Thursday, August 15 - Paul took the 5th wheel to Camping World to have the annual wheel bearing service. He's not a big fan of Camping World service department. He wasn't disappointed either. Upon returning home, we went to put the door-side slide out and it wouldn't work.....dang! Can't really blame them, but it just seems they sometimes cause more trouble then they solve.
While Paul was cussing and trying to find a solution to the problem, Marsha researched it on the Internet and found a couple possibilities. It's not a shear pin, not an electrical issue, hopefully not a stripped gear!
The possibility that makes the most sense is that the slide motor has become loose, and the gears are no longer meshing correctly. This is what it sounds like to Paul. When activating the switch, the slide only moves an inch or so and starts grinding. A sound similar to when you grind the gears on an old stick-shift car. That's where Paul is going to concentrate first!
Paul found something interesting when he crawled under the 5th wheel to reach the access panel for the slide motor. There was evidence that the under-belly material had been opened previously. This problem must have been addressed in the past prior to us buying this Cameo.
The Cameo forum did note that the curb-side slide motor has a tendency to come lose. Step-by-step, inch-by-inch it looks like Paul is getting closer to the problem – a loose slide motor!
Once Paul gained access to the motor, removed the gear box cover and shined his trouble light on the motor, it was pretty evident the gears on the motor were not meshed with the gears on the slide Sure enough, the slide motor was loose.
Notice the gears do not mesh.
After moving the motor to the correct position and tightening the bolts, Paul had Marsha carefully test the slide while he watched from underneath. Happy to report everything worked fine.
Paul thinks he may have found one of the problems with the loose motor. One of the bolts was stripped and wouldn't tighten properly. He ran to the hardware store to purchase a new longer bolt and it tightened right up.
Paul closed everything up with a smile on his face and whispered a little thank-you to the Man upstairs. He'll certainly keep an eye on these motor bolts and any sign of the slide beginning to slip.
Bella has been very busy around the house this summer. Here are just a few photos of her adventures.
As you can see, she has had a very busy summer.
Even though this has been a very unusual summer…too much rain, not enough sunshine…we have had some beautiful sunsets.
We are finalizing our travels plans and will share that with you in our next post.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!
