Rear Slide Issues on New DX3

[ProfessorBB]

Greetings. During our 4th trip out in our new ‘21 DX3 34KD, the rear bed slide began to bind when moving out. After moving it back in and out a few times with no resolution of binding issue, I managed to get it out all the way by gently nudging the front side by hand to move in tandem with the back side. Did the same thing to move it back in at the end of our trip. Took it to the dealer and was told the entire slide mechanism is jacked, cables are frayed, gears misaligned, and one of the pulleys was yanked clear out of the wall. Parts are on or order and the dealer says the entire system needs to be rebuilt which will be an all day job. In the meantime, I retrieved the coach and will be using it without the benefit of the rear slide. That means no use of the bottom bedroom drawers and for old retired folks like us, climbing over each other to use the bathroom during the night. Making the bed will be a bit problematic as well. I hope we don’t have to go too long in this manner. Question for the group: anybody else experience such an issue with the rear cable slide mechanism nearly right out of the box with a brand new unit?

[Alan13]

Do you have a cable to each corner of the bedroom side? If you have the cable system PM me. I had a similar system failure.

[FOURWHL]

If the cable jumps a pulley or the screws into the wall don't hit backer I wouldn't be too surprised to see this happen at any time. That motor is STRONG.

That said it sounds like your dealer may be being a bit over dramatic. Yes its a job, though I'm pretty sure I could replace all the cables and remount the gears in less than a day... Especially if the existing cables don't break and come out so they can be used to fish the new ones in. I just replaced the rear top in under 2 hours all in, and over half of that is removing panels to get access.

Anyways, just make sure they go overboard in securing the pulleys. They see a ton of force. Only other big problem could be if the brackets aren't aligned properly with the pulleys going into the wall, but that'd present itself as repeatedly snapped cables. Yours sounds more like a pulley issue, whether the cable came off first or the pulley is hard to say.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by FOURWHL

If the cable jumps a pulley or the screws into the wall don't hit backer I wouldn't be too surprised to see this happen at any time. That motor is STRONG.

That said it sounds like your dealer may be being a bit over dramatic. Yes its a job, though I'm pretty sure I could replace all the cables and remount the gears in less than a day... Especially if the existing cables don't break and come out so they can be used to fish the new ones in. I just replaced the rear top in under 2 hours all in, and over half of that is removing panels to get access.

Anyways, just make sure they go overboard in securing the pulleys. They see a ton of force. Only other big problem could be if the brackets aren't aligned properly with the pulleys going into the wall, but that'd present itself as repeatedly snapped cables. Yours sounds more like a pulley issue, whether the cable came off first or the pulley is hard to say.

We enlarged the backer AND made it thicker a few years back because we had some people holding that button a little too long. Those motors are strong.

[KRedburn]

I had an issue with my 2018 DX3 rear slide. Had the lower right cable (from outside looking at slide) jump between the pulleys, jammed up and ripped the pulley assembly out of the wall. Found only one screw was into the backer material.

Had a 6 inch 3x6 angle iron drilled to match the pulley assembly mount and anchored this to the floor and to the wall ribs with the backer board in it.

Then I put in new cables on that pulley assembly due to being severely frayed, adjusted all cables for proper tension and then reassembled the interior.

Took a while to do this. About 3 days mainly due to nearest RV parts place was 180 mile round trip.

After all was back together (testing was done before final assembly) I changed the automatic breaker for the slide from 20 amp to 10 amp. This is a safety change to cut power to that motor if one should hold the button too long.
(That motor has a ton of torque with 20 amp feed to it)

Haven't had an issue since but do wish I had fabricated my angle brackets for both sides.

It is not too difficult of a job if you have the proper tools.

[ProfessorBB]

Originally Posted by KRedburn

I had an issue with my 2018 DX3 rear slide. Had the lower right cable (from outside looking at slide) jump between the pulleys, jammed up and ripped the pulley assembly out of the wall. Found only one screw was into the backer material.

Had a 6 inch 3x6 angle iron drilled to match the pulley assembly mount and anchored this to the floor and to the wall ribs with the backer board in it.

Then I put in new cables on that pulley assembly due to being severely frayed, adjusted all cables for proper tension and then reassembled the interior.

Took a while to do this. About 3 days mainly due to nearest RV parts place was 180 mile round trip.

After all was back together (testing was done before final assembly) I changed the automatic breaker for the slide from 20 amp to 10 amp. This is a safety change to cut power to that motor if one should hold the button too long.
(That motor has a ton of torque with 20 amp feed to it)

Haven't had an issue since but do wish I had fabricated my angle brackets for both sides.

It is not too difficult of a job if you have the proper tools.

Thanks. I passed this along to the service techs at the dealership. Not sure what they’ll do with it, if anything, but good to know.