Fuse or breaker for steps?

You may have to trace the wires some. Are these automatic steps, or simply manually controlled electric steps? Especially if automatic, they are frequently wired to the chassis battery rather than the house battery.

On my (non-Jayco) motorhome, there is a separate breaker (powered by the house battery) for the steps that does not go through the coach disconnect switch, located near the batteries under the steps. That kind of makes sense since extending or retracting the steps is sometimes wanted after setting things up for storage.

I was wondering about ours, see signature. Since you asked, thought I'd go figure it out.

It's powered by the House Battery, so the Battery Disconnect has to be ON. On ours, there's a Auto Reset Breaker, next to the Battery Isolator Solenoid, near the Master Cylinder under the Hood. Mounted right where the rear edge of the Hood closes. If you need a picture, I'll go take one. PM me a mobile number and I can text it to you.

To simply disconnect the Step to work on it, there's a four-wire connector very near the step itself.

My Standard Warning: BE VERY CAREFUL AROUND THIS THING! It moves faster than you'd think and it has TONS of Torque. Sucker can Hurt You.

Breaker is 20 Amps. Feeds a 12 GA Red Wire into the Four-Way Connector.

If you're going to work on it, you may need the Kwikee Manual #875.
Newer steps use Manual #888.

I recently did some work in my steps. If I recall, one of the wires going to the control module had an inline fuse. You will need to get under the motorhome, close to the steps. Remove the cotter pin to the steps so that they do not activate and crush you. If you are having problems, like someone said, you can follow the diagnosing procedures on the manual, which you can download from the Internet.

cgmartine wrote:
If I recall, one of the wires going to the control module had an inline fuse.

Correct recall. Ours has two of the ATO type fuses in shielded in-line holders. I pulled both, and that kept the step from cycling in/out like an OP has in another recent Kwikee thread.

I knew they weren't "motor power" since they were only 5A each. Also didn't notice that four-wire plug, which does carry the main power feed to the step.

OH, There's a two-wire connector that powers only the Motor. Hard to see upside down in the dark in a black corner of the steps base. But it'd be possible to rig a Test Light, pull that plug to the Motor and connect the Light.

And... rig a connector to a long test wire to try running the MOTOR and be away from the mechanism doing it.

WARNING!!! Kwikee Control Module backs the power off the Motor when the step stops "hard" in either direction. Test Wire does NOT, and the Motor will burn out if the Test Power is left connected!

On our Jayco Greyhawk (in signature), the motor for the steps failed. I followed the troubleshooting procedure in the Kwikee #888 manual. I bought the 4 pin test connector pigtail. If you disconnect the 4 pin connector, there is no power to the motor. The only fuses I found for the steps were the inline fuses near the steps.

If I had to do it again, I would test the motor first. The 4 pin test connector cost me $25 and didn't tell me anything since the motor was dead. The control board can't be ruled out as the problem until the motor is ruled out.

I wasn't able to get my voltmeter probes onto the motor's power connector, I just could not make a solid connection. I don't have a test light. I ended up cutting the 2 wires and used bullet connectors to put them back together. I confirmed the motor was dead and replaced it.

-Michael

Copy That Michael. I've come to the same conclusion. I think I have at least one of the plugs the motor uses. Seems time to check. Could be a worthwhile extra ounce in my toolbox.
Have you found the main step power source on your Jayco?