Swintek failure on wall slide out

[Truthmatters]

Hello,
Has anyone had issues with the Swintek gears on the 2014 Hurricane wall slide. My MH gears were replaced within 1 year and now are in need of replacing again. It appears this design is flawed or the gears and motor are not able to handle the weight of the slide.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Kenneth Neal]

Unfortunately this is a grossly flawed system. You hit the nail on the head. This system is under engineered and can't handle a heavy slide. My slide is probably have the weight of yours and I've had chronic problems with motors and rails. It helps to keep the slide as light as possible. I only store a few very light weight articles in the cupboards and other compartments. I even remove the kitchen table before operating the slide. Now, if I could only find a way to remove the refrigerator.

[wrapped]

Full wall 28ft slide with washer dryer stack,residential fridge full kitchen with granite kitchen counter tops fireplace 50in tv pantry wardrobe closets 6 drawers 32in tv we're fulltime so everything is full ,outside 40in tv 20ft awning 19 months fulltime moving every 2-3 weeks no problems.

[EA37TS]

The OP appears to have a 2014 motorhome. During that time frame Thor was not using the triple trak system on the large slides. Somewhere around that time Thor stated using the triple trak which put 2 tracks on the top and one on the bottom.

To the OP, do you have the triple trak or the older slide trak system?

FWIW, in the 5 years we owned a Challenger with 3 Schwintek slide rooms we never had an issue except for during the shakdown cruise when a slide motor got unplugged because the bulb seal used as a wire chase was not installed at the factory. Thor authorized a mobile tech to diagnose and then sent me the seal to install.

[Truthmatters]

I have single track Schwintek. I am going to contact Thor to see whether I can get the 3trax system to see if that will fix the problem. I'm also wondering about the lack of floor rollers and how to install more to deal with the weight.

[Newf026]

I am new to a Thor 2020 Miramar 35.2 that has one full slide and a pretty big half slide. Previous to this I had 2 Class C's with smaller slides - one was a Thor. I had no slide problems on either Class C.

But reading the problems here with bigger slides makes me nervous for sure. We bought the rig about 1 month ago and I have been trying every system while its been parked at the house. We will take it on its first run in late March.

So far I have moved the slides about 10 times without any problems. One thing that I do follow from the owners manual - which I never ever did in any prior RV is that when RETRACTING a slide - extend it first and hold the command button for 8+ seconds, then retract it. Conversely, if EXTENDING a slide, retract it first and hold the command button and then extend it.

This is supposed to re-sync the motors after each hectare/extend.

And in all cases when you get the slide fully retracted or extended, hold the command button for well after the motors stop.

I also have the 3 Trax system on this model. It will be interesting how this all works out. But reading the problems/fixes here gives me hope that if I have the problems then I can get them fixed.

Thanks to all for sharing the problems with slides.

[Laco]

I'm not an engineer, but having had RV's for many years, it does seem the drive and support system for the swintek slides are, if not under engineered, certainly do not have any excess capacity built in. For the three and a half years we had the Gemini, I had no slide issues, but those are small light slides, and I was careful about excess weight, and lubricated them often. Our former DP, had four slides, two of which were very large and heavy, but they were a much heavier design, and for the twelve years we had it, did not fail.

[wrapped]

We have the Challenger with 3 slides the full wall 3 Trac contains tv, fireplace ,kitchen with heavy granite counter tops ,residential fridge ,stack washer n dryer, pantry full of canned goods ,bedroom tv ,6 drawers and 2 big closets. We've been fulltime for 19months and using thousand trails we pack up and move every 2-3 weeks,no problems. Relax and enjoy.

[Metalman]

We have the two-track system on nearly a full length slide out with kitchen sink, refrigerator, range, drawers, cabinets, bed and under bed storage, and pantry. No problems so far, but the slide only extends about eighteen inches. It's important to make sure that the coach is level and on the jacks. But when we had a problem with the jacks, I chose to deploy the slide out without using the jacks. I parked the RV with the slide out side a bit high to compensate for settlement of the suspension on the slide out side. No problem, but I only did that once or twice.

[Banks732@comcast.net]

We have a 2018 35.2 Miramar and have had both slides fail within the first 3 months of ownership. We were in the road to Disney World to meet up with family when the drivers side failed, in the extended position, and we had to literally push it in crooked. We contacted an authorized Thor dealer in Illinois when we returned from that trip and it took 6 weeks to get authorization for the repairs and parts to come in; the rails were totally chewed up. A month later, the slide on the drivers side, the full slide also failed. After sinking around with the dealer in Illinois, we called the Thor service center in Indiana and took it there for repair. Again the rails were chewed up and all were replaced. The Swintek system is flawed and we worry about “the next time”. We lost months of full use of the interior of our Motorhome while traveling last summer.

[rudyhehn]

We have a 2015 Palazzo with two track Lippert slide system. 3 breakdowns. Finally had it fixed at the Lippert slide repair center. So far working but still makes me nervous. They said the issue was improper initial track install by Thor

[OKnative]

I am in the process of having my super slide failure repaired on my 27K 2014 Hurricane. At the end of Nov it stopped a few inches from closing and an RV shop put it the rest of the way in except for one corner and said it had jumped the track and damaged one end of the rail system. I have been living with it in it since then - I am a full time RVer and move every 3 weeks as a mission volunteer so had to wait until I was going to be in one area long enough to have the parts ordered. A mobile RV service came to inspect it about 5 weeks ago and the parts just came in so I have an appointment for it to be repaired Mar 5th. I am now nervous about it happening again after reading all these reports. I have had no problems with it except to replace the motor on one end.... the opposite end from the damage rails. Is there any recourse to have a better design installed?

[Lt Keefer]

Almost 2 years on our Hurricane 29M with full wall slide. We have had zero problems with it. I do the whole lube routine every month or so. Granted we are not full timers, but do use the coach every month for week long trips, with a 4 to 6 week trip in the summer. The slide is my least concern.

[Dilley Dilley]

Originally Posted by Newf026

I am new to a Thor 2020 Miramar 35.2 that has one full slide and a pretty big half slide. Previous to this I had 2 Class C's with smaller slides - one was a Thor. I had no slide problems on either Class C.

But reading the problems here with bigger slides makes me nervous for sure. We bought the rig about 1 month ago and I have been trying every system while its been parked at the house. We will take it on its first run in late March.

So far I have moved the slides about 10 times without any problems. One thing that I do follow from the owners manual - which I never ever did in any prior RV is that when RETRACTING a slide - extend it first and hold the command button for 8+ seconds, then retract it. Conversely, if EXTENDING a slide, retract it first and hold the command button and then extend it.

This is supposed to re-sync the motors after each hectare/extend.

And in all cases when you get the slide fully retracted or extended, hold the command button for well after the motors stop.

I also have the 3 Trax system on this model. It will be interesting how this all works out. But reading the problems/fixes here gives me hope that if I have the problems then I can get them fixed.

Thanks to all for sharing the problems with slides.

We have a 2017 Miramar 34.1 and the slides have always worked effectively. Sometimes they might get out of sync and the the procedure that is provided to fix that works. You are right that you should hold the extend or retract for a few seconds after full extension or retraction to keep the motors synced. Sometimes when first extending the slide outs you might find that they don’t respond initially. If that happens then hold the retract button for a couple seconds and then go to extend. Another thing to invest in is a can of CRC lube to spray on the tracks periodically.

[wrapped]

Just wondering saw the video about crc lube but have also read a tech bulletin to do no maintenance on these slides?

[Dilley Dilley]

Originally Posted by wrapped

Just wondering saw the video about crc lube but have also read a tech bulletin to do no maintenance on these slides?

Haven’t seen any bulletin. Thinking about it logically though I am at a loss as to how spraying some lube in those metal tracks once in awhile would be a problem. As long as there is no buildup of residue in the tracks it would beneficial. The Tech I had do our PDI when we bought the Coach was the person that first mentioned CRC. I’d be interested to look at the Tech Bulletin.

[KrankyKoot]

You folks are scaring the hell out of me. Have a 2016 Windsport 29M with full wall slide and haven't had any issues so far. Mine has 3 track system but always concerned about that much weight cantilevered. I usually level with slide in but have to adjust after sliding out cause kitchen (in slide) is always unlevel. I even considered supports for under slides for peace of mind.

[Ace30.2]

Originally Posted by KrankyKoot

You folks are scaring the hell out of me. Have a 2016 Windsport 29M with full wall slide and haven't had any issues so far. Mine has 3 track system but always concerned about that much weight cantilevered. I usually level with slide in but have to adjust after sliding out cause kitchen (in slide) is always unlevel. I even considered supports for under slides for peace of mind.

3 track system only postpone the real issue. The biggest problem is at the lower rail. No bearings in the bearing block.