My 2010 398RLS Residential large slide has a constant and consistent problem with the top outer front cable breaking. We have had the unit for a little over 1 year. The front cable has now broken 9 times! We have had the dealer we bought the unit from fix it twice. After we got on the road traveling, we have had to pull into 6 other RV service centers to have this cable replaced. I did replace it once myself, as we were out in the middle of nowhere. In desperation, we drove nearly 2000 miles out of our way to take it back to Shipshewana, hoping they would correct the problem. Open Range had the unit for 3 days, and felt they had the problem corrected. We left Shipshewana on our way back towards Oklahoma. When we opened the slide the third night after leaving Shipshewana, the cable broke again.
Not only does the cable keep breaking, the whole slide unit 'bounces' coming in and going out. The motor lugs to a very slow pace when you first start bringing it back in. This slide began doing this the third weekend we took it out. The siding inside the trailer moves and shudders as you bring it in or out, acting like it is not secured by much to the frame. The Philips screw threads and the 5/16 bolt threads that hold the pulleys into the wall are both stripped - it's really surprising the pulley has not popped out yet.
Both front landing jacks have failed and were replaced. The stabelizer motor on the rear failed and was replaced. The microwave has died. The fridge has died three times. The gray water tank fell off the brackets and was being held up only by the GAS line! The heater ducts were not secured to the blower, consequently they put out no heat to the trailer; however they did heat the under-belly quite well. The inverter was installed incorrectly and gave us fits for months (changed batteries and strapped the batteries together, and it didn't help); the folks at Shipshewana corrected the wiring problem and supposedly installed a new inverter (the old one appareantly got overheated by the heater blowing on it).
The Trail Express (About the cheapest Chinese tire you can buy) tires on our rig all had side blowouts within 2500 miles of use. Trail Express does not warrant side wall blowouts (how convenient for them). I replaced each blown out tire with Goodyears. We have put over 25,000 miles on the Goodyears with absolutely no problems. One of the tire dealers that put on two of our Goodyears asked me why I would spend $60K on a trailer and then put such worthless tires on it. Well, it came from the factory that way...
I've got a call back into Open Range to see what to do next. We've only had this unit 18 months, and I hate to think that I have to have a cable replaced every two weeks. Depressing when you think how much money this thing cost me...
Update: July 25, 2012
OR had the slide manufacturer install a 'squaring kit' on our large slide around February 10th. The kit seems to have fixed the problem. We have gone almost 6 months and all the cables look great. In total, we have had 21 cables either break or fray really bad in the first 18 months of use.
In October 2011, we took our unit to Shipshewana plant for warranty work. They did a lot of work on a water holding tank that had come loose and was being held in the trailer by the propane gas line! The converter was bad and the inverter needed replacing. Also had work done on an electrical line on the kitchen slide out that had fallen down and was rubbing on the front tire as you were traveling down the road; it eventually wore thru the wire and all the electrical stuff in the kitchen quit. The power cord to the trailer was coming apart, so they gave me a brand new one. This was before the 'squaring kit' was put on, so they replaced 6 bad cables and 1 broken cable. The kitchen sewer valve was replaced because it was hard to open/close. When the water tank fell, it pulled the heating vent off, which allowed great heat under the trailer, but not in the trailer. We also had a few other items repaired and replaced. And then our problems began...
One week after leaving Shipshewana, we had a cable break. Couple of weeks later, a second. A month later the third broke. All this was still before the 'squaring kit' was installed. Then things got bad. One day, a surge hit the TV and DVD in the front bedroom and burned them up. A couple of days later, a surge on a different circuit hit our coffee pot and burned it out. I bought surge protectors for the rest of the outlets. Sure enough over the next couple of weeks, the trailer had burned up 8 surge protectors. I took it to our dealer, who worked on the electrical load center and all the wiring to try to find the problem. They could find none. After a couple of weeks, we got the trailer back and moved back in. Within a day or two, we had a big surge and unfortunately, I didn't have protectors on our 110Volt Residential Fridge, the inverter, or the converter and all three of those got destroyed. Took it back to the dealer, and again they worked on it for a couple of weeks. They could find nothing. They replaced the fridge, the inverter, and the converter. Also got a new coffee pot, new VCR/DVD, and a new TV. But I knew something still wasn't right.
A week later we hit the road. This time I had surge protecters on everything. Everything. Sure enuff, within a couple of days we had another hit. I called OR and got their electrician and we went thru everything, including pulling the fridge out to look at the power line that runs from the hubble to the load center. Unfortunately, OR put that power line where the fridge can wobble up against it while you are traveling. Not smart, but... Anyway, it looked good. He then had me pull the hubble out of the side of the trailer and check to make sure the four wires going into it were tight and secure and that there was no black 'arching' color on the wires or the terminals. Nope, they were tight and clean. And then I happened to notice one of the male terminals that goes into the female side of the power cord that goes to the shore power. It was blackened and all charred up. I looked down into the female end of the power cord and where that terminal plugs in - it was all blackened too. This is where the surges were coming from! The new power cord they gave me at the factory in October was bad. At the dealership, when they were working on the unit, they had their own set of power cords and they hadn't used mine. They never had a problem with their cords. Only time there was a problem was with my new one.
Since we were out in Divide, Colorado, there was no place to readily get a new cable and hubble. I cleaned the terminal on the hubble, and then took a pair of needle nose pliers and 'tweaked' the bend in the terminal to make it fit tighter into the female plug. I then sprayed some silicon spray into the female and on the male terminal. Plugging the cable back into the hubble was difficult because I had put a pretty hard twist on the terminal. But, I could feel the fit was good and tight. I tightened up the ring fastener. I plugged back into the shore power and flipped the breakers back on. I was Working with John Woodcox at OR, and they shipped me a new cord. I have since gone to Home Depot and bought a new hubble. What fun electrical problems can be....
