Pin Box / Slide out issues (+ some misc.)

tgreening

Active Member
Just dropped off my '11 Cyclone 3950 at the dealer a few days ago for a few issues. In no particular order...

Belly cover: The front 1/3 of it seems to be pretty much toasted. It's warped and bowed and bubbled, and probably a few other adjectives as well. I'm relatively certain it's due to the massive hydraulic leak I experienced on my 2nd trip out after purchase. A fitting/o-ring had failed and all the hydraulic fluid leaked out into the belly. Sat that way for an entire weekend and reared it's head when I tried to leave and the slides no workee. I can see spots where the fluid leaked through the cover.

Bedroom slide seal: This one has me a bit stumped. The slide seals evenly along the top and bottom seals, but the side seals are not even top to bottom. The front side seal is up tight against the slide wall at the bottom, but as you travel up the wall it's contact is less and less firm and at the very top there is a slight gap where it doesn't touch at all. The back side seal is just the opposite, but doesn't quite get to the point of no contact. It's like the vertical openings in the camper wall are not parallel to the slide walls. Either that or the seals are somehow installed in such a fashion. I'm not sure my description is clear but imagine it as a picture (slide) not square in the picture frame (camper wall opening).

Shore Power Connector: This plug goes in very tight and the wiggling action necessary to remove it has started to pull the receptacle out of the camper wall. No bigee and easy fix to me.

Basement door: Off door side basement door is strut assisted. They use some kind of weird two stage strut where the door raises to a point, and then you have to give it some tug and then the struts raise it to a higher position. Sounds strange but trust me, that's how it's supposed to go. The problem is the tug needed to get it started on it's way to that next position is fairly firm, and the structure of the door is not strong enough take it. On one of the struts the six screws holding it to the door ripped right out, without warming and all at once. My temp fix was to just install larger screws but I can already see where it's starting to pull out again.

Pin box flex: When I drive down the road I can see a fair amount of flex going on at the pinbox, and I'm not surprised given the pin weights of these toy haulers, but I seen where there is movement between the side wall and the bottom molding along the horizontal area that rides above the truck bed. There is enough that it has ripped the sealant that is supposed to keep the water out along that edge. It's also enough to make a noticeable difference the aforementioned gap on that slide seal. When the landing legs are dropped and the weight is taken off the pin the gap along the trim edge closes noticeably, but not completely. This is on the off door side. On the door side there is a much slighter but still visible amount of flex happening.

When I was at Hershey I mentioned it to someone at the Heartland display, but I'm not sure if he was dealer stock. or a Heartland rep. In any case he blew it off saying it was normal to have some flexing. The service adviser at my dealer said it most certainly is not normal and should not be happening, but unfortunately it does. Way too often. I asked the normal repair procedure and was told they sometimes have to go back to the factory to be reenforced. I hope to avoid that and would rather have it done locally if needed so I can observe.

To me this is the big issue, which is probably affecting the slide seal issue as well, and I hope it goes relatively painlessly. Fortunately for me I am still under warranty so there should be no problems with that.

So far Heartland has been good to me as far as any parts failures, even going so far as to tell Lippert directly and rather bluntly, to get off their *** and send me a warranty covered part I needed. Lippert had been non-responsive. Heartland forwarded me a copy of the email. Very professional but no nonsense.

Hopefully these issues will be dealt with just as professionally as far as approval for repair goes. Hopefully my dealer will be on the ball as well and get things rectified in a reasonable amount of time.

Stay tuned I guess...
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Most things are not a big deal. The pin box flex may be, but then again maybe not. I have seen a few repairs on those. They welded a few gussets in along with repairing the broken weld, if that's the case.
The slide is most likely an adjustment. I had one like that. They backed off the up/down jack screws an left them loose. Then ran the slide in and out a few times, then made the adjustment. It worked.
The belly Coraplast is not a problem to change out.
I have seen a few doors where the strut had pulled out. The fix was to mount a large aluminum plate on the door with glue and a bazillion screws. Then mount the strut to that plate.
Let us know how your repairs come out.

Peace
Dave
 

gpshemi

Well-known member
I fixed the door flex problem by simply removing one lift arm. It cuts that force needed to open by half. It's still enough to keep the door up and open. Give that a try even after they repair it. It is actually easier to use that way too.
 

tgreening

Active Member
Most things are not a big deal. The pin box flex may be, but then again maybe not. I have seen a few repairs on those. They welded a few gussets in along with repairing the broken weld, if that's the case.
The slide is most likely an adjustment. I had one like that. They backed off the up/down jack screws an left them loose. Then ran the slide in and out a few times, then made the adjustment. It worked.
The belly Coraplast is not a problem to change out.
I have seen a few doors where the strut had pulled out. The fix was to mount a large aluminum plate on the door with glue and a bazillion screws. Then mount the strut to that plate.
Let us know how your repairs come out.

Peace
Dave


The slide may indeed just need some adjustment, but I think it's a moot point until they get the flex issue dealt with. If I have the slide out and put the weight on the pin, or take it off the pin, there is quite of bit of obvious flex going on not only at the pin and along that horizontal trim area I mentioned, but you can see the slide wall opening flexing around the slide itself. You can see the slide shifting position within the opening. To me, if there is enough movement going on that you can see it by the naked eye, that's movement a bit too much.

On the strut door I had intended to do exactly that if they don't fix it. I will probably do exactly that if they DO fix it, because if it failed once I envision it failing again. As I said, I don't think the basic door structure is stout enough to handle the stress the way the system is currently designed.
 

tgreening

Active Member
Did you ever get the flex issue fixed? Can you share what they did? :confused:

Thanks,
Bob


The flex was an issue they declined to address as in their opinion it was minimal. My question was what happens if it suddenly becomes NOT minimal, after the warranty is gone of course. I was assured that the details of my concerns were on record and that if it did indeed become a more serious problem it would be addressed.

The slide seal issue turned out to not be the opening, but rather the slide itself was not square. The top and bottom of the slide was parallel, but the side walls were not. Basically it was a bit warped. The tech took it all apart, squared up the walls, and added additional brackets in order to make sure it stayed that way.

For my basement door they only replaced the two stage struts with single stage struts. The original door was not changed or addressed in any fashion. The door brackets are still failing and will eventually pull out. I intend to add some metal reinforcement to the area and fix it myself.

The shore power connector was changed out and fastened down more securely. Seems fine now.

The belly cover they cleaned for some reason and reinstalled as is with a bit of additional fasteners in an attempt to seal up the warped edges a bit better. They said that the hydraulic fluid that was pooled on top of it for a weekend couldn't have caused any warping, regardless of the fact that prior to the leak no warp, but serious warp after the leak. Go figure.

In my opinion the most serious potential problem (flexing) was glossed over without so much as a minimal attempt to see if there might actually be anything wrong. According to the tech at the dealer they kept trying to take the easiest route possible on the slide repair instead of listening to him in the first place and letting him just get it fixed. There were about 3 different solutions they asked him to attempt, all of which failed, before he was allowed to do it his way. Based on my experience only it seems the factory needs to place a bit more trust in the techs in the field, who are actually staring at the problem, and let them get it done rather than trying to micro dictate fixes from an office somewhere across the country.

Anyway, if the pin box takes a header I'll probably just fix it myself. Owning a weld shop has got to be good for something. :)
 

bigbird272

Active Member
My 2009 3580 Bighorn is in Heartlands service bay right now with a frame flex. All the caulking on both sides has opened up about 1/4 inch when on the hitch and when off the hitch it basically seals up. Lippert and Heartland are repairing it for free. This is an obvious flaw in the product. I was at an R. V. repair shop in Elkhart that Heatland recommended and had repairs to the slides re wood scraping off under edges etc, and other items of a minor nature taken care of. It was everything I could do to get Heartland to look after my flexing frame problem. I will be posting a full report after my repairs are complete. I am not impressed.

Rick
 

jayc

Legendary Member
Rick,
It's unfortunate that you had this problem but it is being taken care of for you. How many other companies would take care of this problem 3 years and 4 model years old?
 

bigbird272

Active Member
My unit is actually only 2 yrs old as I bought it brand new in 2010. The last two trailers I had had 3 and 5 yr structural warranties. A one year warranty is no where good enough.
 

tgreening

Active Member
My unit is actually only 2 yrs old as I bought it brand new in 2010. The last two trailers I had had 3 and 5 yr structural warranties. A one year warranty is no where good enough.


The standard RV warranty is a joke at best. One WHOLE year for an item that the average person will at best use for a few weeks during that year. I doubt the majority of us are retired full timers.
 
Top