Bedroom slideout would not extend -- SOLVED
Hi all,
I'd like to share an experience in hopes that others might avoid it. I have a 37 foot Keystone Cougar 5th wheel with 3 slide outs -- one of which is the bedroom. This past week, after getting home from a short trip, I attempted to extend all the slides. 2 of them worked just fine. The 3rd, the bedroom slide, only made a ratcheting sound when I tried to extend.
After phone calls to Lippert, and a close look at the slideout mechanism, I found that the slideout had been jammed (bound) so that the "jackscrew" mechanism could not work.
Here's the fuller story:
A week prior to the incident we discovered that mice had been in the RV -- droppings in many places. We thought we had plugged all the holes coming onto the RV, but I had never looked under the bed to see if there were holes there (and most of the droppings were in the bedroom).
So I moved the mattress, the HARDEST PART OF THIS WHOLE ORDEAL because it was so heavy and stiff and cumbersome. I ended up having to suspend it -- placing one end on the bedroom dresser and the other end on top of the slide out.
I unscrewed the plywood and discovered that's where the slide mechanism resided -- but that there we no holes or even mouse droppings under the bed.
So I replaced the wood and dropped the mattress back into place.
Little did I know, however, that THE ENTIRE BEDFRAME had come LOOSE from its feeble attachment to the outer wall -- and that when I reassembled the bed and dropped the mattress I MOVED the entire frame askew.
When we went on the camping trip and extended the bedroom slide, there was no problem. But when I retracted the bedroom slide, since the whole frame was askew the mattress and frame hit the dresser in the final inches of retraction -- binding the slide mechanism.
In talking to my wife, the bed frame had been loose for quite a while -- but I must have made it worse when I was looking for mice.
To repair, I lifted the mattress again and removed the plywood and loosened the jackscrew bolts where they attach to the slideout (to remove the binding).
I also secured the bedframe to the slideout floor with several pieces of hardware so that this would never happen again.
It's a TRAVESTY how things are attached in these RV's!!!!!!
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