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We returned to our winter residence in Edinburg, Texas, in Mid-April after a three-week trip to Tahiti that included a two-week cruise in French Polynesia. Living the high life agrees with me but all that food seems to find a home somewhere around my waist. Nine days after our return we were headed north in the motor home with friends accompanying us on the trip. The motor home had been in the shop for about six weeks during the winter, some repair, some upgrades and some maintenance. We also had the carpeting replaced. The upshot of this was that for the first time in thirteen years we had emptied the motor home almost completely. So we’re like newbees, having completely re-stocked the motor home we’re finding out what we forgot. The list isn’t short. We travel all summer long, visiting relatives, touring and attending conventions. We didn’t have definite plans for this summer, mostly visiting our children and grandchildren. In early March the bucket list came up and our friends suggested the Kentucky Derby. We gave it about 5 minutes thought and decided we were going to sign up. I had just seen an advertisement for Fantasy Tours Kentucky Derby Tour in the e-mail that morning. I thought it was for 2018, but no, it was for this year. Several spots were available and we signed up. From Edinburg to Louisville is about 1100 miles and we decided to make it a four-day trip. Doing about 300 miles a day would get us there on time. We planned to arrive on Sunday, a day before the tour started. At our first fuel stop our friends said their dash air wasn’t working. Consulting with the manufacturer, they checked the fuse and several other causes and then decided to run the generator and the roof air to try to combat the 90+ degree temperatures of south Texas. Our goal for the first day was to get through Houston before stopping for the night. We pulled into the Houston East RV Park about an hour before sunset. Problem two cropped up at this point, the single slide-out on our friend’s motor home wouldn’t slide out. In the morning, they were on the phone with the manufacturer again. After checking several items, it was decided that if they did get it to work, they may not get it back in so they are going to have to live with this until they could get to a repair shop. Our schedule didn’t allow for a day or two in a repair shop so we continued our journey. On the good side, departing Houston put us in lighter traffic on I-10 for the first hour or two. We stopped in Lake Charles, LA to refuel and it became a lunch stop. Departing I-10 to the north we headed for Hattiesburg, MS. That became our overnight stop, now about 800 miles behind us. In the morning, I followed the GPS and led us on an extended short cut on roads barely wide enough to allow two vehicles to pass. We all laughed about it later and it did cut off quite a few miles. Our trip continued through Nashville, TN and on to Louisville, KY. The problems with the slide out were solved by a careful reading of an on-line version of the owner’s manual. When we parked for the tour their slide operated perfectly. The solution was to hold the activating switch for 10 seconds which re-synchronized the motors. Later we learned that the dash air conditioner failure was due to a loose connection. They are on their way to the east coast and we are with my daughter and her family in Missouri. The Kentucky Derby Tour, that is another story…

My problem has now occurred twice, so I am hoping/expecting that others with a 32 foot Adventurer or Suncruiser, with a full wall slide out, have experienced the same problem. My problem is that the two adjustment bolts that hold the bracket for the roller on the middle slide out ram have broken. These bolt are not accessible without removing the slide out and some of the flooring. The first time they broke I was told that they did so because we did not use the slide out lock while traveling. This was true because during the walk through, when we took delivery of the unit, I specifically asked what was the slide out lock for and was told that it is there “to keep kids from playing with the slide outs”. So, since it had now become “our fault” we ponied up several thousand dollars and had the bolts replaced. But I was then concerned that the real problem was that it was not adjusted correctly. So after the repair I took it to a different repair shop (Winnebago certified) and asked them to check the alignment. For $140 they told me that it was “dead on”. 17 months later the bolts have snapped again. So I am pretty sure it’s a design flaw, but Winnebago will not admit it. So this time I want to repair it myself. My idea is to get the bracket in the right position and then weld a plate between the roller bracket and the bracket that holds the heads of the broken bolts. This can all be done without removing the slide. Of course the down side is that, after that, no more adjustment is possible. My thinking is that it should not have to be adjusted again and even if it did, I can incur the expense of removing the slide out then. The one hitch in the plan is Winnebago will not tell me how to adjust the roller brackets. The only provide information on how to make adjustments at the end of the rams where the slide out connects. I can move the middle bracket to be in the same plane as the two end brackets, but that presumes that both of the end brackets are in the correct location. There is a much longer story that strongly suggests that these bolt broke when the unit was driven from the factory to the dealer, so I have reason to suspect the end brackets are not in the correct location. Has anybody experienced the same problem? Any suggestions? PS It is very hard to detect this problem. Its first symptom is that the slide out is too low to open the outside compartments, However when the slide is out and you inspect the bolts they are jammed so close that the break cannot be seen. If you take it to the dealer they can make adjustments to the outside of the end rams so that the compartments will open. But the problem, will reappear. I found the problem only after I decided to make the adjustment myself and noticed that the dealer had snapped off the head of one of the bolts that attached the slide out to ram. I decided to try to remove that bolt so it can be replaced. So I cribbed the slide out, and imaging my surprised when the ram that was supposed to be support the slide out fell down after I removed that last bolt holding it to the slide out. Yes the slide out was holding up the ram that was supposed to be supporting the slide out. The two broken bolts were then easy to spot. So if any of you have experienced not being able to open your outside compartments and you think it got fixed you may want to have those bolts examined.