Perplexed by Newmar

Our steps became gear grinders and failed to function. I went to a local truck repair shop. When the unit was removed the technician was amazed to find nothing but gear dust and no more gears. He found it was just a wiper motor but the replacement would be about $700 through RV suppliers. An hour later he called again and said he remembered he had 3 wiper motors on hand, examined them and found they were the same as the motor in my steps, but they had metal gears. He charged me $250 and steps work fine. Best of all, no more gear dust from plastic gears. My message is, look to truck parts rather than RV parts. They might be made better and easier to get.