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knovak's avatar
knovak
Explorer
Jul 03, 2013

Electric Slide Issues

We have a 2003 Starcraft TravelStar 21SSO. Bought is used at the end of last summer.

Our slide is not working. We were camping this past weekend in less than ideal conditions (rain and lots of mud, not electric other than the battery) and had the slide out. I hand cranked it out and hand cranked it back in. Only used the electric to make sure it was tight before we pulled out. It worked fine.

Today I went to load the camper and needed to put the slide out. Hit the slide button above the fridge and nothing. I hand cranked it back out.

Hubby came home. Fuse is fine. Used the test light (or whatever it is to check). Not getting juice at the switch. No juice at the motor under the couch. Then we find out that the lights in the slide above the table and couch are also not working.

Could it be moisture? We dealt with a lot of mud pulling out but did hose the camper off when we came home. Did we get too much mud under the camper?

Any ideas of where to start.

Thanks in advance.

15 Replies

  • Thanks epeters and all others who have replied.

    The more I have been thinking about it, the more I think this is the problem. We unhooked the battery so that it wouldn't run down with all the little stuff running.

    Can't wait to see if this is the solution. I just want to get out of here and start the holiday, so I will wait to see if it works when we get to the campground.

    We bought our camper used. The owner's manual doesn't really tell you much.
  • We have a unit made by Starcraft. If it is like ours, the slide is directly wired to the battery. Our slide stopped working last year and it turned out there was just enough corrosion on the battery terminals to keep the motor from running. Lights in the trailer all worked fine etc. We did a lot of work on the wiring, the switch, the converter and even took the slide motor apart and re-lubed it. Nothing worked until I cleaned the battery terminals.

    Check those first! The slide motor does need a fair amount of Amps, and best I can figure, they wired it straight to the battery so that if something were ever to go wrong with the converter, you could still operate the slide.
  • Fridge is working. All other lights are working. Not hooked up to water at the moment.

    We are plugged into the house right now. The slide has worked other times being plugged into the house.

    All ideas are appreciated that this point. Heading out for the weekend and I can at least hand crank it until we get home and either fix it or take it somewhere.
  • You need to check your battery. You need a full (or nearly full) charge for the slides to work.
  • are the other lights, water pump and other 12v items in the trailer working?
    is the battery charged fully?