In Wall Slide Outs Issue - Moving on their own - Forest River Screwup

[Renegade837]

Just the other day, the wife calls me from camp. While she was in the living room, the bedroom slide just retracted on its own. Then it wouldn't move at all. No idea what's going on.

We call a mobile tech, he comes over and attaches a new battery, and we get the slide out where it belongs. The initial thought was that it was a power surge, and/or my battery was NG. So the following Sat, I replace the battery.

As soon as I hook it up, one side of the slide starts to retract and keeps on retracting even after the slide binds up, Ends up smoking the motor on that side. We have to pull both motors and pull the slide out manually; this particular slide has no manual crank-out, you have to pull the motors.

After much digging, we find that the controls for this slide out were (thoughtfully) located in a space behind the outside shower, mounted to the floor of that space. And the outside faucet for the shower had cracked over the winter and was dripping water. The control board is fried. I'm seeing the board online from $350-500, the motors @ 200, and that doesn't include the service charge and labor for the tech.

It is what it is, and I'm pissed at myself that I didn't do a better job winterizing the outside shower. But I have to include a shout-out to PrimeTime/Forest River for locating an electrical component on the floor of a compartment that contains plumbing components. Smooth move Exlax...

[NMWildcat]

Sorry for your misfortune. I do agree with you about placement of water sensitive components next to water sources. I realize there is not a lot of room in RVs, but some things just make you shake your head.
In my current RV, the inlet hose for the gravity fresh water input ran into and through the same compartment as the converter and breaker/fuse box! What were they thinking? I rerouted that asap!!!
Good luck on your repairs.

[5picker]

We see this often with water heater control boards that were stuck to the back of the water heater then fall off and lay on the floor where they are susceptible to water leaks as well.

It often has me shaking my head where the the R/V industry will put things... like a 120v outlet in the water bay right next to a faucet/sprayer or an outlet directly under a gravity water fill as on ours.

Glad you got it fixed.

Be sure to check the wiring to the motors that the smoke was left out.

Often times when a load like that is placed on the system, it will melt the insulation on the wiring at places as well.

[Gonefishing1]

Rv manufactures don’t care or take pride in there work like everything else no pride taken in workmanship any longer. Get it built, get it sold and let the customer take care of it after the sale. Until we stop buying and make them do better QC nothing will change. It’s not just forest river they are all the same. Sure you will find the one that doesn’t have a problem but they are few and fair between.

Also as long as we do our own repairs that’s even petter for them. But what can we do leave our camper in the shop for months or fix it ourself and use it.

[CaptnJohn]

Not sure I agree with Gonefishing1. We bought a new Montana 3761FL 3 weeks ago. Nothing was found during a 4 hour PDI and I have done over a dozen over many years. So I take a pad for warranty items, brought it home with nothing on it and I fixed nothing. I did have a few items on my last Montana but they were all cosmetic.