Direct drive slideouts

[301TBS]

Wondering if anyone can give me some advice/info on the slideouts that are powered by the small electric motors via a sidewall mounted track.
We are looking at a used Cruiseraire that has opposing slides with this setup. Are they good or bad? What happens if they fail? There appears to be no manual crank backup. One of the slides houses an 8cf fridge and a stove/oven, sounds like a lot of weight for a small motor to move.
We are not new to slides, but are used to the conventional type with the undermount tracks and are a little cautious about this setup. The trailer is about 8hrs away and we will not be taking it back for any repairs, so would like to check them out as best as I can.
Thanks.

[Community Alumni]

2oldman wrote:

hawkeye-08 wrote:
We were at the local RV show this past weekend and I overheard sales rep telling buyer that they are far superior to the old slide mechanisms and that all the high end mfgs are going to them...

The 'real' high end units are not using them...at least not as of October 2014.

Actually Winnebago and some others have been using them for a few years.

[carringb]

The motors are "stepper" motors, which means they have an encoder allowing them to stay in synch.

The problem with my main slide-room was wear in the gear racks. It's a neat looking CNC Aluminum track, but it seems to be softer than the drive teeth. This causes them to wear, until it starts chattering, and eventually binds up.

I think for most RVers, it will hold up fine. But I'll open my slide room 2-6 times in a days as we make stops, or change campsites. One problem is the bathroom isn't accessible with the slide room in, and getting into the back bedroom requires climbing over the dinette, which means it run in and even for snack breaks or changing clothes.

Overall, its the one issue I'm most concerned about with the trailer, long term. If I continue to see issues after the next factory visit, I'll probably sell the trailer. The last thing I want is to pay for R&R of the main slid out twice a year to replace the gear racks.

The other slideouts in the trailer did not have any problems, presumably because they are much lighter, until the left-rear slide room got soaked during a monsoon storm in the mountains. The seals can't seal up tight against the gear-racks, so heavy rain (7" that night) combined with 60+ MPH winds, pushed the water in at the most exposed corner. This seems to have cause some swelling, as now that slide-room (along with the baggage door) now bind.

I don't know that the Schwinek system has any more failures than other slide-systems, but the fact it requires removing the slide-out completely to replace the gear-racks means its not a DIY repair.

[teejaywhy]

301TBS wrote:
Teejaywhy, are you saying there are 4 motors on each slide?

There are four racks so I assumed there were four motors but upon further study, it looks like two motors. Each motor drives a torque shaft that has two pinon gears, one for the top rack, one for the bottom.

Poking around some more I found some info that it is indeed a closed loop system - there is a controller that keeps track of each motor's zero point.

[301TBS]

Thanks for all the reply's, and information. Teejaywhy, are you saying there are 4 motors on each slide?

[teejaywhy]

2oldman wrote:

teejaywhy wrote:

2oldman wrote:
I have gear slides on rails and no manual way to retract them. Been living with that for 12 years.

And the vital missing bit of info... any failures?

No.

Thank you.

Interesting design the Schwintek system. We are just starting the process of looking for a TT for purchase in the next 1.0/1.5 year timeframe. Quite a few of the trailers we looked at have this system. Of course, I wanted to understand how it worked, something no salesman was able to explain.

The Lippert web site has a very informative video illustration. Four dc motors each powering a pinion gear coupled with a rack attached to the slide box that drives the slide in and out.

Curious though, how can four motors be synchronized without some closed loop feedback. It doesn't seem probable that the motors are precise enough to all have the exact same speed. Or perhaps in this application, it doesn't have to be too exact?

[2oldman]

hawkeye-08 wrote:
We were at the local RV show this past weekend and I overheard sales rep telling buyer that they are far superior to the old slide mechanisms and that all the high end mfgs are going to them...

The 'real' high end units are not using them...at least not as of October 2014.

[hawkeye-08]

We were at the local RV show this past weekend and I overheard sales rep telling buyer that they are far superior to the old slide mechanisms and that all the high end mfgs are going to them...

[2oldman]

teejaywhy wrote:

2oldman wrote:
I have gear slides on rails and no manual way to retract them. Been living with that for 12 years.

And the vital missing bit of info... any failures?

No.

[spadoctor]

I spoke with the Lippert rep at the Hershey show and he admitted there were some problems but also stated the MAJORITY of the issues are from out of square slide boxes and the larger the slide the worse the results when not square.

[Community Alumni]

I have the Schwintek system and it works well. The motors can be disengaged to manually retract the slides if something goes wrong. I've had mine for about a year now with no issues.

The only thing to remember is not to stop the slideout going out or back in part way. Once to hit the button you need to let the slide run to it's complete operation.

Here's a link to the manual to show how to disengage the motors;
http://www.primetimerv.com/download/ComponentManuals/Chassis-Lippert-MasterComponentManual.pdf

[teejaywhy]

2oldman wrote:
I have gear slides on rails and no manual way to retract them. Been living with that for 12 years.

And the vital missing bit of info... any failures?

[carringb]

The new version of the Schwintek slides have no way to manually disconnect the drive motors and push the slide out in. When my main slide failed in November (just before a long trip) due to excessive wear of the gear tracks, I had to jack the slide-room up with a 2-ton floor jack, to un-bind the gear teeth. At that point, it was able to go back in. I was worried it would have to be towed back to the factory on a Landoll.

The ORV factory replaced the entire drive system on the main slide-room. Now, it's pulling away from the frame of the body. Also, I'm getting binding in one of the rear slideouts now. ORV will be picking it back up to fix those new Schwintek problems. My advice, avoid the Schwintek system. Luckily, I bought a brand who bends over backwards to support their product. If it were any other brand, I'd probably have had an accidental trailer fire by now.

[rbpru]

My slide is gear on rack driven. You can indeed crank it manually; provided you are willing to remove the couch trim, lay on your belly with a socket wrench and extension and reach really far.

Not particularly handy but doable.

[Ron3rd]

There are several different brands out there but they basically come down to gear driven or cable slides. If you know the mfg, you can download the manual. Our trailer has a gear driven side, don't recall the brand, but it can be manually closed with a crank.