Is it Schwintek or the MH?

I just had two Thor Techs repair my Schwintek Palazzo slide out. I am on my second Palazzo because the first one was never titled and it's slide out failed pretty much on day 2. However, this time on the second coach, it lasted five months. I can't say enough good things about the Thor techs who came to repair my slide out. They are very experienced in what they do and are confident they now have my slide out properly fixed. With that said, The reason for mine failing came down to 1/8" mis-adjustment on one of the large rollers underneath the slide out that carry the weight of the slide. If for some reason the lower rollers become out of adjustment or were not properly adjusted in the beginning can lead to problems down the road. I can only speak to what the root cause of the issue was with my Palazzo. I now feel like the problem has been resolved after watching, learning and knowing what to look for in the future.

Schwintek is cheaper and a much lighter system the $$ savings along with the weight savings are the reasons in my opinion. Most of the problems I've read about seem to be on the larger full slides .. The system isn't up to the stress on it .

I doubt that the new Monaco, American coach, Entegra and others use the Schwintek. Does Fleetwood use them?

Moisheh

we were just at the show yesterday and the only brand I saw that were not using schwintek were newmars. I guess its all about the money

timmac wrote:
Why are RV companies going to the Schwintek slide system with its tiny weak motor and falling off the track issue and not sticking with the Power Gear slide system that has been around for some years with proven good results.

My theory is if it isn't broke why fix/change it..

Changes from something that works are Almost always $$$$$$ savings

timmac wrote:
Why are RV companies going to the Schwintek slide system with its tiny weak motor and falling off the track issue and not sticking with the Power Gear slide system that has been around for some years with proven good results.

My theory is if it isn't broke why fix/change it..

CHEAPER!!!!!!!. The motors are NOT weak. As I stated, the OEM's push the design limitations of the Schwintek system. There are 2 motor systems. The majority have the standard 500 motor, while the larger slides have the 700 motor. The system CANNOT fall off the track if the hole is cut correctly and the Schwintek is installed correctly. Doug

Why are RV companies going to the Schwintek slide system with its tiny weak motor and falling off the track issue and not sticking with the Power Gear slide system that has been around for some years with proven good results.

My theory is if it isn't broke why fix/change it..

From what I have read, it is just the full wall slides that have the problem. Thor has the same problem with their Super Cs with the full wall slide. We looked at one (the only one we found on a lot) where the dealer gave up trying to get the slide to open. He had three techs working for an hour. We gave up on the Super C from Thor at about the same time. On forums, the speculation is that the slide is just too big/heavy for the motors.

I can tell this..the remote tech who works on my motorhome here says he gets at least 4 to 6 a week with issues..but the Thor seem to be the bad ones...but remember Thor is selling more motorhomes with these than Winnie...he has done Forest River, Winnie and Coachmen along with plenty of Thor. He has become quite an expert on the way it works...and part of the problem with Thor is that the motor that drives it is mounted wrong, creating more stress on it, thus causing more failures..he said that if they mounted the motor a little different it would relieve the stress on the slide rail...it makes sense..

Schwintek slides have no problems as designed by Schwintek. It is the OEM RV builder that causes the problems. ALL the Schwintek system does is move the room IN and OUT. The room glides on floor rollers. If the Rectangle hole is not cut square, you will have problems
If the support structure of the wall cut out is NOT strong enough, you will have problems
If the slide room is not made square, you will have problems
If the OEM installers screw up on the install of the slide box, you will have problems that may not show up for a few months
Most Motorhomes that I have worked on that have Schwintek slides, the slides never cause or have a problem as a Motorhome wall is usually built strong with heavy aluminum or steel side structures on the wall outline. Towables have had numerous problems with all OEM's, because they cut down on reinforced wall studs to lower weight and some the flex of the frame will cause flexing of the slide hole cut out which will break components on the Schwintek mechanism. These type problem have almost been eliminated after a few years of finding the faults and beefing up the slide hole cutouts. I am not familiar with the Thor system but, a "double" rail does not seem correct. Like I stated, the room and weight is support by floor rollers (not part of the Scwhintek kit). With the Schwintek system loose from the RV, 1 person can push the room in and out on the rollers. There IS a weight limit for a Schwintek system and some OEM's go over that limit and try to modify the Schwintek to work and Schwintek looks the other way. Doug