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Old 11-09-2014, 07:51 PM   #1
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Schwintek slide failures

I would like to see how many people have had slide problems with the schwintek in wall slideout system. I will be having 3rd motor in a year. This system is industry wide. Thor, Tippon, Winnabego, Jayco, Coachman. Go and google slide failures and you will see this has been a known problem in industry since about 2012. So how many F/R customers have slide issues. If honest and not scared to post on here i think this post will be long
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Old 11-09-2014, 08:29 PM   #2
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We had one motor replaced last season with no troubles since. It seems the newer systems you can gain access to the motor much easier from the inside and replace the motor yourself if you wanted to. Not so with mine were glad we have Coach Net it saved us some money.
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Old 11-09-2014, 08:35 PM   #3
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Motors twice, wiring harness once, control board once. Traded the trailer for a Non Scwintek model as it started to fail again. On a small slide like a bed or a closet might be OK. For a Kitchen or living room IMHO go with old style.
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Old 11-10-2014, 11:05 AM   #4
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With this i want to express that Forest River is on top of this issue and will do everything possible to help. The warranty dept at FR is a notch notch division, i have dealt with 2 warranty personnel and the warranty manager, you can tell they want to help. In my job I have dealt with a bunch of warranty people for many companies and none are as customer oriented as FR.
I just feel that somehow Lippert co. should shoulder a lot of responsability here. My advice to anyone having problems take pictures, document everything, if your dealer is not helpful call the warranty people of FR. And do not yell and scream at them they did not design it they are there to help you and if you treat them with respect they will do the same to you. And if anyone has ever gotten through to Lippert i would love to here what they say is the reason for so many problems out there.
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Old 11-10-2014, 11:15 AM   #5
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My brother in-law has a Lance that uses that system on all there units, he has replaced two motors in two years.
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Old 11-10-2014, 11:16 AM   #6
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On a small slide like a bed or a closet might be OK. For a Kitchen or living room IMHO go with old style.
I'm inclined to agree with this. The motors have to fit inside the wall, therefore there's only so much motor you can fit in there. I imagine that the more weight, the more likely a failure would be.

Having said that, I've got one on my 2014 and I've opened and closed it several dozen times in the last 14 months I've owned it and haven't had a problem at all yet. I've got a 48" deep slide with the dinette in mine...probably about 6' wide (never actually measured it).
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Old 11-10-2014, 04:01 PM   #7
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I do not know if any of you have repaired the slide yourselves. I had a buddies slide fail and dealer could not repair for two months. He was driving with slide open. I removed the motor and found the wiring into the motor circuit board has no strain relief. It is 20ag wire soldered into a via. His pulled out. I resoldered and fashioned a strain-relief at the top where the wires go into the motor. Has worked great since. I then check his other slide and rerouted the motor wire harness as it was between the slide wall and motor and would pull every time the slide moved. This could be the problem everyone is having.
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Old 11-13-2014, 10:25 AM   #8
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Sitting stranded at my favorite RV park, slide wont move, tech says its the controller, calling him today to see where we are as to repairs. The comments here are not encouraging, only had the rig a year but maybe time to switch. Really don't like that there is no easy way to manually retract, actually NO WAY that I have found. Here are the specs on my rig.

FR EVO 2460

Schwinntek controller 13389-C2

The slide is a dinette, total length looks to be about 10 feet.

current situation: no movement, no noise, no nothing.
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Old 11-13-2014, 04:36 PM   #9
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do you know if there is a fuse inline. did the dealer say that there was and should be checked? It sounds like it's not getting power some how. Should have a fuse to protect the motor somewhere. Call him back and ask.
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Old 11-13-2014, 08:39 PM   #10
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Sitting stranded at my favorite RV park, slide wont move, tech says its the controller, calling him today to see where we are as to repairs. The comments here are not encouraging, only had the rig a year but maybe time to switch. Really don't like that there is no easy way to manually retract, actually NO WAY that I have found. Here are the specs on my rig.

FR EVO 2460

Schwinntek controller 13389-C2

The slide is a dinette, total length looks to be about 10 feet.

current situation: no movement, no noise, no nothing.

Locate the control box. There should be a small square "window" on its' front. Inside, there are a set of dip switches ans a small black reset button. Push the reset button but, be carefull NOT to touch the dip switches as this will change the way the slide moves.

I had one TT where the control box was very sensitive to static electricity (lightening). I just hit the reset (once I found it, by accident), and all worked well.

Hope this helps.
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Old 11-13-2014, 09:08 PM   #11
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Pull wires to both motors get 4 people push slide in then reinstall wires and slide locks in and safe to drive. Have done 3 times
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Old 11-13-2014, 09:10 PM   #12
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Pull wires at controller. But very important to reinstall wires. Then go give alide a tug it should not move.
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Old 11-14-2014, 08:05 AM   #13
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I have a one year old Vibe 6504 that has been out of operation more than I have had use of, due to multiple failures in the Schwintek slide system! From the day we drove it off the lot the slide has never snugged up equally front to back. After finding the control module buried deep beneath the step with almost zero access I was told that it was the front motor brake was not holding when retracted. This was replaced then the entire system failed! They then replaced both motors only to discover they think it was the control module! I am now very aware that if you pull the two wire harnesses from the control module you can, if you have enough brute strength, manually shove it in or out! Always remembering to plug them back when finished pushing manually. Each of these occurences was a one hour drive each way along with the time spent waiting!! Each time I gathered that each time was a grasp on the part of Schwintek. I have also gotten very good at lying in my floor to look at the control module and hit the little white button 6 times followed by holding the seventh time and waiting for the lights to flash alternately to put it in limp mode! I think a Schwintek will not be in my future purchase plans! Live and Learn!!! I think maybe I could design a much better system given a couple of wires and a come along!!! Seriously though I would really love to hear others experiences and advice they may have.
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Old 11-14-2014, 08:17 AM   #14
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If you have a Schwintek system you should watch the following video, it may turn out to be of great value to you.

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Old 11-14-2014, 08:26 AM   #15
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Thankfully I have never had to resort to dropping my motors. Fortunately we were able to just unplug the wires from the control module and shove the slide. After researching found the trick of six punches of the white button followed by a hold on seventh engaged the motors and allowed us to open and close.
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Old 11-14-2014, 08:53 AM   #16
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Little hope if controller is toast

Mechanic finally jumpered the bad controller to retract slide. The video mentioned in an earlier post is almost useless if the controller goes bad, no blinking LEDs, pushing button 6 times doesn't work. Also, unplugging the controller from the motors might work, but I didn't have a football team handy to push the slide in! That would be another comment on the video, small empty slide, not realistic. My slide is probably three times the size of the one in the video.

Anyway, after $170.00 service call the trailer is back in the storage lot, I'm home getting sticker shock for the price of a new controller! $250.00!!

Who's camping for Thanksgiving? I will if I can get a new controller in time!

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Old 11-14-2014, 08:53 AM   #17
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I did have a problem the first year of ownership, with my schwintek system. The wire came off the control module ( located under the stove drawer ). At that point, I told my self, I need to get an extended warranty to cover this type of repairs. These units have to many electrical components to mess with. Back when I started camping, one didn’t have microwaves, T.V., A/C, and slide outs. My thoughts are, all this stuff is bouncing in here, and that can’t be good.
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Old 11-14-2014, 11:37 AM   #18
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Mechanic finally jumpered the bad controller to retract slide. The video mentioned in an earlier post is almost useless if the controller goes bad, no blinking LEDs, pushing button 6 times doesn't work. Also, unplugging the controller from the motors might work, but I didn't have a football team handy to push the slide in! That would be another comment on the video, small empty slide, not realistic. My slide is probably three times the size of the one in the video.

Anyway, after $170.00 service call the trailer is back in the storage lot, I'm home getting sticker shock for the price of a new controller! $250.00!!

Who's camping for Thanksgiving? I will if I can get a new controller in time!


Was it the "reset" button that was pushed 6 times and didn't work? I didn't know about the reset button the first time the slide failed. It looked to me that the control box was bad also. I "borrowed" 12v power from a nearby source and "jumped" power to the slide switch (I think..... it was 3 years ago) and got the slide in. When I got home and pulled the control box out to get a better look at it, that's when I noticed the reset button inside the little window. It happened 2 more times after that and I just pushed the reset button to get the slide going again.

Hope this saves you $250.
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Old 11-14-2014, 11:44 AM   #19
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Tried pushing the button but never saw the LEDs blink and the slide did not move. I need an electrician to make me a jumper I can use in emercencies if needed.
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Old 11-14-2014, 11:46 AM   #20
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Just to clarify, the button I was pushing was a little white one inside the cut out on the fron of the controller. Is there another? Oh, and I bit the bullet on the $250.00
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