Slide troubles

[SilverFoxes]

Hi All,

We've owned our 2022 Kountry Star 3412 for about 15 months now which was very slightly used when we bought it. We were thrilled to have found it, which was totally by accident, inasmuch as we were actually shopping for a fifth wheel. I'll apology now for the overly-lengthy post.

Much to our dismay, for many reasons (not related to the coach itself) we've only been able to use it five times, four of which were short and close by. So far, though, the complaints are few and mostly trivial. Recently, though, we've been more and more concerned about a possible problem with the huge kitchen/dinette slide on the passenger side which has existed to some degree since the day we took delivery of it, but recently has been worsening.

The slide does all the normal grunting, groaning and squeaking that we remember from our previous DP coaches that had multiple slides. The real concern with the slide in question is that after being extended for a time (several hours to several days), when retracted it's reluctant to start moving at all, and then suddenly there's a loud "bang" noise that occurs somewhere around the rear area of the slide. We could sometimes describe the bang as exactly that - a small caliber gunshot. It's quite disturbing to us inside, and from the outside it turns heads to put it mildly. Otherwise, the slide proceeds to retract fully, sometimes making another, far less noisy, "clunk" at the end of its travel. On one occasion it took five or six starts and stops before the motors mustered up enough power (and things loosened up sufficiently, we presume) to get the slide moving inward at all. As admitted, we've come to expect, after our prior RV experiences, that slides do make a bunch of noise along their travels. This intense bang, however, is something totally unexpected.

Needing some other small service and maintenance items dispatched, we took the coach to our closest "Newmar Service Center" which I'll not name at this point. Evidently, this dealer has received multiple Newmar awards for their exemplary service. Naturally, we requested that they look into our slide issue. Two weeks and many thousands of dollars later (not all of which were related to the slide), we brought the coach home, parked it in the garage and set it up as we would in a campground. Just curious, I decided to see if the slide issue was now in the past. Needless to say, we were shocked when I pushed the button and was immediately greeted with the same startling BANG.

The following morning I contacted the dealer. Their response was anything but award-winning. We were told that we should expect slides to make some noise. I reminded our adviser that we had made it very clear from the get-go that our concern was not due to some trivial grunts and groans with which we were all too familiar, but with the quite easily discernible banging noise for which we thought they would be finding an answer, as well as a cure.

In an effort to keep this from getting any longer, I'll simply ask a few questions: are we totally off base here, being all-together too picky and sensitive? Is our noise just another of the many, to-be-expected noises that high-end (a.k.a. Newmar) RV slides make? Has anyone reading this ever experienced something similar for which there was ultimately no solution?

Again, my apologies for non-brevity, but thanks for reading. Any and all comments/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

NOTE: Ensure volume is up on media player to watch and hear video.

 

[Neal]

Nope, not normal. With the slide extended look underneath at the bottom and you'll see metal plates with holes that the slide motor gears connect into in order to move the slide. See if they are oblong and maybe that metal plate isn't even sure to the underside of the slide.

The sound could be a tran-torque bushing, not sure, no expert.

Check your slide motors during operation. If someone can run the slide while you or someone else looks at the motors which are just inside the basement door, upper area at the above mentioned track plates and see if anything looks odd.

Best place for service will always be Newmar if you can make the journey there. No one else touches my coach unless absolutely necessary.

 

[SilverFoxes]

Nope, not normal. With the slide extended look underneath at the bottom and you'll see metal plates with holes that the slide motor gears connect into in order to move the slide. See if they are oblong and maybe that metal plate isn't even sure to the underside of the slide.

The sound could be a tran-torque bushing, not sure, no expert.

Check your slide motors during operation. If someone can run the slide while you or someone else looks at the motors which are just inside the basement door, upper area at the above mentioned track plates and see if anything looks odd.

Best place for service will always be Newmar if you can make the journey there. No one else touches my coach unless absolutely necessary.

Thanks, Neal,

I've inspected all of the slide mechanism where the noise is coming from. Of course, I don't have much idea about what I see but I did notice the holes in the rail and the "cog" wheel with the rounded knobs that must rotate and engage the rail holes. I'll have my wife operate the slide while I take another look at what's happening.

One strange thing I noticed is that all of that hardware is pretty much covered in rust. The same mechanism at the front of the slide is pristine. I can't even guess at why the problem end would accumulate that much rust. I'd do something about it but the dealer wants me to bring it back and I want them to see it for themselves. I'm shocked that they didn't notice it and do something when they were (supposedly) working on that slide for some extended time. I'm not looking forward to that conversation, although the first three words of your reply will make that a bit easier.

I agree that it would be best to get Newmar involved at their facility, but it is indeed a very long haul from east central Florida. I may wind up getting them involved anyway, even if it's only by phone. We'll see what happens in this next go-around with the dealer.

Thanks again!