Slide gear stripped
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Forum Name: Warranty, Service and Recall Bulletins
Forum Discription: Have a warranty or service experience to share?
URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4331
Printed Date: 27 Jun 2025 at 7:06am
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Topic: Slide gear stripped
Posted By: SchipperPod
Subject: Slide gear stripped
Date Posted: 17 Jan 2014 at 8:20pm
I've only had my 2014 r-pod 178 since October, 2013, and the slide stopped working while in the out position. I only took it camping 3 times, and only moved the slide out a few times while it sat in our driveway to show curious neighbors. I had to call Coach-Net to come and move the slide in manually (now I know how to do that, at least), so I could tow it to a dealer to check it out. They said the motor works, but all the gears are stripped. What the heck?! I'm really disappointed. Has anyone else heard of this happening? Do you think I just got a bad motor at the factory assembly line?? ------------- Happy tails and trails! Teri & Jeff Black Plus 4 Schipperkes: Kodi, Jessie, Maggie & Bear 2014 R-Pod 178 2013 Santa Fe Sport Turbo |
Replies:
Posted By: Keith-N-Dar
Date Posted: 17 Jan 2014 at 9:23pm
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Yours is the first one I have heard about. Our 177 slide has gone in and out a bunch of times and as far as I know still works. I will let you know in Spring when the thaw comes.
------------- Keith-N-Dar Boris & Betty (Boston Terriers) 2011 R-Pod 177 2010 Ford F-150 |
Posted By: The Pod Couple
Date Posted: 17 Jan 2014 at 10:46pm
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How DO you put it out manually? Like you, we got our 178 in October. We've had no problem with ours. ------------- Larry &Pat The Pod Couple 2001 Ford F150 2014 RPod 178 |
Posted By: Tars Tarkas
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 1:36am
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It bothers me that there is no automatic shut off, at least on my 2010 176, for the slide. I run mine out until it clicks 2 or 3 times and when I run it back in, I run it in until it clicks 2 or 3 times. Those clicks are the sounds of the gears jumping, which has the potential to break or chip one gear or the other every time it clicks. It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to put a kill switch on both ends of the track so that it would shut off at the proper point. So, my guess would be that maybe you, or someone else, kept running the slide out long after it was out as far as it would go, or in way past the stopping point, just letting it click, click, click, click, until one or more of the gears' teeth broke off. It's kind of like Russian Roulette every time it clicks. The gears a strong, but my guess is that they could break any time they jump like that. The more they jump, the more likely they are to break though. This just occurred to me: Theoretically, maybe the gears can be adjusted so that they would easily jump at the ends of their travel, and maybe, if they weren't adjusted correctly, it would be much harder for them to jump. They might still jump, but the gears would be under way more pressure when they jumped, therefore more likely to break. I have no idea if this is the way the gears work, but it might explain why no one else has heard of this problem. Maybe your gears weren't adjusted correctly. TT ------------- 2010 176 FJ Cruiser |
Posted By: Keith-N-Dar
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 6:50am
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The guy who gave us the walk around when we bought ours said it was a clutch, not gears clicking at the end of the travel. Not having taken it apart I only have his word on that, but he said it was designed to do that.
------------- Keith-N-Dar Boris & Betty (Boston Terriers) 2011 R-Pod 177 2010 Ford F-150 |
Posted By: Sleepless
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 8:35am
I believe you are right about the sound being the clutch. If it were a gear problem, the slide could not be retracted manually. I am surprised the FR did not use limit switches rather than a clutch, if a clutch is actually used. Bob ------------- 2014 R-Pod 178 (OUR POD) 2009 Chevrolet Avalanche |
Posted By: Tars Tarkas
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 9:16am
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I'd be really happy to know there is a clutch. If there is one though, it makes the idea of stripping the gears harder to understand. Could be the dealer didn't communicate the problem correctly I suppose. Maybe it was a toasted clutch and not really stripped gears. Someone ought to get in there and take a good look. I have barely glanced at what's there, and then just with an eye to understanding what I might be up against if I had to manually crank the slide in or out. Maybe the OP's had a bad clutch. That might explain stripping the gears. TT ------------- 2010 176 FJ Cruiser |
Posted By: Keith-N-Dar
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 9:21am
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It isw a good sign that we are all so ignorant about this: a rare happening. If it was common we would have come up here in the past. It may have been a defective drive unit. Since it isn't happening lots this seems more likely than a design fault.
------------- Keith-N-Dar Boris & Betty (Boston Terriers) 2011 R-Pod 177 2010 Ford F-150 |
Posted By: SchipperPod
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 9:43am
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Thanks to all of you for your comments. I agree that if it were a big problem with these units, you all would know more about it! I'm sorry, though, that it's my unit that has the issue. I never ran it in or out until I heard more than a couple of clicks. When the slide went out the last time, it went all the way out - but there was no click at the end. Then when I tried to put it back in, you could hear the motor run, but there was no movement. The way the guy from Coach-Net put it back in was, he removed the wood panel at the front bottom right of the slide unit. To the far right and back in maybe 6 inches, there's a nut that you can turn manually. The good news is, it's the same size as the nuts on the stabilizing jacks, so you could use your manual wrench that you use on the jacks - or I had purchased the socket for my jacks to use with a drill. We were able to use my drill and socket to bring the slide back in - much, much faster than the tiny amount it was moving when he was first using a wrench! It's a tight space, though, where the nut is. He cut the back of his hand trying to use his wrench. So the fact that we were able to turn the nut to retract the slide, are you saying that means the gears weren't stripped? I also wonder if the dealer explained the problem properly. They did say they had to get a whole new motor assembly from Forest River to replace it, and it would take 2-3 weeks to get the parts in. I'm glad this happened while the pod was on my side apron at the house - instead of out on the road somewhere. We plan to take it to the NASCAR race in Las Vegas in March, so at least we should have it back in time for that! ------------- Happy tails and trails! Teri & Jeff Black Plus 4 Schipperkes: Kodi, Jessie, Maggie & Bear 2014 R-Pod 178 2013 Santa Fe Sport Turbo |
Posted By: Keith-N-Dar
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 12:03pm
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Sounds to me like clutch not gears if the drilll worked to retract it. Please let us know as much as you can about the fix. I know I am curious now to see how this all works.
------------- Keith-N-Dar Boris & Betty (Boston Terriers) 2011 R-Pod 177 2010 Ford F-150 |
Posted By: kymooses
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 1:47pm
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I've heard only maybe 1 or 2 other times of a slideout not working. Once I think it was electrical and the other I believe something had become unseated between the motor the rails or something of that nature. But yuh if it works manually just fine it wouldn't be the gears being totally stripped or anything. ------------- https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=cnBvZC5zcG90dGVyQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ - RPod Rallies https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1W1foQXGtrjf8aYly1uh0b-bHPfI&hl=en_US - RPod Owner Map |
Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2014 at 4:54pm
If it came in with the manual crank, your slide gears are fine. When you turn the manual nut, you are turning the complete slide mechanism. The problem lies with the clutch in the motor. ------------- |
Posted By: SchipperPod
Date Posted: 24 Jan 2014 at 9:28pm
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I brought my pod home today! I can't believe how much I missed seeing it beside the house!
I talked to a service rep. that seemed to know more about the problem. He said it wasn't the gears (like the other guy said), and it wasn't the clutch, either. He said the shear pin was chewed up in pieces in the gear system, but that after they fixed that, the motor wouldn't work. They replaced the motor as well. He showed me the pin; it was definitely chewed into pieces. It didn't look very substantial; it's hollow and small. But he said they're designed to give way if something goes wrong, to keep from causing even more damage. He wasn't sure about the motor, why it didn't work. He said it could have just been a bad one to begin with. I'm glad to have it returned to me. Hopefully, there won't be any more problems! We're looking forward to pulling it to Vegas for the NASCAR race in March. Thanks to everyone for your input and advice!  ------------- Happy tails and trails! Teri & Jeff Black Plus 4 Schipperkes: Kodi, Jessie, Maggie & Bear 2014 R-Pod 178 2013 Santa Fe Sport Turbo |
Posted By: kymooses
Date Posted: 24 Jan 2014 at 10:50pm
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glad you're home and all fixed up!! ------------- https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=cnBvZC5zcG90dGVyQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ - RPod Rallies https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1W1foQXGtrjf8aYly1uh0b-bHPfI&hl=en_US - RPod Owner Map |
Posted By: Tars Tarkas
Date Posted: 24 Jan 2014 at 11:14pm
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Interesting that there is a shear pin. That's good news. One would hope it would shear rather than burn out your motor or crunch your slide in case you tried to extend your slide with a telephone pole in the way. It does seem a little odd that both the shear pin and the motor would go out at the same time though. Glad it was simple. And thanks a lot for the final report! TT ------------- 2010 176 FJ Cruiser |
Posted By: Sleepless
Date Posted: 25 Jan 2014 at 9:46am
I agree with TT, but now I am confused. The shear pin has to be located between the motor and the gear assembly. I don't quite understand how the slide can be manually retracted if the shear pin has sheared. Regardless, shear pin should protect the motor but in this case perhaps it didn't. Bob ------------- 2014 R-Pod 178 (OUR POD) 2009 Chevrolet Avalanche |
Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2014 at 9:04am
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The manual drive is on the end of a shaft that is driven by the motor. So if the sheer pin fails, or the motor, you can still turn the shaft. here is a picture of a motor on ebay, notice the manual drive is in direct line with the output shaft.. the output shaft is driven by way of a reduction gear box, and is offset. If the motor or the gears or the sheer pin fail, you can still manually turn the drive shaft directly. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Gear-523518S-RV-Slide-Out-Motor/310849578281?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D4390366287945324461%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D191026933162%26 - Link This is not the motor for a pod. But it works the same. I also know it's on ebay, so will come down soon. I have been meaning to get a couple pictures of the slide mechanism in the pod.. may try to get to that this afternoon, and I will post them up. ------------- |
Posted By: Sleepless
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2014 at 9:47am
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Thanks, Mark. Bob ------------- 2014 R-Pod 178 (OUR POD) 2009 Chevrolet Avalanche |
Posted By: dsmiths
Date Posted: 26 Jan 2014 at 8:40pm
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Its not a hard fix, its called a limit switch. when you run your power windows up and down in your car do you hear a click or ratcheting sound. no, that is because there is a limit switch that cuts the power at the end of the designed travel. it aint rocket science. FR could fix this very easily. ------------- Dane and Donna Smith 2011 RP-172 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer 4X4 lift kit prodigy wireless brake controller |