slide won't retract

WE were told by Jayko that the motor rarely fails but the washer you showed does all they do is redo the conic portion and all is well again. We were not so lucky as the NUT that the shaft screws into free wheeled and had to be reset.

Just be careful and don't run in or out till the "clutch" slips.

tomman58 wrote:
Well here is the deal.
Jayco had 2 guys come out from a mobile mechanic place. They traveled 90 miles to get here in ft Stockton Tx.
They had to tear the entire unit out to fix a loose net that the motor spins to actuate the slide.
Jayco said you should not drive the slides till they click as it is hard on the clutch. The slide just uses a bellville washer that when the motor loads up slips and makes noise. Jayco said mark the floor or get good at stopped the slides before the clutch engages.
I've had jaycos since 1998 and this is news to me and I hope for you also.

Hi,

There are several type of slide drive systems. Do you know which brand slide drive you have?

I have a 2004 with the Lippert rack and pinion drive system. Mine has the Venture brand motor and clutch. On this unit it is suppose to trip the clutch on the way out. On the retract stroke the motor stalls, and you let your finger off.

I have asked both Venture who makes the motor drive and Lippert who make the ACME screw drive and they both stated this "vintage" is suppose to do this.

Here are some pics of the motor drive clutch


This is the clutch. The star plate is held engaged by 2 bellville springs.


The star plate


The bellville springs


Here is a progression of how the clutch trips (ratchets)

Star plate engaged in housing pockets


When the drive shaft load reaches the spring tension setting, the star plate starts to come out of the housing pockets


Now it is completely disengaged.


It was mentioned earlier to put the manual crank on and bring the slide in, Pending what type of slide drive you have, I express caution doing this unless you know 100% which direction to turn the crank.

The gear down ratio of a slide drive is immense. After a buddy of mine tore his slide actuator mounts off the camper with the hand crank, H'mm OK I need to figure this out. On this type of slide drive the manual crank turns the ACME screw directly, there is no clutch in this case. The clutch is for the motor drive. So you can put some major "uphm" into that ACME screw and tear the mounts apart.

I measured the torque required to retract my slide. The results where amazing. See here

Torque wrench on slide manual drive


And yes, you are seeing this correct. 25 in. lb. (2.08 ft lb) to is all that is needed to retract the slide.


If I start cracking with very much effort and develop 5 to 10 ft lb, still almost nothing, I can easily create 1,200# of push





Point: Make real sure you are turning the handle the right way and go slow and if nothing is moving, "stop"!

Hope you get your camper fixed up.

John

tomman58 wrote:
Well here is the deal.
Jayco had 2 guys come out from a mobile mechanic place. They traveled 90 miles to get here in ft Stockton Tx.
They had to tear the entire unit out to fix a loose net that the motor spins to actuate the slide.
Jayco said you should not drive the slides till they click as it is hard on the clutch. The slide just uses a bellville washer that when the motor loads up slips and makes noise. Jayco said mark the floor or get good at stopped the slides before the clutch engages.
I've had jaycos since 1998 and this is news to me and I hope for you also.

So basically a broken/worn out mechanical clutch?

I've heard that some slides have those, making a clicking sound when they reach their limits. My tongue jack has one too. But not any of my other motors.

Thanks for getting back to us. Sounds like all these slides should not be allowed to go to their full extent, in or out.

Well here is the deal.
Jayco had 2 guys come out from a mobile mechanic place. They traveled 90 miles to get here in ft Stockton Tx.
They had to tear the entire unit out to fix a loose net that the motor spins to actuate the slide.
Jayco said you should not drive the slides till they click as it is hard on the clutch. The slide just uses a bellville washer that when the motor loads up slips and makes noise. Jayco said mark the floor or get good at stopped the slides before the clutch engages.
I've had jaycos since 1998 and this is news to me and I hope for you also.

mailman01 wrote:
Northwood did tell me that this little device, the resettable breaker/fuse, did stop the slide on the out and inward movements. If the information presented in some of the earlier posts here saying that this fuse should not be the main "stopper" of the slide movement, then where is the breaker/switch that is supposed to do this? Northwood gave me no indication of a switch being located at any other place.

Well, it was easy to check my awning. When it reaches its max extent, the motor just "stalls", there's still current running through it, until you release the button.

I figured that's what was happening with my slide and stab jack motors as well. The Lippert Stab Jack tech support agreed, saying the resettable fuse was *not* used to stop the Stab Jack motors. They would just "stall" until you released the button.

But I never found out anything about the slide motor operation. I would like to check it with my ammeter, but now hesitate to run it up against the one remaining stop to see if it "stalls" or is switched off by those auto-reset breakers. Am afraid that powerful motor will break something again!!

mailman01 wrote:

I now always try and stop the slide just prior to its' maximum movement either in or out just to prevent the fuse from having to stop it. Sounds like there should be a better "mousetrap" for this operation.

That's what I now do as well and totally agree with you.

Northwood did tell me that this little device, the resettable breaker/fuse, did stop the slide on the out and inward movements. If the information presented in some of the earlier posts here saying that this fuse should not be the main "stopper" of the slide movement, then where is the breaker/switch that is supposed to do this? Northwood gave me no indication of a switch being located at any other place.

I now always try and stop the slide just prior to its' maximum movement either in or out just to prevent the fuse from having to stop it. Sounds like there should be a better "mousetrap" for this operation.

mailman01 wrote:
I had a similar issue when the slide failed to stop when extending outward and busted a little of the trim before my wife could release the button...don't know how far out it would have gone. But, after checking with Northwood, we decided the culprit was something called a "resettable fuse" that was not sensing the added voltage draw at the end of the slide extension and allowing the slide to continue to be pushed out.

I located this little fuse in a box beneath the bed, found another replacement, and now all works well. But each time the slide is either sent out or withdrawn I am VERY alert to watching for the "end of travel" positions and making certain it stops at the proper position.

This small "resettable fuse/breaker" can, and will, cause a fellow a lot of anxiety if it fails. It is located at different locations depending on the unit.

Arrrrrgh.

A whole bunch of people have convinced me that these "auto reset circuit breakers" are *not* used to control the slide motor, or should not be anyway.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28054680.cfm

But Northwood and Outdoors RV are closely related so ....

Guess I'll have to crawl under the trailer with my clamp-on ammeter and double check whether the motor stalls when it hits a stop, or the auto-reset circuit breaker cuts power to the motor.

I had a similar issue when the slide failed to stop when extending outward and busted a little of the trim before my wife could release the button...don't know how far out it would have gone. But, after checking with Northwood, we decided the culprit was something called a "resettable fuse" that was not sensing the added voltage draw at the end of the slide extension and allowing the slide to continue to be pushed out.

I located this little fuse in a box beneath the bed, found another replacement, and now all works well. But each time the slide is either sent out or withdrawn I am VERY alert to watching for the "end of travel" positions and making certain it stops at the proper position.

This small "resettable fuse/breaker" can, and will, cause a fellow a lot of anxiety if it fails. It is located at different locations depending on the unit.

Been wondering what makes for repeated shear pin breakage.

In our case, don't see any unusual binding in how the slide works. But the motor is very powerful and obviously doing a lot of work.

First thought we were doing too much stop-start, as we never had a slide before and were very cautious opening and closing it.

But now I think it's when the slide's welded-on stops hit the frame. The motor is so dam powerful, last time it not only popped the shear bolt (3rd one, grade 5), it busted off the welded-on stop (just a spot weld).

Now I'm extra careful. Just allowing the rubber gaskets around the slide opening to squeeze slightly before releasing the button. That leaves the remaining stop about 1/2" from the frame. The busted-off stop I'll just leave off and be careful;).

Once you get the side in, get the dealer to check out the whole thing.

I had this happen once to a trailer where the slide was misaligned and the other time to my motor home where the floor of the slide out had warped due to water damage. In both cases, the shear pin failed repeatedly.