Cable driven slideouts mechanism

Cable slides work great until they don't work great any more. Then it is really very tough to find anyone that really knows how to fix and align them properly.

It's best that you learn as much as you can about them and learn to fix and align them yourself. Then you'll have no problems.

Cable slides are as reliable as shaft driven slides. They are not foolproof. But neither are traditional slides. The cables occasionally need adjusting but it is a simple procedure. Cables break,hydraulic lines leak,wires can short out or have bad connection. None 9of the systems are foolproof.
In have 5 cable slides on my OR unit and I have had no major issues. I camp regularly and extend and retract my slides frequently.
The advantage of cable slides is they do not require driveshafts. As a result smaller main beams can be used because they do not have to have large hole bored into them to accommodate the shafts.
The smaller beams are lighter and there is a lot less heavy hardware. In the end the unit can be 1000-1500 lighter vs. using shaft driven slides.
When the slides were first introduced they were new and most techs and people in the field were unfamiliar with them. However cable systems have been around a few years and the learning curve has improved dramatically.
As mentioned more units have incorporated cable slides into their units.
Cable slides are nothing to fear. They work as well as the other slide systems and provide significant weight reduction as well

Thank you to all who replied to my question. I feel much better about the cable slide system having heard about your experience with them. It seems that some issues do pop up as with anything mechanical. But overall, these systems appear to have improved greatly over time.

Thanks again.

Happy travels.
Bill

Yes, they all can have their issues. We used are last camper with two slides extensively for three years and never an issue. Would not hesitate to have this type of slide again.

I have 3 slides with the cable system on our 2012 Open Range Roamer. 3 seasons of use with not a problem. Works fine, fast and one thing I really like is all the mechanism is inside the unit on top of the slide and you can actually see it working. Have had no problems. It is such a simple system I cannot see what could go wrong.

We have one small bedroom slide that utilizes the cables. After a year of full timing and traveling it has worked perfectly. I have two buddies that have different brand fivers than mine, they have slides that have the RR track system on the sides of their slides, they have both failed. One was in the shop for weeks and weeks.

Vulcaneer wrote:
Cable slides work great until they don't work great any more. Then it is really very tough to find anyone that really knows how to fix and align them properly.

It's best that you learn as much as you can about them and learn to fix and align them yourself. Then you'll have no problems.

I must have gotten a big Lemon. I had problems with both of my slides. Very difficult to find someone knowledgeable and willing to work on this system. Access to the drive motor and cables is very limited. Each slide has a total of 8 cables. I have had other slides that were virtually trouble-free compared to the cable slides. Personally, I would never buy another RV of any type with this type of slide mechanism.

I'm up a creek if my cable slides break.....all I know is that they "work", not "how" they work...

wborst,

We had 2 Carriage 5th wheels with the cable side systems and not one problem ever. One was used dozens of times a year for over 16 years the the other so much for 9 years. 100% reliable 100% of the time!

True that it depends on how the cable system was designed and built but even on the many RV forums, cable driven slideout system failures are rarely mentioned compared to gear/rack or pin gear/pierced hole rack systems. Hydraulic systems have the most forum threads by far as to problems with many seal leaks. The rack type systems seem to have quite a few failures due to wear or tooth jumping or dirt/objects etc getting on the slide rails and stopping the advance or retracting of the slide or burning out stalled motors/stripping/shearing the pin/bending the rack type problems. Also depends on how other slide systems are designed and built also and the stremgth/materials used.

Some manufacturer's do cheap out and the RV owner is left we the mess/issue because warranties are usually only for 2 years max and most are 1 year. Not very long at all! Buying used, most will already be long out of warranty. Most of the lower cost RV's use the cheaper slide systems in their manufacturing as you'd expect.

Buyer, beware!!!

We have a Montana High Country and LOVE it! It is much better designed than our previous trailers and gives us very comfortable living -- even when we stayed in it 7 mos. straight. We had one issue with one (of 4) slides leaving black pieces on the carpet -- from of the underside of the slide when it moved in or out. t was still under warranty and the dealer fixed it. We have no regrets whatsoever!