Well, my slide started giving me problems. Though I'm pretty sure it was self induced. About a month ago, I was prepping my rv for a 2 week trip and hadn't used it in over a year. My street is on a slight incline and didn't bother leveling it before extending the slide. Sliding out wasn't a problem. However, when I retracted it, the lower rear corner made two loud popping sounds when it was just about fully in. I went outside to look and while three of the corners were snug, the lower rear was about 1/2" out still. I leveled it and ran it in and out a few times. While it went in and out fine, I didn't feel comfortable with the rear doing that. So I called Lippert and spoke with tech support. They said that it was likely that the bottom gear slipped on the track and the top and bottom gears were now out of time. They sent me the documentation to fix it, which requires removing the entire in-wall column and associated tracks needed to be removed, "re-timed" and reinstalled. I decided that I would just take it into an rv shop and have them perform the work.
So I dropped it off at my local shop and they performed the work. During their service, they noted that a lower bracket that rides in the lower track that keeps things aligned had broken off. They called Lippert and we're told it would take up to three weeks to "make" and deliver the replacement column (they only sell the entire column as one piece). Since I was leaving on the trip in two days, they reinstalled the column and ran it in and out a few times to make sure there weren't any issues and sent me on my way. When I got home, I noticed that they didn't do a few things so I had to go back the next morning. While there, one of the service guys decided to run the slide in and out WITHOUT leveling the coach first. Low and behold, the lower gear slipped again and i was right back in the situation before I brought it in. Since we were leaving the next morning, I decided to just take the leap of faith and take it as-is and pray that the slide didn't get stuck out. Before leaving, and after a few choice words after losing my sh*t about the service guy running the slide out without leveling it first, the shop owner agreed to contact Lippert to see if we could order the new 3trax version of the slide that Thor now uses in their full length slides.
Which brings me to the point if my post....
After several phone calls to Lippert and speaking with several different people, the rv shop was able to order the complete 3trax setup to retrofit my coach. The price was approximately $1200 and included front and rear columns, tracks, motors, everything that they send to Thor to install for a new coach in the production line. Aside from the 3rd additional track, the other benefits include the use of more powerful motors, steel rods in the colums that connect the gears, rather than the extruded aluminum ones used on the older kits, etc. Everything came in yesterday and I'm scheduled to drop it off Friday morning for them to install it. They said that after looking at everything, it looks like a straight swap with the existing 2 track setup. We will see. Hopefully everything will be done sometime next week and I'll report back.
