All, I'm here mostly to vent about my problems, and looking for any feedback if you have had work done on your cable driven bedroom slide. I've got a 2017 3850RL that we took delivery of in June of 2016. By the end of camping season in 2016, the bedroom slide had developed the oddest leak that would show itself as water on the steps to the bedroom, sometimes....not all the time, and the amount of rain doesn't seem to matter so much, as the length of time it rained. Had been to the dealer a few times to find the leak, to no avail. they had been over the roof several times blah blah blah... The Cardinal even went back to the motherland this past fall, where they took good care of me, and replaced all slide seals, plus a laundry list of other problems, and ran it through their rain bay. Still the leak persists. Being an IT guy, I started to analyze the situation. So, last week, it finally dawned on me that it never leaks with the slide closed, so that rules out roof, and a multitude of other possibilities, and conversely, points the finger to whatever is exposed with the slide open. A little googling on the cable driven slide mechanism type (BAL ACCU-Slide by NORCO), turns up a multitude of complaints with water getting in via the cable mechanism, running down the cables, and dripping off the bottom pulley system. This is exactly where I've noticed the water coming from, and reaching up into there with my hand when leaking, always finds the pulley wet. So, I start investigating, and find that the lower cable on that side has an elongated hole created by the cable acting like a saw when extending/retracting. My next step was to apply a bit of black silicone on the outside of the rubber gasket to close that hole up a bit. This was a BIG mistake. Evidently, I must have pushed a bit of it into the hole, where it proceeded to get onto one/both of the pulley's.... When I went to retract the slide I was getting a clunk, clunk, clunk with each revolution...but that went away pretty quick, so I assumed that the torque of the slide just stripped the silicone out... So, I go to extend the slide, and its much worse.. clunk, hesitation, clunk, hesitation. Now its getting worse, like something is stripping out.... I've got a call into the dealer to schedule service.
So, it was still bugging me that this all occurred in the first place, so yesterday I get my tape measure out, and find that the distance from the bottom of the slide to where the cable enters the slide frame at the wall is 7 1/2", and the measurement of where the cable attaches to the outside of the slide, measures 7". A quick check of the other 3 cables show that there is no difference in measurement between slide and frame. It is clear to me that the builders mounted the standoff plate to the slide exactly 1/2" too low, and is the root cause to creating the sawing action, and what is now a 1/2" long hole that is allowing the water to enter. Luckily, the standoff Forest River uses, has 3 cable attachment locations, all 1/2" apart, so I was able to slightly loosen the cable, and move it to the next slot up, and re-tighten, so the root cause of problem itself has been fixed.
Now, I just have to have the dealer figure out what I damaged in the slide mechanism.....All very frustrating. Of course, we were supposed to leave on a 5 week trip this coming weekend....that is now in jeopardy.
Has anyone here got any experience in the serviceability of these mechanisms? I don't see how to expose the internal pulley's for inspection/repair, although I'd be surprised if you couldn't. I didn't want to risk making my problems worse...
Dave
2016 F350 Lariat 4x4 FX4 SRW CC SB 6.7 Magnetic Metallic
2017 Forest River Cardinal 3850RL
