Slide outs. If I would buy any sort of a camper, it would NOT have a slide out, or two.
Just dont like pulling maintenance on anything.
My son, bought a brand new camper, one of the best built. It has one slide out. It started making noises upon extending and contracting. He went around it with some silicone spray and quieted it down. Thats easy enough, for now, how about ten years from now. Seals most likely not available and the sun will have them chewed up and they’ll begin leaking.
I have a friend who owns a major brand motorhome (which shall remain nameless) that he bought about ten years ago slightly used. It had two slide out sections, one front driver side for the living room and one midships passenger side for the dining/kitchen area. About five years ago they were at an RV park in Indiana getting ready to leave (away game Huskers) and went to retract the living room. It got about a foot in and "EE-RRRK" it cocked slightly and stopped. Ok, he thought, extend it and try again. "GERK" it moved back a couple of inches and cocked slightly the other way and circuit breaker for slideout pops. Ok, leave well enough alone, call the local RV dealer on Monday, as it was Sunday and they were closed.
Call Monday. Local RV dealership doesn't sell/service that brand, doesn't have a Factory-authorized/trained technician to work on it, but can send somebody out to look at it if he wished. Ok. Guy comes out, looks at it, basically says it's broken, not sure if it's an electrical issue or mechanical issue, doesn't want to tear the ceiling/roof apart, resets the breaker and tries to retract and the breaker pops immediately. Tech guesses it's an electrical issue, suggests my friend contact the dealership in Indianapolis that sells/services that brand for help. Near end of day, so friend calls Indy dealership, explains problem, that guy from there has no clue. Indy dealership says Wednesday soonest their guy can get out there. Mid morning Wednesday service tech shows up in truck. Does some diagnostic tests/attempts to extend/retract. Says he's gotta pull some stuff to access the drive/guide systems, needs to pull the built in couch and part of the ceiling to access. Long story short, it was finally diagnosed on Thursday afternoon, as the tech discovered that a gear had sheared on a drive motor, jammed, and burned out the motor. Non-stocked part, had to get from factory. Part wouldn't arrive until Monday at the earliest. To add insult to injury, rained like a MoFo one night that weekend and yes,
@MrMarty51, the roof leaked because it wasn't fully extended and the interlock/gaskets/seals weren't doing their job.
Long story short, it was finally all back together and the slide out finally retracted back in at lunchtime on Thursday, ELEVEN days after it jammed up!
The total bill for the labor (including the couple hours travel time from/to Indy), parts and the extra days at the RV park? . . . Just over $4,000! Thank goodness my friend's boss let him take extra vacation time to cover that "weekend" trip to the football game. You could still see where the ceiling had been R&R'd and there was some water staining, too.
Now, I don't know if different manufacturers have different designs for the slide drives and tracks and sealing systems, but houses don't have slide out sections and neither should motorhomes or travel trailers!
Sunday is not a good day to travel esp. from Vegas to CA. Regardless I turned around in the park and used this campground. And was very glad it was there.
