The wife and I had our first catastrophic failure this weekend. The full wall slide on our 2017 Hurricane 29M had issues. Friday we went to the NYS DMV to register the coach. The wife had made an appointment in mid-August. Before we even took possession of the rig. Friday was finally the day of the appointment. The previous owner had allowed us to leave their plates on it, (our insurance naturally), while we waited. We went and paid the sales taxes (ouch...) and got new plates. Saturday morning the wife planned to leave on a four-day solo (well, solo with the dogs) trip. Everything was packed but we went to take in the slide that we had extended the evening before in order to get everything loaded up and the rear of the slide wouldn't move.
Sigh.
Got the ladder out and start poking around. After some sleuthing, I find that the rear motor had sheared off the motor retention screw. The screw stops the motor from rising out of the bearing block. No screw meant the motor came out of the block and spun around, gouging the top of the bearing block pretty badly. I could not get the motor to reseat the index screws back into the four holes on top of the bearing block. The much more mechanically inclined brother came over Sunday and together we got the slide back in partway so we could access the motor from the inside. After ripping off the trim and cover plate my brother was able to remove the motor without too much more issue. Now that we could see what was going on we were able to get the motor back into place properly.
I worry a bit about the gouges on top of the bearing block not securing everything terribly well. The bearing block isn't terribly expensive but it is a pain to replace. I had to get a replacement screw from Home Depot. I went a bit larger than the original, a 5/8" #10 vs a 1/2" #8. But seriously, what an incredibly stupid design. They don't even bother to give you a threaded bolt hole on the motor to screw into, it just goes into one of the oval cutouts that surround the motor.
To round things out, when I was buttoning everything back up, I needed to put some sealant on the rubber trim I had pulled back on the outside so I could gain access to the area where the motor is. While cutting the tip off the tube of sealant I cut into the top of my left index finger deep enough to need four stitches at urgent care.
So the rig is working again. Slides in and out. Took it out for a few miles run to bounce it around to see if it would pop out. So far it looks ok. The wife took it for a shorter duration trip today and all is well so far.
So, any lessons learned? One, don't use the wrong tool to open up a tube of caulk or you'll bleed everywhere. Two, I need to get a collapsable ladder into the rig before we go out again. Three, I need to get a couple of slide locks in case this happens while we are traveling and I have to button up the slide and get the rig home or to a service facility with one of the motors disconnected. Four, the little Rapid Camp remote was super handy during this issue.
Hope everyone else's weekend was better than ours!
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