Well I have had this unit for about 3 yrs and I have had the large slide worked on all 3 yrs, sometimes twice in a yr, under warranty---its out of warranty and I had enough.
So I took it to an RV repair shop that would do what I asked, I told them that I was paying for this work, and I do no what you contacting the factory for advice, I was lucky enough to have 2 experienced Mechanics to do this.
Some back story the slide sucks, RV1 in Tampa were I bought it from could not figure how to fix it, the service lady there was dumb has a box of rocks, she said we cannot tell the factory how to fix it, we have to wait for them to tell us how to fix it, even though we know what's wrong-- it has been there now for 2 mths the slide would not go in all the way, it was a brand new unit--
I got fed up with there bull, went in to there place hooked up to it and towed it to Lazydays--I had been working a back channel to do this with Lazy days.
They found many problems with the RV (5th wheel) and took care of it closing all the way, the Factory installed a wrong part underneath the 14 foot slide that stopped it from closing all the way in the back of it. Ok I think its fixed---
We go to the NW, the slide starts to have problems, not opening all the way, its getting stuck, or I have to bring it in and out, the slide is walking--not going out smooth or all at the same time. I am pissed-- I trouble shot it, and the motor that brings the unit in and out has snapped the retaining screw that holds it down into the gear housing has snapped and the motor has spun , no damage at this time to the wiring, I popped the motor up and out , and set it back in and reconnect the wiring harness , and reinstall a new set screw to hold the motor back into the drive gear housing, ok repair done its working sort-a.
Continue--with our 5 mth trip, various stops, and the slide is having a hard time, and for the life of me, cannot find a problem.
Get to Quebec , the slide stops working, drive motor snaps the retaining screw and pops the drive motor up and out of the gear and spins in place and rips the wiring harness apart , I am pissed and screwed at this point-could not find the problem-none. So I pop the other drive motor out, push in the slide by my self, go to a local hardware store get some 2x4s and a hand saw and build a brace to hold the slide in place while we travel to Bangor Maine 300 miles away, yes there was no one around us that had the time or parts on hand to work on it-
So get to our spot and the campground (Cold River) was very nice to us, told them what was going on, and they bent over backwards for us to stay until we could get it repaired. We was given a nice spot for the stay, and I pushed the 14 ft slide with a residential side by side refrigerator out, and started to make phone calls.
So I contacted the local dealer that carries this unit, and his answer was to take it back to were you bought it to have warranty work done on it, I explained to them nicely that that was 1800 away---
are you kidding me (ok here's the unit--321RST Jayco).
So some more phone calls, found an independent repair facility that would handle it, in Orrington Maine. Spent the next week and a half heavy on the phone with Jayco to get things shipped and approve the repairs, that shop said the both sides of the slide would have to have the Schwintek assembly's fully replaced, other warranty stuff was being taken care of also -
They, we I was helping to learn more about this problem pulled off the assembly's and parts were falling off--gear rails were chewed up, guide wheels feel-apart and so one--I know you get the picture. Thinking the new units were going to fix the problem, I was starting to relax, new units installed other warranty work done, and by the way-- I have electrical meters installed to monitor the voltage and amps and so on, and started to pay attention to this while operating the large slide--AKA the problem slide, my Amp readings were avg about 8 amps ish, that's high for the small wires that feed those 2, 500:1 drive motors, so things fixed we start heading out of the cold going home , we stopped a few times things seemed ok but I could sense something wasn't right, in LakeCity SC, it started to have problems again. Ship forward to getting home, found a place that could fix it they said, and they said they have to put metal bracing on the inside of the camper to hold the schwintek stuff form twisting to much, it should not be doing that, I am now thinking there's a problem that someone is not seeing here, so they did that under warranty and replace the gear assembly again! So I tested it before I left the repair shop and it did not work go figure, then they said they had to make a spacer for the back of the gear rail -top and bottom of the same side--ok tested it seem to do the trick-- happy camper-finally --
Well on another trip **** starts to hit the fan, I am having problems with the same slide--I am pissed and out of warranty----
Fast forward to where I am now---the shop that I am paying for--I told them what I needed to have done and no contact with the Jayco factory--I will be calling the shots--period--now these guys were good and after a long chat with them, we were all on the same page--showed them what it was or was not doing, I want the slide pulled out of the unit, was there when it was pulled brought my 2 long and a short level (before this was done unit was leveled inside garage) And measured by level and found that the slide was level, but the floor of the RV 5th wheel was not, the floor had a high point right in the center under the slide and in the middle of a roller that now was not rolling because it was touching on the floor, and the remaining rollers under the slide were not touching the under side, all-and some were not at all, so most of the heavy slide was trying to go in and out on the center roller, ya that was not working well--nice fast forward to the fix---
Ended up taking out all the factory cheap ass rollers that were rated for 200 pounds and were just a cheap nylon sleeved, and replaced them with 400 pound sealed bearing steel and nylon sleeved rollers much better, routed out the spots were I was going to have them install the rollers and made metal shims to install under Neath them so we could adjust the height of each one on the 5th wheel floor for level, that worked great, also put extra rollers on---also made and had them install metal plates on the bottom of the slide to ride on the rollers, working really good at this point but still notice something, like the its going out and in very good the best ever but? The amp reading after this and I took off the rail spacers and the metal supports everyone added, the Amp reading has dropped to a high of 3-4 amps sliding out that about 60 percent less than were it was, and the amps coming is 2-3 about 70 percent less, major improvement! the shop said they have never seen a Schwintek unit operate that smooth! Nice for a change---
So I get it back to my storage lot and I am there on and off doing some work on it, operating the large 5th wheel slide 14 feet and it every few times of going out , not in-only going out, still very low amperage- it stops for a second the other side continues for a few inches then it , the both sides continue out, then when it hits there limits, the other side catches up the inch or two that it lag behind, and this is always on the side by side refrigerator side, so I my next and last thing I can do is take out the 22 cubic foot frig, get it out of the 5th wheel slide all together, and I have a nice space located between the 5th frame rails and space for a 10 cubic foot frig, that would not be installed in the slide at all reducing the weight of that slide by about 200-300 pounds loaded, and relocating the cabinets to the void were the 22cu frig was.
I am at a point that I believe that 22cu side by side was to heavy for that slide setup, and being on the very end of the slide threw it out of balance which is causing the slide to walk left to right a little to go out, coming in there's no problem, so this is the final straw to try to get the slide to work as it should .
What are anyone's thoughts with this--?
Thks I will try and include some photos
The smaller factory rollors is on the left, and the ball bearing metal sleeved are on the right.
The metal shims 2 different size's to shim level , that also made more space underneath the roller for better clearance
The last picture are of the metal roller plates which all have made a big difference
There was no problems with the small increase in height of the position of the large 14 ft slide, we took a lot of measurements, a lot--no issues at all plenty of space.
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