Full Wall slide dependability

Don't know about HR or Coachmen but I know of no issues with Newmar. Oh sure some have had problems as can happen with anything that is gigantic, weighs several thousand pounds & moves. Not to be a smart aleck but I wouldn't think a FWS in a 29'-30' coach would be all that large of a slide compared to what they are installing on much larger coach's.

I'm on this forum way too much but I have not seen any trend of problems just because a slide is full wall.
I've always wondered how they framed the top of the opening though. I suspect you don't want to be walking on that side of the roof very much.

We had a 2007 H.R. with a full wall slide. We used it extensively for 7 years and never had a problem with the slide. Ours also was a 30 ft. We loved that coach, it had a great floorplan and loads of storage too.

As an RV Tech for 38 years, I would NOT want a FULL wall slide. I have seen too many problems with them. BUT, there are exceptions. It all depends on the TYPE/BRAND of the slide mechanism. I would have NOTHING designed by LCI/Schwintek. I would want NOTHING that has the tracks mounted on the outside sidewalls. Doug

Stay away from large slides using both the Schwintek system. It's garbage. It holds up on on smaller bed or wardrobe slides, but even on my 15' mega slide it struggles and has been repaired 4 times now, 2 of the time requiring full replacement at the factory.

I'm expecting to trade mine soon primarily to get away from that system, since rabbit going to get any more reliable with age.

Schwintek slides are easy to ID. They have aluminum gear racks mounted top and bottom of the ends walls. If you see these, stay away

Although there are several different mechanisms (electric, hydraulic, etc.), most RV slides are made by one or two companies - regardless of which brand of RV. For the most part, they are reliable. Of the thousands of posts I read on four different RV forums, VERY few of them involve failed slides. Of course, like all things mechanical and man-made, things will fail. Personal experience: three years full-timing with over 170 "round trip" actuations of two "full wall" slides and a bed slide and we have had no problems at all.

Rob

Schwintek/LCI makes 2 types of geared slides. One that attaches directly to the side of the slide and has serpentine gearing and one that is spaced away from the slide and looks more like a rack. Numerous problems have been reported with the first type as it requires the tolerance between the slide and the opening to be very tight. Putting this type on the longer/heavier slides just makes the problems worse. They do work ok on smaller slides like closets that are either not heavy or do not extend too far. The rack style are far more forgiving and work much better for bigger slides but they are still not a perfect solution. Many manufacturers are now mixing the styles on the same rv depending on the size of the slide.

Having now had our full wall slide by Schwintek rebuilt 4 time I can speak from experience. The early models of the mechanism were terrible for sure. However, the latest remake of the mechanism seems to be reliable and I no longer fear the opening/closing process.

We just finished a 10,000 mile trip and used the slide repeatedly without incident. Our slide has been successfully cycled in/out about 100 times now. The new mechanism was installed by the factory, was well done, and is far more robust (newly designed motors and completely new rack Assy) and deals with all the previous problems very well. I know more about the old/new Schwintek mechanisms than I ever wanted to know. However, to be fair, I would now buy a RV with the new mechanism without fear.

Let's see-- take a lightly built structure that will be subjected to the stresses of the road.

Now, cut a hole very close to the full length of a side wall and suspend a heavy component in it.

A good idea??? Sorry, not for us.

wolfe10 wrote:
Let's see-- take a lightly built structure that will be subjected to the stresses of the road.

Now, cut a hole very close to the full length of a side wall and suspend a heavy component in it.

A good idea??? Sorry, not for us.

I agree, had we known what we know now, we would have bought a MH with two smaller slides instead of one large one on that side. To late for us now, we got what we got. But my main point is that the problem has been mitigated considerably and we recently looked at a new MH with the new Schwintek mechanism on smaller slides and would have no concern buying such a unit.

I would not recommend anyone to buy an RV with the older, original style mechanism on a full wall slideout. It does work well on small slideouts such as bedrooms.