Broken Main Slide

[Georgia_Biker]

We have a 2016 Big Horn 3875FB which has been trouble free from day one other than several little things.

On a camping trip last week Sharon was letting the slides out and there was a very loud metalic bang and the main slide kind of cocked sideways top to bottom at about 3 feet out. I crawled underneath and could not see anything. Luckliy the slide came back in and closed so we could get home.

As usual it will be a couple of weeks before my repair shop can take it in.

So now I am wondering the extent of what will need to be done to repair it and of course the costs - has this happened to anyone else?

I am sure slide repairs can be extensive and expensive and involves a lot of labor - hoping for the best

 

[cookie]

There are a couple of things that might have happened.
You might have broken a part on the rack and pinion system such as a tooth on the gear or a pin or small bolt on the shaft.
You might also have broken a weld on a place like the hydraulic ram mount.
If your handy it might be a DIY project, maybe.
Keep us updated.

Peace
Dave

 

[Lou_and_Bette]

As Dave mentioned, check the cogs for broken/missing teeth. Sounds like the same problem we had and, if so, the fix is not real technical. If it is your slide gears, and if I did this right, here is a link to my fix.

https://heartlandowners.org/showthr...D-Slide-with-broken-gear-tooth?highlight=gear

 

[wdk450]

From your model and year I would guess that you have a Lippert hydraulic slide system. Here is a link to all of the Lippert Hydraulic slide manuals in the Heartland Owners Forum library. The 2016 Lippert manual might be the most applicable for you: https://manuals.heartlandowners.org/?man=Slide_Outs/Rooms/Lippert

 

[Georgia_Biker]

As Dave mentioned, check the cogs for broken/missing teeth. Sounds like the same problem we had and, if so, the fix is not real technical. If it is your slide gears, and if I did this right, here is a link to my fix.

https://heartlandowners.org/showthr...D-Slide-with-broken-gear-tooth?highlight=gear

Dave-

I bow down to you and your work on your slide repair - great job! I am afraid that is a little over my technical ability but, I learned a lot reading about your repair.

- - - Updated - - -

From your model and year I would guess that you have a Lippert hydraulic slide system. Here is a link to all of the Lippert Hydraulic slide manuals in the Heartland Owners Forum library. The 2016 Lippert manual might be the most applicable for you: https://manuals.heartlandowners.org/?man=Slide_Outs/Rooms/Lippert

Thanks Bill-

The HL Forum is the greatest

Larry

 

[Georgia_Biker]

Re: Broken Main Slide - Update

We had our slide failure back in October 2020 and has been at Apalachee RV Repair since November 3rd. Apprantly this was a catastrophic failure and we still don't know when we will get it back - soon I hope! There has been delays in getting parts and arguments between the repair shop and the extended warranty people over labor coverage. There was no prior warning the slide would fail - it just broke loose.

My wife and I are totally sick over the whole thing and I am just "venting" because all I can do is grin and bear it.

This had been a trouble free unit up until now - at present the subtotal bill is app $8500. and I still don't have it back

 

[Georgia_Biker]

Re: Broken Main Slide-Update-sold the RV

We finally did get our slide repaired after 4 months. Very tough time to have a failure right in the middle of a Pandemic and you can't get parts but, for the biggest item was getting the failure resolved. The Service Tech explained to me at my repair facility in 24 years he had only seen this failure once before. Lippert some years back bought out a competitor of slide componets named Rogers. Lippert used their parts up until they were gone and they found their way on to several 5th wheels - lucky me. It was not that they were a bad manufactuer Lippert just was eliminating the competition by buying them out. One of the main slide rails actually broke. To get to the spot to replace the rail and re-weld it required virtually taking the whole underside out including plumbing and wiring to have a safe area to weld. This was very labor intensive and extended warranty would only pay a certain amount leaving me with app a $5000. bill for my part.

This was our second Big Horn, we had many problems with the first one, but took a chance on a new FB3875 in 2016. Other than replacing 3 Dometic A/C's this has been a good unit. We are on the road camping 5 - 6 months of the year and we stay on the move.

After we got the Big Horn back home we decided to sell it and upgrade to a Land Mark. We live near Atlanta, GA and as I started researching virtually no one sells them anywhere near us but, I did contact a few dealers in TN and FL. There were none in stock anywhere to look at of the model we wanted. In viewing the new items on You Tube we were disappointed in some of the appointments inside the interior.

The Big Horn sold in about 3 weeks leaving us RV Homeless-

Past that we did a lot of research and decided to try another brand and ordered a New Jayco Pinnacle which with all delays we will have in early July. I think sometimes you need to try something else although I will say this I have always been very loyal to the Member Forum as I don't think there is a better group anywhere so I plan to remain around just to stay caught up and jump in every now and then.

Thanks to all

 

[david-steph2018]

Keep in touch during your new adventures