Are there recalls for the Winnebago Journey slides?

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maryinredding

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Joined
Oct 23, 2013
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Location
Redding, CA
We just spent 2 days stranded in a RV park because our slides would not come in. We ended up burning up the motor trying to get the driver side in. We had to have a mobile mechanic come (at a tune of $1400) and get both slides in and the bedroom which went out because of the drop in hydraulic fluid to the system. The mechanic said he read on some Winnebago blog that there was a recall on our slides. I looked and looked and could not find anything. Our rig is a 2005 Journey 39F. We have had problems from day one when we bought it used in 2014 and have had the pads changed and maintenance done on them. I think we have the HWH slides. Anyone hear  of any recalls on these? They are now out of alignment because it was so hard for the two mechanics to get them in. Don't believe what the book says that anyone can manually get them in, in 20 minutes!! That is totally wrong. We had to cut our trip way short so we can go home and give it back to our rv mechanic and have them try to fix it. Thank goodness we have an extended warranty because this will be a big expense for them. They have already paid out a bunch with the replacement pads so hopefully they won't balk at having to replace many more bent parts that happened when the slides had to be forced to go in. The rods in the two big slides broke and had to be replaced. The mechanic was totally surprised that such cheap rods and nuts were put into a mechanism that is so heavy. No way could we have done what they did. I praise them for not quitting on us when it got more and more difficult.

Thanks for listening.

edit by staff - changed message icon to topic solved
 
Sounds like the mobile mechanic had no idea what he was doing.  I cant imagine what would be wrong with the slides that would make them that difficult to get in.

Please let us know what the problem was that made it so difficult.
 
Paul & Ann said:
Sounds like the mobile mechanic had no idea what he was doing.  I cant imagine what would be wrong with the slides that would make them that difficult to get in.
X2.  The HWH slides and jacks are the good ones compared to what is on the newer coaches. The only problem we have ever had with ours was when the motor finally went out in 2013. It was rebuilt on the spot (bad internal ground) by a mobile guy and lasted 3 more years when I put a new one on.
 
maryinredding said:
..The mechanic said he read on some Winnebago blog that there was a recall on our slides. ....
To the best of my knowledge, there were no recalls on the HWH system, mine have worked perfectly since 2005. There were recalls on the Lippert and/or Powergear mechanisms when first used by Winnebago.
 
Unless there is a human safety issue, there probably won't be any sort of "recall" on a slide system.  Besides, problems with a 2005-vintage mechanical system can have many causes, starting with normal wear & tear. Slides can get jammed, twisted or stressed by low power (inadequate voltage to the motor).
 
If there was a defect that doesn't affect safety, the manufacturer may do a "service campaign" that makes repairs available above & beyond the usual warranty on new rig.

Slides aren't all that complicated. I think the first thing you need is a better trained tech, but I'll grant those may be hard to find.
 
Never had or heard of inherent issues with the slides. We have several friends with Journey/ Meridian in 2004-2007, all using the same mechanism
 
Our tech was well trained it was the slide that was the problem. Apparently it was bent and out of alignment when our rv service at home released the coach to us. SO, it is now back in with them and I will not accept it back until it is perfect. If it has to stay there for the next 6 months so be it. We were wrong to take if back with them saying, "just use it and the scraping will go away". I guess we were lucky that we got as far as we did. We have a very good extended warranty and upon reading the contract when we got home we could have had them fix it right there in the park and they would have paid our lodging, food and whatever else it cost us to stay there the extra days. I will not make that mistake again. It cost us $1400 to have the slides put back in so we could get home. I have submitted that bill to the insurance company but I'm not sure they will pay any part of it because we didn't contact them first. We live and learn the hard way.
 
maryinredding said:
Our tech was well trained it was the slide that was the problem. Apparently it was bent and out of alignment when our rv service at home released the coach to us. SO, it is now back in with them and I will not accept it back until it is perfect. If it has to stay there for the next 6 months so be it. We were wrong to take if back with them saying, "just use it and the scraping will go away". I guess we were lucky that we got as far as we did. We have a very good extended warranty and upon reading the contract when we got home we could have had them fix it right there in the park and they would have paid our lodging, food and whatever else it cost us to stay there the extra days. I will not make that mistake again. It cost us $1400 to have the slides put back in so we could get home. I have submitted that bill to the insurance company but I'm not sure they will pay any part of it because we didn't contact them first. We live and learn the hard way.

What was bent, or was it just misaligned, that is, one end was in or out farther than the other, and what exactly did the tech do to get the slide to go in?

Thanks for the update.
 
there are some more threads/posts on the Winne/Itasca slide issue that you might want to read.
 
You should plan a trip to Forest City and have factory service adjust it properly (they have four or five slide specialists.) Good luck with your insurance company paying up, their primary objective is to keep your money and keep theirs.
 
Where is Forest City ?? It might come in handy some day...just purchased our 2002 journey 35U and am having a ball figuring it out ,,I love the unit so far ...previously owned a 27 ft coachman Class C and as you can imagine the room in the Journey with slides out is over whelming..new to the forum and love it.. Tks  Terry
 
Update on our Journey:
After being in the shop for the last 6 weeks they are no closer to a fix than the day it went in. They have installed a new slide motor and the passenger side slide comes in fine but the driver side is still hanging up when coming in. The new mechanic that is HWH schooled cannot understand why it is still doing this. Our only recourse, according to him, is to take it to Iowa to see if they can figure out why this has been happening for the last 3 years.
Has anyone here experienced this problem on their Winnebago Journey? It makes a grinding sound in the rear of the slide when it tries to come in thus hanging up. It takes about 10 minutes for the slide to fully come in. It use to be 15-20 minutes but they have cut the time down now. That is how the motor burned up taking so long to come in. If anyone has positive comments I welcome those, negative ones keep to yourself. We are very frustrated about this problem. It has ruined our summer completely. It is interesting how some people on my thread said there were very few problems with the HWH but if you do a search there are many.
 
Yes. people do have issues with the HWH slides on Winnebagoes, but nothing like you are experiencing. We had trouble a while ago with our driver's side slide on our Winnebago Voyage 38 J, and it appears it is finally fixed properly after two trips to the factory, and one to 3-Ts in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  Finally, on the third try, they replaced the whole rear slide out mechanism, and not just the part that bent when bringing the slide in.

My suggestion would be to call Paul Maddox who works for HWH and does diagnostics and is very knowledgeable and helpful.  That is who we called to finally get our slide out repaired properly.

His number is 602-549-3638.  He freely posts his number on another RV forum, so I am sure he wont mind it posted here.

Perhaps, you can call him and have him talk to the tech at the repair place you are at.

Good luck
 
Thanks so much for the information. I will definitely pass this on to our mechanic. They are actually at the end of their rope with the slide too so I see a trip to the factory in our immediate future. It really is a shame that our whole summer has been ruined by the fact that it's taken them this long to not diagnose what is wrong. We could have already been there and back in the 6 weeks that they have had it. Hopefully there will be answers at the factory.
 
What Paul said.

Our HWH slides extend and retract in about a minute or so.  By the way, the "slide motor" is actually the main and only motor, it operates a hydraulic pump to operate the jacks and slide rams. If one slide is operating normally or your jacks are extending and will push up the chassis, the motor and pump were probably okay.

It sounds to me like your slide is racked ('twisted') and/or a problem with the tracks and the tech is cluless. It's time to cut your losses and take your unit to Moscow.

 
I think you are so right. We are waiting this week to see if the techs can get their heads together an figure something out. I hope it's nice in Iowa this time of year ;)
 
I may have missed it, but where are you?  There may be better places to get your slide repaired closer to you.
 

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