Forum Discussion

Jim's avatar
Jim
Explorer
Dec 19, 2016

Slides won't retract...

Three times now, my HWH 310 Series room extender has become unresponsive to the Extend/Retract rocker switches. One is on the dash, the other in the bedroom. The LR slide is a flat floor type with two rams, the BR slide moves the closet with a single ram.

All three times this has happened it was on the day I was leaving a RV park, so very annoying. It's never cost me more than an hour so far but I'd like to be ahead of the issue.

I have never found the exact cause. Once I thought that a small 2-wire connector (marked Travel) had fallen off because the system came to life after I replaced it. I was mistaken about that because the next time it happen, I checked and that connector was nice and tight.

This last time it happened, I messed with the wires and connectors under the dash going to the controller, checked the fuses (all good), and no go. Then I went outside and wiggled the wires out there. No go. Then I went out with a rubber mallet and gave everything a good whack. Here's a pic of my manifold. It is under the LR slide, aft.



Whacking on things may or may not have had something to do with the restoration of operation this time but whatever, the slides started operating immediately after. This time I left the RV park just 1/2 hour later than expected.

There are no weird noises I can detect when I press the retract switch when it's not working, the batteries are new, the BR slide gets operated once a week when I dump, without issue so far except the 3 mornings when it's failed when I've been ready to travel. When the slides are working, they are smooth, no jerking, hesitation, grinding noises. They sound and work great...when they work.

This situation is annoying and I'm hoping someone has run into this intermittent type operation with the HWH system before and might have some suggestions.
  • What usually happens with those older motors (ones on mechanical leveling legs, too) is that over the years the brushes wear, get stuck, or get a coating of dirt keeping them off the commutator. It can be a simple fix if you are somewhat mechanical. If the motor can be removed, disassemble it, clean the commutator with very fine sandpaper (not emery, it leaves conductive grit), make sure the brushes are clean, ok and free in their holders and reassemble. I use lacquer thinner to clean off the brushes and their holders. Reassembling can be tricky as you have to devise some way to hold the brushes back against their springs while you get them over the commutator. Getting the armature back into the shell can also be challenging since the strong magnets will yank it out of your fingers on the way in (and pull the commutator back out of the brushes you just struggled so much with!) The take-away from this is that regardless of how old the system is, the little motors don't really get that much run time so are rarely ever 'worn out'. The problem is usually poor contact between the brushes and commutator due to years of dirt/grease buildup. Some fresh grease for the bearings is also called for. When you work on it, just be careful not to damage any of the motor windings (the magnet issue is a real problem there). Quite often you cannot buy just a motor and since it's likely that yours is not really 'bad', just dirty, it's well worth the effort to try to clean it up. Chances are, this will add another 10-20 years life to the motor. There used to be lots of motor shops around but they are mostly gone now and except for rewinding big industrial motors, the few left are only interested in selling you a new device (which will include the entire pump unit).
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Saying your batteries are new doesn't mean much. Need to have a multimeter and make some measurements. Our batteries get run down some when we are camping and in your case a good battery boost may be in order to recoup your couple of days of camping...

    Just yesterday our truck started showing LOW TIRE PRESSURE alarm on the console so I get my portable 12V tankless air compressor out from under the back seat to bring up the pressure in all of the tires as needed. This happens alot for us when the outside temps get real cold which affects the tire pressure sometimes to trip the low tire pressure alert on my truck console. My 12V tankless compressor was struggling to even get the tires up a few lbs and then I noticed the truck voltmeter was way down when running the compressor...

    Kicked in a boost charge and the compressor jumps to life haha...

    MS KARMA lives for these events haha. She knows exactly when to hit you with problems hehe... The trick is stay ahead of her if you can with good PLAN-Bs...

    Roy Ken
  • OP here. Thanks for all the advice. I am beginning to think that maybe the motor has a dead spot. And what I'll do to confirm that is to try a retraction once per day of the big slide since that one would cause a bigger draw on the motor, possibly showing up a problem more readily then the smaller BR slide.

    Than, if I get the darn thing to fail, I'll tap just the motor and see if that restores operation. If not, then I'll tap the solenoid. It's probably one or the other.

    Thanks!
  • To piggyback off of Ivylog, it does sound like the same scenario that happens when you have a starter solenoid going out. You turn the key a few times and nothing, then off it goes.

    It doesn't take too much time before turning the key doesn't work at all. Meaning, you might want to replace that solenoid when it's easy to do and not when you have too.
  • Ivylog's avatar
    Ivylog
    Explorer III
    I had similar but pushing the rocker switch 5-6 times would usually get them to extend or retract... was all three hydraulic slides. Recently went underneath the steps and found a corridor-ed contact on the solenoid (on your picture it's one of the small wires where the three big red ones come together). I would start by cleaning all the contacts and plugs you can get to including the inline fuses.
  • donn0128 wrote:
    Dead spot on the motor. You need to check first for voltage when you attempt to open and close.


    Spot on. Wish it had happened to us in Mexico, they could repair the motor down here. NOB it's not worth the cost of having that done.
  • Dead spot on the motor. You need to check first for voltage when you attempt to open and close.
  • Had that exact problem years ago in the Yukon. It turned out to be the pump motor which had to be replaced as a unit, including the reservoir! Not the individual lines and valves though.

    You can follow the entire story on our blog

    You'll have to scroll down to the last entry for the beginning of the episode. For the rest, select WHITEHORSE in the the July 2010 entry (on the left of the screen.

    Ha! Just looked at your profile. No wonder I recognised the HWH model. We have closely related rigs.