Two days on the road, over 950 miles traveled on some of Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico's interstate highways and, well, here we sat in Albuquerque with almost half of our interior roof trim down, the back ballaster and top facia over the entertainment/kitchen slide damaged, both slides dragging on the floor with one going out so far that it pulled the interior facia almost off, the other sounding like it was an old car door in serious need of oil on the hinges, and none of the Heartland dealers/repair locations having time to assist us.
Called Heartland Customer Support, spoke to Ron there who gave me the names of four facilities here that were Heartland authorized repair facilities (one was the business that we purchased our previous SOB from and is no longer is in business.) We contacted the other three and, as I mentioned above, none had time to assist us. I called Ron back and he gave me verbal permission to contact a mobile service to get the slides taken care of. Very impressed with him and his ability to make such a decision on the fly - Kudos to Heartland for that.
There happened to be a mobile service technician working on with another camping customer here at the Kirtland AFB Famcamp and he took a look at the slides this afternoon. He found that the entertainment / kitchen slide was too low on the rear side of the coach (he raised it some) but more importantly found that the front edge of that same slide was going out so far that it was bowing the exterior wall out. Thought is that some of the creaking was because of that but he also found that one, if not both, of the rollers under the slide on that side are damaged. On the dinette / door side he found that the rear was good but the front (which was going out so far that it had pushed the vertical facia off) was, as expected, extending too far. He made the adjustments and now the slides come in (and go out) properly - that is without tearing the carpet out and not pulling the wall out. However, he did find some damage to the side walls which will have to be addressed when we get back to Kansas next week. The facia on the one side will also have to be removed properly and repaired
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What made me even comment on this at this time was dosmoeturhead's comments above and the pictures of the sidewall damage from his slide's apparent over-extension. The technician found that the exterior walls on our coach are bowed out from the pressure of our slides going out so far - I'm hoping that nothing serious has been damaged but who know what lurks behind the skin.
By the way, the ceiling trim (wood looking material) had numerous brads tacked through but they only extend 1/8th to at most 1/4 inch into the ceiling material. There was no glue or other adhesive assisting them in holding the trim to the ceiling. They will be traveling back in the basement for reinstallation. Looking at the rest it appears that the other side may be loose as well.
Before anyone says it -- we have already contacted our selling dealership and they know of the current issues. We have an appointment with them to turn the coach in once we get back home. I really wonder if returning to the factory would be the better, quickest, and most complete repair option.
Sorry for the length of this - didn't realize it was so long until I submitted it a moment ago.
Dosmoeturhead - please keep us informed on your progress and repairs made. Thanks.
