Slides and batteries
We have a 2005 Holiday Rambler Ambassador 40' DP with four slides. The largest, heaviest slide is the street side in the living room.
Two days ago we were UNHOOKED from utilities and the LR slide came in a few inches and stopped. We played with it a bit, in and out, but it wouldn't come in more than a few inches. I hooked us back up to shore power, checked the battery status, and it showed we were in Bulk charge, which seemed weird, seeing as we'd been on shore power for a few days, but I tried again, and the slide came in.
Yesterday we were at a Walmart, generator off, and the slide again only came in a few inches. I turned the generator on, saw that the batteries were in Float, but even with the gen on, it only came in a few inches. The gen power didn't "fix" the problem, like shore power had the day before, so I wasn't sure what could have accounted for this. I put the jacks down to tilt the coach and after a couple more tries it did come in.
Our house batteries are old; I'm pretty sure they're original to the coach. I have a battery-watering system installed which makes it very easy for me to water the batteries, so I do it frequently, sometimes a couple of times a week if we've been dry camping.
So here's my big question: is it possible for weak batteries to cause this problem EVEN IF I'm on shore power or the gen is running? Could it be that the slides are being powered by the batteries, with the batteries being recharged in the background, which is different from the slide being directly powered by shore/gen.
Up til now the batteries have been doing ok, it seemed, so I thought I'd save the $400 for new ones. But I'm certainly willing to buy new if the batteries might account for this slide hesitation.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks-
Dave
Two days ago we were UNHOOKED from utilities and the LR slide came in a few inches and stopped. We played with it a bit, in and out, but it wouldn't come in more than a few inches. I hooked us back up to shore power, checked the battery status, and it showed we were in Bulk charge, which seemed weird, seeing as we'd been on shore power for a few days, but I tried again, and the slide came in.
Yesterday we were at a Walmart, generator off, and the slide again only came in a few inches. I turned the generator on, saw that the batteries were in Float, but even with the gen on, it only came in a few inches. The gen power didn't "fix" the problem, like shore power had the day before, so I wasn't sure what could have accounted for this. I put the jacks down to tilt the coach and after a couple more tries it did come in.
Our house batteries are old; I'm pretty sure they're original to the coach. I have a battery-watering system installed which makes it very easy for me to water the batteries, so I do it frequently, sometimes a couple of times a week if we've been dry camping.
So here's my big question: is it possible for weak batteries to cause this problem EVEN IF I'm on shore power or the gen is running? Could it be that the slides are being powered by the batteries, with the batteries being recharged in the background, which is different from the slide being directly powered by shore/gen.
Up til now the batteries have been doing ok, it seemed, so I thought I'd save the $400 for new ones. But I'm certainly willing to buy new if the batteries might account for this slide hesitation.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks-
Dave
