Well our slide motor busted again.

[work2much]

So that makes 4 times in our 2006 AF 1150.

I contacted Northwoods this time in Alaska and after waiting for a return call and they seems unconcerned to say the least. I had to call back a couple times to talk to anyone and was told to contact a retail dealer for service
Only one dealer in Alaska all the way across the state but we called them to drop ship for us a new motor.

A stark contrast from when we bought our camper when Ron Nash got on the phone personally to talk to me on a sunday in our campground and help me through the exact same problem of the slide motor failing. The same motor failure then with a broken plastic gear...Over the years I have held Ron and his concern for his company as a reason to buy a Arctic Fox. What company has a owner talk to you in a campground to make sure you get home? A great one.

Fast forward to now.

I can replace these bad slide motors. I just needed one. In Alaska. From Arctic Fox. Northwoods basically told me to pound salt.

So eventually I got a price from a dealer in Alaska that didn't return my calls all day. 850 bucks ups ground.

So we will not pay that for an 12v electric motor.

I manually crank our slide now. And looking for a new TC.

I understand that Ron Nash is no longer at the helm as he has had a stroke. . That high level of service he delivered to me will be his legacy.

My best wishes to Ron.

[SidecarFlip]

One thing to keep in mind is, the manufacturer isn't really making the motors or gearboxes at all, they outsource them and the actual builder is buying the components somewhere so you backtrack the components to the source.

Most time gears, bearings and associated internal parts are off the shelf items on some one's shelf somewhere.

Done that many times myself.

[mkirsch]

You can harbor a grudge against a particular company and badmouth them to everyone you know, but in the end all the manufacturers are in the same boat trying to keep the doors open and continually trying to do more with less. Something has to give and the first thing to go is customer service.

[work2much]

Old Days wrote:
I am sorry to hear about your slide motor problems,but after reading about TC slide out problems for many years now I will never buy one. I hope the rest of your trip will be a great time in Alaska.

Thanks. Fortunately the slide still works fine but I will need to crank it open manually which really isn't a huge task. It's frustrating when manufacturers gouge on specialty parts. It's slao frustrating when we seem to only get a few hundred cycles between failures. For us that is only 3-4 months.

This camper is 11 years old now. Maybe it's time for a new rig.

[bgum]

Slide outs make more room and more problems.

[Old_Days]

I am sorry to hear about your slide motor problems,but after reading about TC slide out problems for many years now I will never buy one. I hope the rest of your trip will be a great time in Alaska.

[ticki2]

I have had luck in the past by contacting the manufacturer of the part , in this case the motor . Several times they have sent me parts free .

[SidecarFlip]

Exactly. Have a machine shop make you one from bar stock. Gear generation is pretty simple and I bet a company like WW Graindger or McMaster-Carr will have one with the correct pitch and bore in stock.

850 bucks is highway robbery in my book.

[jerseyjim]

"....a broken plastic gear....". I had that (broken plastic gear) with one of those electric (12V) TT tongue jacks.

Of course I was lucky..being a machinist at the time, I got a piece of brass and a "ACME thread tap kit" and made two duplicates out of brass. Worked forever...at least the following 6 years I had the TT.

Wondering if you might do the same...somehow. Like find an industrial supply shop, bring them the gear in question and maybe they can duplicate it right off the shelf! (Should be MUCH cheaper than $850 even if they have to make it for you. And....if that's the case have them make 2 !!)

g'luck !