Ladies and Gentlemen
This may sound like a silly thing. But, today I received a call from a great fellow who owns 2003 Montana. It has three slide rooms and they have been down in Florida since about the mid part of December. He was kind of panicy because they were packing up the Monty to move on. To his surprise the bed came in.....like it was supposed to, then the main room came in.....but, the opposing wouldn't budge except the lower right corner. It was trying. He ran the rooms all back out and tryed again with the same results. He did this for several cycles with no success.
He calls and tells of his plight and I could detect some concern in his voice. I reassured him we would get it fixed over the phone very shortly. I don't think he believed me. Anyway, he had one of them there handy-dandy cell phones with him and I asked him to go to the pump compartment which he seemed to want to do with great enthusiasm. While there, I asked several questions about things to look at and check. I told him to close the bed and main room IRC valves which he did. Then I asked him to go to the opposing room cross-shaft and lets make sure both of the bolts, one at each end where they are attached to the gear pack shafts are ok. They were. I then asked him to go inside and press the retract button on the wall. The first attempt failed. The lower right corner was the only portion that would move. Then he hit extend. I advised him to keep switching back and forth three or four times. All of a sudden I heard cheers of joy because the room was coming in like normal. Heck, I could even hear his wife in the background!
We cycled that room in and out a couple times and asked if it was in the extended position. He replyed that it was. I then said, "now go to the pump and open the bed and main IRC valves", which he did. I then had him go back to the switch and retract all three room. Everything worked like normal.
Moral of the story. No matter were you are, if at all possible, exercise the rooms one complete cycle at least once a month and coat the squeegies and seals around the rooms with silicone once or twice a year to keep them pliable and flexible. You can even spray silicone on the gear packs and thalong the rack on the bottom of the inner tube. Grease or any oil based product WILL NOT DUE!
This coach set just long enough for corrosion to start and make the gear packs and shafts start to sieze.
I know I will probably have to respond to questions after this post. AND THAT IS OK!