Slide failure new rig 2.0

I got to be honest-- I really have liked and admired Winnebago products and have appreciated their technical assistance and customer support. For the most part I have been impressed with their products. I had a 2014 Itasca Sunstar that in the 2 years we owned it NEVER had a significant glitch or hiccup. It was the perfect motorhome!

Today our forward left slide failed for the second time in 6 months on our new 2016 Adventurer 38Q we bought in March. The first time the front ram totally failed. Today the rear ram rack and pinion decided to give up the ghost.

Many issues have come up with this rig -  of which I am not bothering to list here-I worked on some myself with guidance from Winnebago and the dealer. But there have been some major problems with this unit. I like maintaining and keeping my rig in good shape and operating well- much like owning a boat. And I don't mind a few glitches here and there with a new rig- its to be expected. But the big ones like slides and engines are out of my capabilities and are a problem-- especially when they keep failing.

Today brought another crushing failure. We've been traveling across the country coast to coast and all has been well after about 10 days of travel. Nothing has failed- until today. And it was a biggy.

Once again the driver's side forward slide broke and broke badly. This time the rear ram failed. All was well with the prep and set up to extend- the rig was properly leveled, all aspects of the movement were pre-cleared to assure no obstructions.

Upon extending the slide to open it up we heard this loud metallic cracking. I initially thought it may have been the same problem as I had experienced on the front ram where the ram broke away from the slide stripping the attachment bolts. Not this time. After crawling around under the rig I immediately saw the failure. About 4 teeth were shattered and missing from the gear on the motor shaft that actuate the rack and pinion assembly.

Besides being disappointed, we're a bit crowded and less comfortable in our "dream RV' for the remaining month of this journey as we can no longer extend the largest slide on the rig. And then come repairs?

I'm worried that this part of this rig was improperly engineered, that the components of the ram assembly or slide are not up to standard, or there was a major installation failure. I want(ed) to keep this rig for many many years, but  I am wondering if its just going to be a money pit of repairs after warranty and something I just can't handle as I age .

Stressed and worried.

Sounds like you've had a time of it.  It's a shame that a brand new motorhome would have so many problems, especially a slide failing twice in a short time.  Good luck getting this resolved.

Is your slide system a Power Gear rack and pinion with their DigiSync controller?

If so, replacing the motor pinion wouldn't be a big deal even for a mobile RV tech. With a new motor pinion you could still operate the slide electrically using the controller in its back up mode, controlling one slide motor at a time, so that you could complete your trip with only a minor inconvenience. I wouldn't run the slide in the full auto mode again until the entire system is checked out.

It sounds like you have some drag on one end of the slide and the DigiSync programming is wrong or it is not getting the correct input from the slide motors. The system should have stopped the motor operation during both of your problems and thrown a code as to the problem.

While the root cause may be slide drag or misalignment, the DigiSync system is there to protect the slide and its mechanisms from being damaged under these exact circumstances. Clearly, this is not happening.

Thanks Quillback. Thats great info and I do hope it bears out that way. I'm hoping this means the pinion is easy to get on and off the shaft and most importantly is readily available in local supply?

The Digisync controller then remains as another issue--- and this may be the most critical of them all.

Thanks and I hope the diagnosis is exactly as straight forward as you surmise here.

I'll need to talk to Winnebago about this Monday morning for sure (if I am where I have cell service)

(And yes I forgot it is a Power gear with Digi Sync)

Sorry to hear of major problems. Winnebago mostly builds quite well, but quality is inconsistent and they (and every other RV manufacturer) have their share of lemons. It sounds like yours may be one.

Isn't it under warranty? You may be spending your vacation at a Winnie dealer.

Consider giving Winnie a call today. Don't know where you are currently located but I would want to take your unit directly to Forrest City for repair.

I really doubt that even a dealer will have the pinion gear. And, replacing that is just the start of a comprehensive repair of the slide. Someone still needs to have expertise with the controller, the slide operation and it's correct orientation.

Some on the Forum may have a good idea of what is actually causing the ongoing problems with this slide, but let me hazard a WAG. For some reason, one end of the slide is traveling slower than the other. This could be a weak motor, slide drag, bad controller or bad inputs, etc. Since the controller is not syncing the motors, the misalignment of the two ends of the slide ripped out or broke the bolts holding the front end of the slide in place.

Someone did a great repair in anchoring the front end of the slide but didn't repair the root cause of the problem. Now, with the rear motor continuing to drive the cocked slide and not able to break the front bolts again, the rear motor pinion strips its gears.

If you have Winnie's "Owner Manual Supplement" Volume 2 of 2, it gives a good overview on the slide mechanism and the DigiSync controller, info you will need to talk to Winnie, a dealer or even to assist a mobile tech in replacing the pinion.

Thanks Quillback. Could not get them today being Sunday. have emailed Customer service hoping I can talk to someone in the morning. I'm on the road in Montana at the moment and have to run down to LA before heading back to the east coast. I have asked if I could get it to Forest City in mid October on the way home when we could swing through there. I think we are stuck with 1/2 an RV until we can get this fixed which is doable but certainly not as comfortable. Very tight and frustrating but will have to make do.

The analysis you offer might be dead on right.

I've read up on the Digi Sync system. Pretty well intimidated me. The pinion is less scary to me. But you are right that the root cause has to be identified and corrected. A pinion repair does nothing other than to put a new gear in to be stripped of its teeth.

Factory service shouldn't be very backed up this time of year. Call them tomorrow.

I would sure ask Winnie to send that pinion gear to an RV dealership that is ahead of you on your journey. It can't take more than a couple of hours max to replace it even if they need to pull the motor to do it. That would allow you to operate the slide electrically in the back up mode until you get to Forest City.

AMERICANRASCAL said:

I have asked if I could get it to Forest City in mid October on the way home when we could swing through there.

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Please let us know how Winnebago responds.  Hopefully they'll give you an appointment that works with your schedule.  Especially in view of all the problems you've had, lots of us are watching.

Quillback 424 said:

I would sure ask Winnie to send that pinion gear to an RV dealership that is ahead of you on your journey. It can't take more than a couple of hours max to replace it even if they need to pull the motor to do it. That would allow you to operate the slide electrically in the back up mode until you get to Forest City.

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Been looking for possible repair sites along our route. Unfortunately we are in some pretty remote areas and I'll need WBGO's guidance on the options I have. I agree it looks like a relatively straight forward fix on the gear, but I'm a bit hesitant to just see the pinion gear repaired absent a very clear understanding and fix as to what is causing the repeat failures on this slide. There had to have been some very significant force to strip those steel teeth off that pinion and we sure need to understand how that occurred. It appears that the pinion is of relatively high quality (as compared to nylon pinions i've seen on my old 5ver) The slide gives no appearance of being out of alignment and I have seen no unusual "struggling"in the operation of it until the gear stripped and when the front arm failed during week one of our ownership.

I'm reading up trying to figure out what electric "back up "mode is or trying to understand if I could even operate it better than the controller as there has been no visual indication of a fault or error in deployment or retraction modes on the slide or fault revealed on the controller panel prior to the gear failure. I understand the manual override cranking on the shaft, but am fuzzy on the electric override approach.

I'll report in here as I get more info and when I have access to wifi.  Hope I can get through on the phone this AM (Mondays are always tough). LOL I'm ready to start dialing and being on hold though if it bears fruit. Travel is on hold until I get a good verbal read on this from WBGO.

Many thanks to all for your thoughts here. Its been very helpful
Joe

There are two back up modes to operate that slide. Winnie calls the first mode "Manual" even though the motors are operated electrically. The second back up mode is the "Crank" mode where a ratchet with a 3/4 inch socket is attached to the motor shaft, after releasing the motor brake, and two people, one at each motor location, ratchet the slide back in.

The DigiSync controller is located on the backside of the Room Slideout plate, which is where you operate the slide under normal conditions. If you remove the four screws holding the plate in place you can gently pull the plate forward revealing the controller on the back.

To operate the slide motors individually and electrically you push and hold a button on the controller for about five seconds (until the two LEDs on the front of the plate begin to flash) and then operate the two slide motors electrically by pushing and holding the IN and OUT buttons on the front of the plate. Each one of these buttons operates one of the motors. If you stop or do not push the IN or OUT buttons for 60 seconds the controller reverts back to its automatic mode, meaning you must again push and hold the button on the controller for one second.

Neither one of these back up modes will work if you have a broken pinion gear.

Edit:

I just read the instructions in my manual for the "Manual" mode -- operating the individual slide motors electrically. Now I'm not sure this mode will allow you to extend the slide once it has been brought in. The new pinion won't do you any good if you can't extend the slide again. Ask Winnie.

I understand your concern about operating the slide in this manual mode for a month if only the pinion is replaced !

Got on the phone fairly quickly and early this morning with the techs at WBGO.  To be honest I was pretty disappointed in the response. I know they can't fix it over the phone, but this time there wasn't an eagerness to help. In fact this is the first time I have ever called that they did not even ask me to identify myself or for the serial number on the rig- so they never even observed the history of this rig they had on file- which was a bit bizarre to me. I didn't need a shoulder to cry on( the DW and you all have been taking care of that ) I may have been looking for too much from WBGO?

The rep  (who I will not identify) was --as they always are-- very cordial, polite , professional. But for my first time ---after probably a dozen contacts for my 2 rigs over the past 3 year-- didn't have any information or guidance to offer . Maybe I was expecting too much?

Only two things came out of the call to WBGO after I described my situation and the conditions found on the slide. Take it to a dealer at home or somewhere on the road and I could go to their web site to find a dealer somewhere, --- or I could call their front service desk at Forest City to see if I could get and appointment. I kinda knew those were options to begin with .

So I called the front service desk at Forest City to give it a shot. Nothing available until around Dec 1. Thats a no go for me. WAY too far out -- and from home about 1200 miles each way. I'd hoped to get in there in early October on the way east from the west coast

Dealing with it on this trip doesn't appear in the cards as our schedule is pretty tight and booked- just have to run without use of the slide.

So it looks like I'm going to have to work this through with my dealer back home in Georgia. He's a bit closer- about 150 miles away- but doable. I just need to get them to focus and deal with the cause and not just slap a gear in and send me on the way. At least they have been responsive and relatively on top of things- but I have to get them to focus on cause.

I mentioned before there were not any visual problems in alignment or metrics on the slide. I did some loose measuring this morning and found the front of the slide sits about 1/2 inch higher and off the floor than the rear of the slide- so something may very well be out of whack with the alignment and metrics of the slide that is contributing to the problem. But that still leave the controller and why it isn't identifying any error?

Probably not much more I can do until I can get a response from the service manager at the dealer and get something set up for when we arrive back in Georgia in October.

You all have been a great ear and so much appreciated. The slide is in and locked. Will post more later once I get somewhere on this.

Thanks all

Joe

You have quite a trip ahead of you. And, while you have the slide locked at the top and the front pinion and motor brake holding the front bottom, nothing is holding the rear bottom since the pinion gear is broken.

You may want to consider cutting a 2X4 to size and wedging it between the inside wall seal and outside seal on the slide (at the bottom) so the rear portion of the slide doesn't bounce around during your trip.

AMERICANRASCAL said:

.....So I called the front service desk at Forest City to give it a shot. Nothing available until around Dec 1....

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Holy cow - I'm amazed they are still 12-15 weeks out for a service appointment.  I don't know if they mentioned it to you, but you can show up without an appointment and they will work you in.

Good idea Quillback- thanks. Wouldn't you know I had a transit jack and left it home!!

A bit more I forgot to mention earlier. WBGO asked if I'd called Lippert ??????????? I had not.  I didn't know why I would as it was their slide, their warranty and their motorhome--- but what the heck its raining here so I went ahead thought about giving them a jingle. So I called Lippert Power Gear customer service. While they could not do anything, it was a good and refreshing conversation and they did start a case to reference and track the issue-- and they were somewhat  re-assuring.

I told them of my failures with the 2 rams on this slide on 2 different events. They were very concerned and surprised that the pinion of this strength and quality had failed. They were unaware of either failure that occurred on this rig.  Their response was that they just don't see hardware failures in these slide mechanisms of this type. They do see controller errors from time to time  on the Digisync that they deal with, or a motor go out,but nothing along the lines of this type of hardware failure. He advised this system had been around for quite a while.and he could not recall a failure on a pinion this stout.

He gathered all my info and info on the rig and asked me to make sure the service folks followed the case number and were aware of the possible anomaly I found in in  metrics. I asked him why the controller would not have caught this and reacted with a fault. He said he did not know but it was a good question.

I asked if with the upper lock on I was safe to travel and he emphatically said yes (But I still like Quillback's suggestion and intend to follow through on that). They were eager to closely track this matter and were confident and reassuring that the pinion and other parts are readily available upon request.

I shared with them my deep concern that this was a new rig and to have 2 ram failures on the same slide in 5 months was unacceptable and was a serious matter. He built my confidence and assured me that this was very unusual and they wanted to get to the bottom of it.

John- thanks- they did mention the possibility of a work in but that's a bit too risky for us with our situation right now.

Now the corporate blame game starts between Winnie and Power Gear/Kwikee (now Lippert).

The Power Gear/Kwikee Limited Warranty in my literature says "No claims under this warranty will be valid unless Power Gear or its authorized distributed or dealer is notified in writing of such claim prior to the expiration of the warranty period." The warranty period is 2 years.

You may want to send Lippert a conversation confirming email with the case number.

If Winnebago can ship the gear to a dealer close to your route and they can give you an appointment, what is the downside to getting the gear replaced and make the slide functional again and maybe finding the root cause.  It's under warranty if it fails ten times.  The only thing I can think of is you might not be able to get the slide back in and then you'd be worse off than you are now.  If the underlying fault rears it's ugly head, finding that issue gets easier.  Just a thought that might restore comfortable living for the rest of your trip.  And I recall reading someone that went to Forest City without an appointment (slide issue I think) and they got him fixed within a week.  If you're on the way home and it's not too far out of your way, that might be an option.

Thanks Floridakamper:

Unfortunately we have to maintain a real tight schedule from here out without 1 day of room and a lot of other lingering uncertainty in our schedule. I really don't want to use the slide again until its determined why the controller failed to do its job and they determine what issues there are with the slide box itself- especially if the entire slide is out of whack.

We've decided to get done what we have to have done on our trip , then head east and to the dealer .

Sounds like a plan Joe.