Awaiting repair

Wayne M · 06-07-2010, 11:37 PM

Well, we pulled into a CG and when I was putting out the curb side slide and notice a few knocks and groans and something just didn't look of sound right. I stopped the slide movement and investigated.

A little background: In December of 08 the support for the bedroom frame had one side pulled out of the wood where it was affixed by screws. It was repaired in Houston at the dealer. They drilled extra holes in the three flanges that that wood screws anchored it to the plywood deck.

So back to the present day problems. The DW and I pulled the mattress off the bed and I looked underneath the wood platform. There is that troublesome support again. This time, all three flanges with 6 screws in each were pulled from the plywood. Some of the screws were bent, and some were broken in half. This support is sort of like "V" with the bottom of the V stretched out, and the top having extended arms with a teflon pad on the end of each arm (4 arms) The aluminum bed frame rides on the teflon pads. (When the support frame is firmly attached). Somehow, something caused the support frame to rip from the plywood floor, and with force. Now this is hard to understand. There is a 2+ inch drain line coming from the kitchen sink and goes into the galley tank. It is just a big curved section of plastic pipe and it has a screw on connector to the galley tank on the end. (Wish I had taken pictures). When the support frame came loose it pulled the drain away from the tank. Yup! You guessed it. Water flows easily from a disconnected drain. The plywood got wet, and apparently the last flange came loose when it was wet pulling up shards of plywood.

Here I was, looking in disbelief at a situation that I really did not want to be in. (Coach Net and Good Sam are for another day.) If I wanted to get the slide out, or in, I was going to have to make some type of repair. I noticed that "some" of the screws were shorter than others. Don't ask me why, but that is what the previous technician must have had on-hand. I went to a store and bought some longer wood screws. I even bought a small wood dowel to fill in the present holes. But that did not work out at all. I reattached the frame support and some of the longer screws on some of the flanges did bite. After I was finished I gently pulled and the support frame seemed secure, if only temporarily. I reattached the drain hose to the galley tank.

I looked the situation over, and the support frame is nothing more than to support the bed when it is extended or retracted. The frame of the bed slides on the 4 Teflon pads. A closer look at the pads revealed that opposite corner pads were not even touching the bed frame. There was a bolt adjustment that allowed the pads to be raised. I set all the pads to be touching the bed frame and took the chance and extended the slide. All went well. We replaced the mattress and the next morning I made arrangements and got an appointment at Guaranty RV, in Junction City, OR. All this happened on June 4, 2010. I was able to arrange the appointment for June 8, 2010, as the earliest time to get worked in.

I have no idea what the cause of all this was. It could be design. It could have been that the pads were not set to support on all four corners. I don't know. The frame also keeps the Luaun (sp) face boards around the bed pedestal from scraping on the carpet. It keeps it raised about an inch and a half off of the carpet.

Sorry, got a little winded.

ChiefJohn · 06-08-2010, 05:37 AM

Wayne, you deserve to get a "little winded" as I would be cussing, fussing, and discussing up a storm! Damn RVs, we love the lifestyle but hate the never ending 'problems' that seen to be weekly occurrence. I would not recommend RV'ing to anyone who is not handy with tools and making repairs!

Martind4 · 06-08-2010, 01:04 PM

AMEN ! I view it as a never-ending hobby, but it does get a little frustrating now and then.

rca · 06-08-2010, 08:30 PM

Wayne, do you have a queen or king size bed?
I'm trying to visualize what happened so I can check mine to be sure the problem isn't waiting to bite me too.

Wayne M · 06-08-2010, 11:23 PM

Update:
First, I have a king size bed.

Later in the afternoon, like about 4 p.m. PCoast time, I stopped by the RV Adviser desk. He called back to the technician to check on the status. The technician said he was having a problem and the one end of the slide will not retract all the way. He was going to have to call Winnebago in the morning to figure how to set the timing. As this was being repeated to me I told them I knew how to re-sync the slide motors. I was walked back to the coach and we did the manual retraction as instructed by the book. I know it by heart. It is a simple procedure that will walk in the side that is out to catch up and then the entire slide can be brought in with the method. As we were bringing it in there was a crunch and the frame pedestal pulled out a little way from the screws I had put in. I'm glad it did it while they were watching. It appears that when the slide motors are out of sync the slide will walk from side to side to get in. When it does this, the bed frame falls off of the Teflon slides, and then binds against the pedestal. It was stated by Winnebago that there was a modification. I think it involves putting another 1-1/2 inch piece of of tubular framing against the present one to make it a wider platform to slide on the Teflon. I'll find out tomorrow. Another possible contributing factor may be that because of the "walking," the topper fabric was bunching up under the slide. Don't know how that happened, but it was happening. (I found this out later from the service adviser) Now I'm gong to need a new topper. I'm going to go with plain old "white" that they have in stock, since mine would be a special order. I don't care what color my topper is. I got the coach back to sleep in tonight. The service adviser came to the coach and we watch the mechanism as I put it out to make sure it was not binding, or slipping off the Teflon pads. He will be by again in the morning to assist in retracting the slide so it can go back in the shop. It looks like the technician put some bolts through the flanges with fasteners on the underside. I'm going to ask if him if he put fender washers or flat stock on the bottom. It seems solid now, but the bed frame modification needs to be completed.

When this happened in Dec 08, it seems the dealer was to put the modification kit in. They did about 90% of the kit but did not widen the bed rails. I'm hoping Winnebago steps up and honors the work being done, including the labor since this is a recurring problem that should have been fixed the first time. I'll keep ya'll informed of what happens.

I'll try to answer any questions.

rca · 06-09-2010, 08:45 PM

Is there a name or number for this modification kit that you mentioned?
I've never heard of this and would like to get the details from Winnebago.
Thanks!
Hope you get this sorted out. I know how frustrating it is trying to get stuff fixed 'on the road'.

Wayne M · 06-09-2010, 11:28 PM

I don't know about a name or or number. The service coordinator stated that the rollers had been installed but the extra rail had not.

This is a picture of the pedestal looking straight down. You can see the 3 flanges with the screws. The technician added over sized lag screws that bit into the wood. I'm thinking of one more modification that will allow screws to go down through the square tubing for additional strength. If something happens then, the floor will come up.

This picture is a down view of the additional rail. the 1 inch rail to the right is the original, and the 2 inch rail attached to the 1 inch is the additional rail for additional width.

Side view of the additional rail.

This is the new Teflon slider position on the additional and part of the original rail. It is plain that there is extra rail now, and it's evident that without the extra rail, only a portion of the Teflon pad was hitting the original rail.

Here is my wife's email regarding this situation:

"
Everything was moving along smoothly, we've seen some excellent sights, the weather hasn't been more than a nuisance, I haven't killed Wayne yet, then the Citrus (my less than endearing name for the coach) has pulled one of its "I dare you to invoke the lemon law" acts. We arrived in Eugene last Tuesday with the intention of just getting the scheduled maintenance performed on this royal pain in the gluteus maximus on Friday. Then, hark, what do we hear? Is that a bit of a strain coming from the big slide? Sure enough, the blasted slide is broken. So on Monday we hauled ourselves to a most reputable repair and sales center in Junction City, less than 20 miles from the beautiful Armitage County Park that we so enjoyed in Eugene. We spent a most enjoyable (can we spell facetious?) evening across the street from the repair shop along with some 15-20 other RV owners who are awaiting service or parts. By day two, I'm humming the Eagles "Welcome to the
Hotel California," remembering the line "you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.". Hey, they have given us a space to stay in with electricity but no water or sewer. Baths are hit and miss, but, hey, who needs them? It's still not over 65 here so who sweats? If we really feel grungy, we can stand outside and God can give us a shower most any time of the day. So, sticking to the motto I've tried to live by when things haven't gone well on this trip, I said, it's a perfect day to squeeze lemons and make some lemonade since we're stuck here anyway: I'll get the laundry done and Wayne can await the return of the Citrus then we'll be on our way to Washington tomorrow with our nice fresh clothes. Picture me smiling with my Suzy Sunshine smile, OK? They bring the coach back around 6, park it, put the slide out, and crapola, the clamp attached to the slide's awning is now flawed because the slide had hung up. Grrrr! Oops, think
lemonade, Earlene, think lemonade. So another night in the parking lot. Maybe we are truly caught in that Eagles song, who knows? At least the people are very nice and tend to be trying their best. Our fellow parking lot/Hotel California guests are equally nice and being very patient.

So that's my travelogue for the week. If anyone bothers to look up Junction City, would you let us know what else is here besides Safeway and Dairy Queen?

Sent from Earlene's iPad"

RickO · 06-10-2010, 07:03 AM

I sure feel for you both! These are big, complex machines and things are going to go wrong, but poor design/workmanship is really frustrating.

Wayne M · 06-16-2010, 10:24 PM

Well, we have extended and retracted the slide a couple of times setting up camp. So far, so good, and I do knock on wood when I make that statement. I did have a synchronization problem and had to manually (electronic manually on this system) pull in the rear of the slide. When I got to the CG and extended I slid under the coach and checked the brake lever. Just for giggles I unlocked then locked it again. We have moved sites twice and there have been no more problems with the slide, so far.

I'm going to wait until I get back home to have the topper replaced. It is scalloped on the edge and it had been folded into the slide on at least one occasion when there were problems. We are watching it very close when I retract the slide, and at the first sign of sagging and catching we will just have to see what we can do to temporarily relieve the problem. Hopefully Winnebago will honor that this was caused by the slide problem and replace it under warranty.

we'll see.

Finhawk · 06-16-2010, 11:53 PM

I looked at a new Destination in Las Vegas when they first came out. The salesman extended the long slide but when he tried to retract it, the top came in all the way and the bottom was still out about a foot. He said it was no big deal and their shop could take care of it with no problem.
Needless to say, I walked away from that rig