory in Forest City. The repair lasted until last week. The first day we were on the road the slide refused to work properly. The back would extend but not the front. We'll be on the road for another 7 weeks without the use of the slide.

The motorhome has just over 37,000 miles on the odometer which equates to about 6,000 miles per year. We certainly wouldn't have considered a full wall slide if we had known it would need to be repaired every 9,000 miles.

Sorry to read this. Your experience is EXACTLY what I'm talking about in my previous post. Without seeing it, my bet would be that the whole wall/slide/roof/floor/frame of your RV needs to be taken apart and reinforced so that it is much more rigid. At the age of your RV, it's out of warranty and probably not something the manufacturer wants to admit or even attempt to tackle fully on their dime.

Chum lee

[tinkerer]

Adding to my other post and having a full slide for over 10 years, there are a couple of rules for my full slide MH. Always level the coach before engaging the full slide, and when you engage it you extend it all the way out or all the way in and don't leave it half in or half out. 😉

[Hikerdogs]

dougrainer wrote:
As an RV Tech for 38 years, I would NOT want a FULL wall slide. I have seen too many problems with them. BUT, there are exceptions. It all depends on the TYPE/BRAND of the slide mechanism. I would have NOTHING designed by LCI/Schwintek. I would want NOTHING that has the tracks mounted on the outside sidewalls. Doug

I would agree. We have a 2013 Winnebago adventurer with the original configuration Schwintec 29' full wall slide. It's been repaired 3 times and will be going in for the 4th time when we get finished with our current trip.

The last time it was repaired in December of 2015 at the Winnebago factory in Forest City. The repair lasted until last week. The first day we were on the road the slide refused to work properly. The back would extend but not the front. We'll be on the road for another 7 weeks without the use of the slide.

The motorhome has just over 37,000 miles on the odometer which equates to about 6,000 miles per year. We certainly wouldn't have considered a full wall slide if we had known it would need to be repaired every 9,000 miles.