Cable slides
I have seen many trailers with cable slides now. How reliable are these and is there maintenance to them, also can they be manually retracted
Forum Discussion
- Lots of reports of problems with them. Not as reliable as,hydraulic.
- No issues with our 2011 Passport. Works as it did when it was new. You need a cordless drill and the flex extensions that come with the unit to manually retract or extend the slide.
- Our 2012 Sundance has the Bal Accu-slide in the bedroom and we've not had any problems with ours. Our living room slide is the electric ram type. I'm not sure I would want to have the cable slide for the living area because of the amount of force required on a larger slide.
I think most problems that are reported are from a poor install at the factory. If the cables are too loose they can jump the rollers and break or jam. Other problems I'm aware of are problems with the rollers that guide the cables coming loose from being mounted in the wall improperly. Recently there has been problems with some of the gear boxes with plastic gears inside. They have found that the plastic was not a viable alternative for the steel gears and my understanding is they are now using metal gears on all the new units.
The good side is they're simple to work on if you have a problem. The cables are around $25 each if you have to replace one. They have a downloadable service manual under the web-site and youtube videos to show how to's. - We have an Open Range Roamer with 3 cable slides, no problems whatsoever in the 6 years we have owned it. What I like is the slide motor and mechanism is protected inside the trailer. I would not hesitate to purchase another trailer with the slide mechanism. Can operate manually with an electric drill but we have never had an issue.
- We have an Open Range with three slides. No problems at all and they are easy to work on if needed. I think there was a bad batch of motor/gearboxes that caused some early problems but they have apparently been fixed.
- I also have an Open Range with 3 slides, and have had -o- problems in 4 years. Important to keep the slack out, which is very easy.
- Howdy!
We have a cable slide in the bedroom, never have a problem. Much more reliable than the schwinttec slide.
"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon - Cable is way better than the Lippert Schwintek gear track drive.
