house or chassis batteries used for slideouts

CA Traveler wrote:

1 battery fully charged will operate any electric slide room or hydraulic room.

I completely agree with this statement.

But one poster said he had 11V for the slides w/o running the engine. And as I previously posted his system is compromised with small wiring, other design limitations or battery issues. OK but just understand how the mfg has limited cost, what your limitations are and move on...

+1 on this. And make sure if plugged in all batteries are charging and you will have no issues.

I'm guessing you're referring to a drop down slide. I've had 2 Monaco/HRs since 04 and they never needed any adjustment.

Mr.Mark wrote:
To my surprise, when I had our coach in for a slide malfunction, the lead tech at the facility said to level the coach first then deploy/retract the slides. Which is against what Monaco lists in the manual. Apparently, we have one slide that needs adjusting once a year as regular maintenance. I've never read that in the manual (doesn't mean it's not there).

When I had the slide malfunction, the coach was leaning towards the driver's side when I was having it washed at my storage facility. The tech believes that the rather severe leaning to one side caused my slide to not retract correctly. Just as soon as I saw it not working right I released the button which left the slide about 4 inches out.

I made an appt. at the facility and drove it 65 miles for service. The tech said that it was a good idea that I stopped the slide when I noticed it not working correctly. By stopping it, it didn't cause any damage. They were able to adjust it and pull it in.

So, for now, I'm going to follow my tech's advice and level first then put the slides out.


MM.

My 2011 Vacationer manual says to deploy the slides FIRST, then jacks.
"Do not operate the slide out room when supported by hydraulic jacks. Damage to the slide out room, mechanism or seals can occur."

So, :? It does seem odd to run a slide out if the MH is somewhat twisted by an unlevel lot??????

dougrainer wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
To my surprise, when I had our coach in for a slide malfunction, the lead tech at the facility said to level the coach first then deploy/retract the slides. Which is against what Monaco lists in the manual. Apparently, we have one slide that needs adjusting once a year as regular maintenance. I've never read that in the manual (doesn't mean it's not there).

When I had the slide malfunction, the coach was leaning towards the driver's side when I was having it washed at my storage facility. The tech believes that the rather severe leaning to one side caused my slide to not retract correctly. Just as soon as I saw it not working right I released the button which left the slide about 4 inches out.

I made an appt. at the facility and drove it 65 miles for service. The tech said that it was a good idea that I stopped the slide when I noticed it not working correctly. By stopping it, it didn't cause any damage. They were able to adjust it and pull it in.

So, for now, I'm going to follow my tech's advice and level first then put the slides out.

MM.

Despite what ANY manual states, what you posted is just common sense. MOST RV lots and MOST service facilities will have level or near level pads. So, extending the jacks would not be needed to extend and retract the rooms. But any shift in the chassis frame caused by unlevel pad or uneven ground will require the RV to be leveled. Then extend and retract the rooms. I have yet to find any RV that requires yearly adjustment on a slide room. If so, then there is a major problem with the complete mechanism or the cut out in the RV. Which slide on your RV requires that yearly adjustment? Doug

Hi Doug,

The slide in question is the large slide behind the driver that will need adjusting/checking once a year. We have three hydraulic slides and one electric (the rear drivers side is electric).

What is different about the driver's side front slide is that it has bolts and arms that you can see under the slide. All the other slides are smooth on the bottom. This incident was the first time in the 6.5 yrs. that we have owned it.

MM.

Mr.Mark wrote:
To my surprise, when I had our coach in for a slide malfunction, the lead tech at the facility said to level the coach first then deploy/retract the slides. Which is against what Monaco lists in the manual. Apparently, we have one slide that needs adjusting once a year as regular maintenance. I've never read that in the manual (doesn't mean it's not there).

When I had the slide malfunction, the coach was leaning towards the driver's side when I was having it washed at my storage facility. The tech believes that the rather severe leaning to one side caused my slide to not retract correctly. Just as soon as I saw it not working right I released the button which left the slide about 4 inches out.

I made an appt. at the facility and drove it 65 miles for service. The tech said that it was a good idea that I stopped the slide when I noticed it not working correctly. By stopping it, it didn't cause any damage. They were able to adjust it and pull it in.

So, for now, I'm going to follow my tech's advice and level first then put the slides out.

MM.

Despite what ANY manual states, what you posted is just common sense. MOST RV lots and MOST service facilities will have level or near level pads. So, extending the jacks would not be needed to extend and retract the rooms. But any shift in the chassis frame caused by unlevel pad or uneven ground will require the RV to be leveled. Then extend and retract the rooms. I have yet to find any RV that requires yearly adjustment on a slide room. If so, then there is a major problem with the complete mechanism or the cut out in the RV. Which slide on your RV requires that yearly adjustment? Doug

To my surprise, when I had our coach in for a slide malfunction, the lead tech at the facility said to level the coach first then deploy/retract the slides. Which is against what Monaco lists in the manual. Apparently, we have one slide that needs adjusting once a year as regular maintenance. I've never read that in the manual (doesn't mean it's not there).

When I had the slide malfunction, the coach was leaning towards the driver's side when I was having it washed at my storage facility. The tech believes that the rather severe leaning to one side caused my slide to not retract correctly. Just as soon as I saw it not working right I released the button which left the slide about 4 inches out.

I made an appt. at the facility and drove it 65 miles for service. The tech said that it was a good idea that I stopped the slide when I noticed it not working correctly. By stopping it, it didn't cause any damage. They were able to adjust it and pull it in.

So, for now, I'm going to follow my tech's advice and level first then put the slides out.

MM.

CA Traveler wrote:

1 battery fully charged will operate any electric slide room or hydraulic room.

I completely agree with this statement.

But one poster said he had 11V for the slides w/o running the engine. And as I previously posted his system is compromised with small wiring, other design limitations or battery issues. OK but just understand how the mfg has limited cost, what your limitations are and move on...

Most Trailers have just 1 small 24 series battery and THAT will operate both Hydraulic slides and electric slides, that is why I stated 1 battery. Doug

1 battery fully charged will operate any electric slide room or hydraulic room.

I completely agree with this statement.

But one poster said he had 11V for the slides w/o running the engine. And as I previously posted his system is compromised with small wiring, other design limitations or battery issues. OK but just understand how the mfg has limited cost, what your limitations are and move on...

dougrainer wrote:
No, I do NOT own an RV, I am a professional RV tech with 34 years experience working on motorhomes. We sold Alpine until they went under and NO, just having a Hyd slide system does not mean there is a standard procedure for leveling and deploying the slides and jacks. There is no harm done if you level the deploy or you deploy then level on fairly level ground. You do NOT want the chassis twisted and then try to extend the slide rooms. 1 battery fully charged will operate any electric slide room or hydraulic room. Doug

OK - so you agree that having sufficient batteries fully charged will do the job. Therefore, having the engine running isn't necessary PROVIDED that sufficient batteries are available to do the job and provide for other necessities. Therefore, if one must have the engine running it means that sufficient battery capacity has not been built into the system. I never said there was a standard procedure - Monaco has for a long time been the one that has said to deploy slide, then level. Wait a minute, I believe I said that. :W

I'm a firm believer in having chassis batteries for chassis components and house batteries for house components - and a sufficient number to do the job that needs to be done. Sort of like making sure that the generator can't burn all of the fuel in the fuel tank so that the engine can't start.

I won't want to have to wake everyone around us if we had to pull the slide in in the middle of the night by firing up the engine. Plus, even if I pulled the house batteries down pulling in the slide, assuming I'm on shore power, why wouldn't the batteries recharge? The more I hear about this the less sense it makes to me.:h

Barb

BarbaraOK wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

BarbaraOK wrote:
We also have slides that will not operate with the engine running. Nor will they go out until the jacks are down. So it isn't all or even most who need engines running. Sure sounds like bad design to have any thing to do with the house on chassis batteries. Sounds like manufacturers who skimped on designing number of house batteries to handle the load of all of the house functions.

Barb

Very FEW Motorhomes have the design that the jacks are to be extended before the slides operate. Me thinks you have an HWH system for both Jacks and slides as HWH DID offer that type design. But it was NOT standard for HWH jacks systems and only if you had Hydraulic slide system. The design of "which" battery system has nothing to do with shortcuts or cheapness by the OEM. It is just what the OEM and their Engineers decided to do. Some require the Engine running to make sure you have as MUCH battery power (Alternator) to power the system---usually Electric slide rooms. Some require the Engine OFF as a protection from the slide being able to extend in transit. There is NO set rule and their is no system that is "better" than others. My preference would be for the slides to operate anytime the engine is running. Which would mean BOTH battery banks would be online, so if one set was low the other and the engine Alternator would supply full power. Doug

Doug, are you in a gasser or DP?

Yes, we have an HWH system. Living room slide is very large so it make sense to use hydraulics for it. And since the system requires dumping air, then leveling, then the slide goes out, kind of hard to have the engine running and filling the air bags! While I know that Monaco requires slides out then dump air and leveling, most other DPs that use hydraulics are like ours.

And why is having sufficient batteries (we have 4-6 volt batteries) an anathema for RV Engineers - - except to save money? If our batteries are fully charged when we stop, we can level and extend slides without having to worry about our batteries and still have enough power to do everything we want until the next day when we start the generator to recharge if we are boondocking. And if we have FHUs then why would we need the engine running unless the inverter/converter couldn't recharge the batteries or can't keep up with the drain? If that is so, again it seems like a bad design. I do agree, people next to you wouldn't be happy if you have to start the engine just to bring in the slide in the middle of the night, which we've done before when the winds get real high (60 mph+) and we don't want the slide topper shredded.

Barb

No, I do NOT own an RV, I am a professional RV tech with 34 years experience working on motorhomes. We sold Alpine until they went under and NO, just having a Hyd slide system does not mean there is a standard procedure for leveling and deploying the slides and jacks. There is no harm done if you level the deploy or you deploy then level on fairly level ground. You do NOT want the chassis twisted and then try to extend the slide rooms. 1 battery fully charged will operate any electric slide room or hydraulic room. Doug