I have a 2009 with valid slides. When retracting the rear passenger slide it had a judder or shake when it was about 6 -12” from all the way in for the last 2 or 3 times. Yesterday it stopped, almost like it hit something, but on the 3rd attempt it came in. Is this a symptom of a bearing failure?
Yes.
That sounds exactly like a bearing fail. Look for water intrusion which causes the ball bearings to rust.
Bill
Bill, thanks for setting that. Logic was telling me that's what it is, but my wallet was saying no!
Precision coach Chris Jones in Fl is very good on the valid slides. I highly recommend
Thanks Ron. Chris Jones has worked on our coach before, unfortunately I’m in Oregon at the moment. Next week I’m just 3 miles from Marathon Coach and they use Valid slide now, I’m thinking that may have the experience. I am definitely not traveling 2,000 miles to Oklahoma.
Gurus,
The Valid design is generally reliable and quiet. The design has two linear bearings on each side of the room and another in the floor mechanism.
The bearings are made by INA (a German company, I think). They are precision components and work by having a track of large ball bearings that carry the weight. The bearings also have a small tube on the bottom side that return the ball bearings to the top. If the steel bearings get rust on them, they don’t fit into the small tube and eventually the tube ruptures and lets all the ball bearings out. (Not good)
[
attachment=9013]
This is a picture of a similar bearing to what goes in the Valid slide. You can see how the ball bearings are arranged.
The symptoms of a bearing going bad are:
1). The slide shudders or jumps when moving in or out
2). The slide has any sort of grinding noise when moving.
A big cost of replacing a bearing is the cost of disassembling the room to get to the bearings. Be sure to check the other bearings when you replace one.
Bill