Slide failures?

Had to replace the Happy Jack tracks on my Okanagan 4 times so far, they just used too light of metal on the rails. Twice on warranty and twice on my dime. Next time I’m going to manufacture something myself. It’s a real pain in the butt to pull the slide out to get at the mechanism. The drive gear tears out the metal between the holes on the track, Happy jack wanted over $700.00 for one track last time so I just welded it up and ground it out work.

markowwes wrote:
Had to replace the Happy Jack tracks on my Okanagan 4 times so far, they just used too light of metal on the rails. Twice on warranty and twice on my dime. Next time I’m going to manufacture something myself. It’s a real pain in the butt to pull the slide out to get at the mechanism. The drive gear tears out the metal between the holes on the track, Happy jack wanted over $700.00 for one track last time so I just welded it up and ground it out work.

Thanks for the response. Do you figure the slide failure was due to off highway travel?

Gary

No nothing to do with off road, the slides are in and tight when traveling. My opinion is the material used could be heavier. The one that failed is under the dinette, just two tracks under there. Under the other side (fridge, stove, closet) a little heavier, four rails and never a problem.

Wes

Wes,
When the slideout failed was it an instantaneous catastrophic failure or did it fail slowly over time, giving you some time to deal with it?

We camp pretty remotely and I have no idea what I'd do it a slideout failed.

Thanks.

Not a problem Gary, one time it quit half way through the vacation, just went outside when the wife went to slide it in and gave it a little push. The slide is not that heavy to give it a little help. The gear just usually tears out a couple notches so the one side won’t go in at the same time as the other. We continued using it for a week or so.I sent you a p.m.

A year and a half after purchase and after a wonderful trip to Alaska, our Palomino TC developed a slide problem. One side would work fine, while the other side allowed the motor to 'ratchet' and slip on the track. The slide would not close evenly and eventually would not close at all. I had to muscle it into closed position while DW hit the slide retract switch.

Back to dealer and 10 days later, fixed. They removed the slide and discovered the hole that was made for the slide at the manufacture was out of square and binding on one corner because the hole had been cut incorrectly by 2.5" too small. The corner that was binding bent the slide motor track and broke the gears off the motor. I was OUT of warranty, but paid nothing. My dealer convinced Forest River that they had made an error at the manufacturer's plant. This dealer went above and beyond to help me and to cover the costs. Truly amazing in this day and age.

I will not mention the dealer in this post, but if anyone is interested, PM me and I will give you the dealer's name. Great place to do business at. I would not hesitated to complete repete business at this dealership. I do NOT work for or have any other affiliation with this dealer other than being a retail customer.

Safe travels to all,

Lakeside

Most parts of TCs “can” fail due to twisting offroad. My uncles pretty regularly bent their truck frames hauling hay.

That being said, if you are talking about simply going off pavement and are reasonable, I don’t think you will have an issue with many brands that are newer. Many of the early 2000 TCs had issues with slides either with the mechanism or the framing. How much of that was from how they were used ... who knows. I’ve had zero issues with mine, but I’ve read that at least one person had almost total destruction of one slide of the each same year/model of mine. YMMV.

I have over 75k miles with my Lance 1181 on a truck. I have driven on many 4WD backroads including 2 weeks ago on a Forest Road in the Gila NF that took me 1 hour to cover 4 miles. Been to Alaska and back over all the frost heaves. My slide is behaving like new. It reliably moves in and out and, after I got the friction adjustment correct, never begins to slide out while on the road. There are no signs of stress in the supporting structures and I did replace the awning cover when the sun rotted the fabric. I don't know what brand Lance is using now, but my slide is fantastic.

Rick

Have/had 2 slides who closing on 20 years of age operated without a problem.
Only on 1 I noticed that PO had to use the slide with "heavy load" as the track ribs bend and the gear was running over the plywood behind, but it did not affect the performance.

Thank you to those that responded. I am copying and sending on to my buddy.

Gary Haupt