Slide won't retract: 2004 Imperial Holiday Rambler

Rick Jay wrote:
If yours is wired similarly, it's possible the front two slides are on one control unit and the third slide is on a separate unit. Since your rear slide works, that controller is functional. ...

Here's more information that didn't make the original post (because my father-in-law decided to head home with us by that time): The rear slide stopped working too. Hmm. :h

But I think you're on to something. One of the last panels he opened revealed what I believe to be the control units you mentioned. I noticed them and thought I'd give each one a solid push to make sure it was seated properly. When I did, I heard a gentle "crackling" sound. I never once thought anything was breaking, but I thought that perhaps it was the sound of something loose (like several pins that I didn't see) clicking into place. I don't remember if that was before or after the back slide stopped working.

Another thing that happened (before the back slide stopped working, I think) is that my father-in-law pulled out the tray with all the batteries to check connections there, and one of the wires simply fell apart when it was moved, looking as if a knife sliced all the way through it. (Battery acid burned through it, I suspect?) We fixed that with some crimp connectors, but that didn't seem to change anything. By that time, we didn't test things as completely as we normally would have, because there were two wives that were approaching the end of their "patience allotment".

As it stands now, the mobile tech is scheduled to arrive on Monday. I bet he'll find it has something to do with those control units you mentioned.

Dave,

ON EDIT: I just read the manual provided by Doug. (Thanks, Doug! :) ) Interestingly, it does not show a manual retraction method for the front slide of the motorhome, only the rear slide. For the front slide it states (page 218):

If the Slide Room Fails to Operate:
Check the fuse and auto-reset circuit breaker on the slide-out relay module located in the curbside rear electrical compartment. If the fuses and circuit breakers test okay, it will be necessary to call and obtain mechanical assistance to correct the problem.

That's interesting. There must be some way of doing it, but perhaps the manufacturer thought it was too complex or hazardous for the average RV owner to do.

In looking through the manual, your slides are different than mine and the controllers seem to be as well. But IF the controllers came from the same manufacturer, there could be similarities with failure modes.

It could just be a bad ground to the controllers. When I was troubleshooting mine, I found the slide controller ground wire screw loose on the ground bus it was connected to. Upon inspection, the insulation looked burnt. When I stripped away some of the insulation, the copper was burnt about 6" up the wire, so that wire, I'm guessing, had been loose for some time and I believe that explains why our front slide sometimes seemed to really struggle when closing.

BUT...I also had an issue with the controller. As I mentioned, the soldering looked like it had been done by a second grader, and that is probably an insult to second graders. With this issue, the slide wouldn't move. Like it wasn't getting any power, because, well, it wasn't. Since we were on the road I just did the usual "bad connection" maneuver and moderately slammed the controller against the kitchen counter and reinstalled it. It worked, and I was able to bring the slide in. I had to use that trick a couple of times on that trip. Since I wasn't sure if it was a bad solder joint or bad relays, I replaced the relays and resoldered the entire board. NOTE: I also ordered a new "replacement" controller. But the replacement came as a potted assembly, meaning there was epoxy poured all over the board & components so it couldn't be worked on. As it turns out, when I connected it to our rig, the slides didn't work, so either that one was bad or it was the wrong unit.

Well, hopefully the mobile tech will be able to quickly figure out the problem. Please share the solution on this thread so others with a similar rig might be able to use the info. :)

Good Luck,

~Rick