Roller came off kitchen slide

[farside291]

Yup, went to extend the kitchen slide and heard the wife yell. Apparently the front roller, the little 4 inch white one, came loose and sheared the 4 tiny screws holding it in place. It rolled under the slide while extending, gouging the floor and ripping a 6 inch wide by 18 inch long tear in the flooring. I am not sure how bad it really is yet. I am still trying to figure our how to close the slide to take it in for repair. Heartland said put something down on the floor for the slide to slide on to prevent further damage to the flooring. I have some 16th inch thick aluminum sheets I am going to place on the floor and secure with painters tape to keep them from moving. I will retract the slide and hope for the best. Talked to Blue Moon and they said the entire slide will have to be removed to repair it. They are not sure if Lippert will cover it or my extended warranty. I believe the slides have a 2 year warranty don't they? Boy, it sure seems like one thing after another with this unit. Just when I thought I had most of the bugs worked out.

 

[MCTalley]

Prior to this event happening, did you happen to notice that the kitchen slide would pop/jump before retracting?

 

[wdk450]

ATTENTION Heartland Product Managers. This roller problem is common enough that there needs to be some sort of redesign to allow roller replacement WITHOUT getting a forklift and doing all of the electrical/gas/water disconnects to remove a slide, in order to replace a $25 part.

 

[farside291]

Yes, every time I would extend or retract the slide it would pop, loud. I have had problems with this slide not extending/retracting evenly...to the point where I had to push the back of the slide in while the wife held the switch. The dealer replaced the hydraulics and gears and readjusted the slide. After that is when I started to hear the pop every time I would extend or retract the slide. The day it happened, I closed the slide and noticed the front was still about 1 inch not closed compared to the back of the slide. I extended the slide about a foot and then retracted it again and it came in closer. My guess is that is when the roller let loose and tore up the floor. I spoke to heartland and they said the fascia would be removed on the inside and the slide could be over extended allowing the repairs to be made with out removing the entire slide. That is a very big and heavy slide. That little roller doesn't seem beefy enough to me and its only held in place by 4 very small screws.

 

[MCTalley]

Reason I asked is that ours started popping when we would bring it in. With the switch activated, the pump was running and you could hear it straining (after the other slide was in). After a couple seconds of that, the slide would suddenly pop then start moving in naturally. This got worse over time. When I noticed the trim near the front of the slide (the wood trim nearest the floor that sticks out in front of the refrigerator) was gapping near the front of the slide, I decided to check things out.

What I found is that over time the (incorrectly adjusted) hydraulic ram was slowly pushing the slide out hard against the fascia and bending it, allowing the slide to extend a little further than designed. This caused the slide floor to fall over the roller. The popping noise was the slide finally jumping up and back on top of the roller as we brought it in. This pressure has managed to bend the bracket on the slide that the ram and the front toothed rack are welded to.

Fortunately, I found it in time to prevent anything breaking. Two minutes with two wrenches fixed the issue by moving the nuts on the ram back so that it would reach the end of its stroke just as the slide contacted the inside walls and sealed (specifically pointed out in the Lippert slide adjustment PDF).

Obviously too late in your circumstance, but something folks might want to keep an eye on or have checked.

 

[farside291]

Like I said in my previous post, what is truly amazing is this, guess which selling dealership just finished fixing that slide by replacing the ram and all gears then readjusting. I was able to extend/retract that slide a total of 4 times before it jumped the roller and broke it off. I'm not accusing but sure seems like a very big coincidence.

 

[Bob&Patty]

NAH...it could not be Camping World??? Just a wild guess. Call HL service and have them set you up with an independent shop some where close to you.

 

[MCTalley]

My guess would be, based on your comments about this being a problem for a while, that the last dealer visit was just throwing parts at a problem they weren't fully sure on how to correct. I suspect your slide (like ours) had been falling over that roller for a while, torquing it pretty good every time you brought the slide back in.

Before I figured out the correct fix on ours (adjusting the nuts on the slide ram) I had dug back through all the seals to our roller thinking maybe it had shifted. At that time it was still mounted good and tight.

 

[rxbristol]

Nice explanation.

Reason I asked is that ours started popping when we would bring it in. With the switch activated, the pump was running and you could hear it straining (after the other slide was in). After a couple seconds of that, the slide would suddenly pop then start moving in naturally. This got worse over time. When I noticed the trim near the front of the slide (the wood trim nearest the floor that sticks out in front of the refrigerator) was gapping near the front of the slide, I decided to check things out.

What I found is that over time the (incorrectly adjusted) hydraulic ram was slowly pushing the slide out hard against the fascia and bending it, allowing the slide to extend a little further than designed. This caused the slide floor to fall over the roller. The popping noise was the slide finally jumping up and back on top of the roller as we brought it in. This pressure has managed to bend the bracket on the slide that the ram and the front toothed rack are welded to.

Fortunately, I found it in time to prevent anything breaking. Two minutes with two wrenches fixed the issue by moving the nuts on the ram back so that it would reach the end of its stroke just as the slide contacted the inside walls and sealed (specifically pointed out in the Lippert slide adjustment PDF).

Obviously too late in your circumstance, but something folks might want to keep an eye on or have checked.

 

[farside291]

After further inspection the brackets that goes across the outside edge just behind the fender skirt are bent and twisted from being pulled in towards the trailer frame. The brackets are on the ends of both of those toothed rails. One of the other brackets is the one that adjusts the slide room up and down. Its bent also. What a mess.

 

[wdk450]

Maybe you should talk about going to the factory at Elkhart to get the slide fixed RIGHT under warranty.

 

[farside291]

The extended warranty people are evaluating the damage in the next couple of days. The roller was the minor damage, the damage to the frame work underneath the slide is the major problem.

 

[Bob&Patty]

I would call HL service, explain what has happened. Ask if can take it to the Plant in Elkhart and have it repaired. HL has a building set up now to do repairs at the plant.

 

[JohnD]

The extended warranty people are evaluating the damage in the next couple of days. The roller was the minor damage, the damage to the frame work underneath the slide is the major problem.

If your trailer is under one year old from the date of purchase you shouldn't even have to be dealing with the extended warranty company.

 

[farside291]

Because its been already worked on once by the dealer. Already talked to Heartland about it.

 

[danemayer]

It'll be interesting to see if the extended warranty company will cover a problem previously worked on by your dealer.

Heartland is understandably reluctant to pay the dealer twice for the same work. But you might be able to get their help to hold the dealer's feet to the fire on getting the problem fixed correctly, with advice to the tech from Heartland.

 

[farside291]

We will see. I should here yes or no today. If no I have no choice but to take it back to the dealer. Heck while its there might as well have thembchange the coroplast that they cut a big X in.

 

[MCTalley]

We will see. I should here yes or no today. If no I have no choice but to take it back to the dealer. Heck while its there might as well have thembchange the coroplast that they cut a big X in.

I'm suspecting that might be the case - that the warranty company may say "hey, the dealer should fix it [again] since it sounds like they messed it up to begin with". If it is the case, yes, I'd have the dealer replace the coroplast as well. Sadly, though, it sounds as if this means it will be in the shop for a long time given that everyone else has their rigs in the shop to fix stuff this time of year since summer is over.

 

[JohnD]

Because its been already worked on once by the dealer. Already talked to Heartland about it.

If your dealer screwed up the job it should be up to them to fix it again.

I went through this several times with our old dealer from our previous Heartland Trail Runner.

They kept band aiding several warranty repair jobs until the warranty was up, then tried to tell me that I was on my own.

Well . . . we upgraded to a new Heartland trailer this year . . . and they lost a customer for life to a dealership just up the road from them!

 

[farside291]

I understand the workload the dealerships have this time of year and I have no problem with it being in the shop for a long time...if it's fixed correctly.