I was an IDIOT for buying a Thor Palazzo!!!

From an amateur engineering look I'd say they have the rack and drive gear assy in the wrong location (on the side). The slide rack should be on the bottom of the slide out so that the s/o weight works for you. As it is now, any misalignment or wiggle will eventually strip the gears.
I believe most other makes use this approach, my current Entegra does as well as my last Monaco.
Of course it's doubtful those small motors could handle that much additional slide weight.

"these small motors are the only thing holding that whole slide from flying out the sidewall." I have noticed on mine that the front does seem to back out some after the button is released. I am really surprised that they rely on the motor to hold the slide in. They could have used a worm drive that does not back drive on put an energize to release brake on the motor. My boat with Atwood mechanical steering has an automatic brake that keeps the engine from turning the wheel. The brake releases when the pilot turns the wheel and resets when pressue on the wheel is released. I have never taken it apart or seen a diagram on it but I can tell you that it works very well. The point is that there are solutions avaiable to keep the motor from unwinding and they are not very expensive.

I got one of the slides on my kitchen drawers replaced with the self-closing slides from Home Depot. I have not driven the coach yet but I feel pretty good about it not allowing the drawer to come open while driving. You ought to see if CW will put some of those on the drawers you have coming open. This is what I bought: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty-24-in-Soft-Close-Ball-Bearing-Full-Extension-Drawer-Slide-2-Pack-932405/203274026. I had to modify the back mounting brackets and it took me 4 tries to get everything aligned properly but it feels great now. I feel that I can put the next one in much faster. If Home Depot had sidemount back brackets it would help a lot.

It sounds like Thor was working hard on your slide problem. Please give us an update when they are done.

Groover wrote:
I have heard that Thor has upgraded the motors in some Palazzos on an as-needed basis. The front of my left hand slide has a lot of wind noise and I am taking it to the shop Thursday for them to work on it some more(they have worked on it some already but I needed the caoch for a trip before they were finished). I have a feeling that I am going to have to get bigger motors. I also noticed that the gasket on the bottom of the left slide does not touch for most of its length. I am hoping that pulling the front in better pulls in the bottom as well.

"But I am not so sure the same applies to electric motors"- From what I have seen electric motors have shrunk quite a bit. My son has a 10hp motor in his RC helicopter that that is about the size of a baseball.

I will back pedal a bit.... you are correct... as I have some pretty cool and fast RC vehicles my self. But on these full room slides... these small motors just don't cut it. I realized... if you dont have the slide block installed when underway... these small motors are the only thing holding that whole slide from flying out the sidewall.

I have heard that Thor has upgraded the motors in some Palazzos on an as-needed basis. The front of my left hand slide has a lot of wind noise and I am taking it to the shop Thursday for them to work on it some more(they have worked on it some already but I needed the caoch for a trip before they were finished). I have a feeling that I am going to have to get bigger motors. I also noticed that the gasket on the bottom of the left slide does not touch for most of its length. I am hoping that pulling the front in better pulls in the bottom as well.

"But I am not so sure the same applies to electric motors"- From what I have seen electric motors have shrunk quite a bit. My son has a 10hp motor in his RC helicopter that that is about the size of a baseball.

mike brez wrote:
Is that the slide out motor next to the cigarette butt? I had slides before but never saw the motor. If so I thought it would be way bigger. I had motors in my slot cars when I was a kid almost as big.

Yup. Ya know, I've heard of electronics getting smaller due to advances in technology... But I am not so sure the same applies to electric motors. I am not going to go into the whole point of these Schwintek motors, as I now don't agree with it, after all these problems it has caused me already. You can google it Schwintek to see what they claim.

I guess size doesn't matter after all

Is that the slide out motor next to the cigarette butt? I had slides before but never saw the motor. If so I thought it would be way bigger. I had motors in my slot cars when I was a kid almost as big.

I am so glad to hear you are making progress.

2bzy2c wrote:
Any update? Really curious.

Thor Sent a rep to my local Camping World to fix this. I had a nice conversation with him today. Someone put some kind of lubricant or WD40 on the Schwintek gears. I didn't do it, I doubt Thor did it, so that only points the finger in one direction. I will just leave it at that. Lubricating these are a bad idea. It will only make a bad problem that is caused by something else worse. The metal shavings from the aluminum gear just gets caught up in the gears and make matters worse.

Additionally one of the bottom rollers on the bottom of the rear part of the slide was not adjusted enough to carry the weight of the rear of the slide out. The rep needed to cut off part of the Schwintek rails to make a proper fit. Does it surprise anyone that this Camping World Service dept. did not have the proper cut off tool to do do this? So the Thor rep had to take the part down to a machine shop to have the part properly cut.

This guy knows what he was doing. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Any update? Really curious.