Bedroom slide breaking shear pins

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

I have a 2005 GB cruise air with 3 slides. Livingroom, kitchen and bedroom.

When bringing in the slides I hold down two switches. When the slide is completely in or out it stops automatically and I let go of the switches. All three slides operate in this manner.

Awhile ago I brought in the bedroom slide and when it reached its limit instead of stopping it sheared the pin. First time in 10 years. Thinking it was an obstruction I had it checked, all good. Replaced the pin (not an easy task as it’s behind the motor). This worked for approx 10 in and outs and once again I sheared the pin. My dad watch the motor that drives the rod and gears as it came in and when it gets to the full out or in position he could actually see it torque.

If I carefully bring in the slid and stop it just prior to it reaching its limit I save the shear pin. But if I don’t stop it quickly enough I break the pin.

This is a picture of the slide out controller. There are two. I’m assuming 1 operates 2 slides the other 1 slide. (There was a 4 slide option on this MH)



I contacted the company who makes this part and they say it does not control the stopping of the slide. That the motor does using a thermal break.

Now I’m really confused because my RV person said this module controls the stopping using current.

Any ideas?
Doug Rainer?

[enblethen]

I believe that slide is not operating smoothly and is getting wedged when the first (blue) shear pin fails, then second one fails.

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

dougrainer wrote:
I would order the pins from this source. Doug

http://www.rbwstore.com/Georgie-Boy_c_14-3.html

http://www.rbwstore.com/Slide-Outs_c_4.html

http://www.rbwstore.com/U-18A-316-Roll-Pin-X-1_p_362.html

Thanks for the links. Hopefully they deliver to Canada. I will order some.

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

Doug.
Sorry, I was just talking to my dad who has helped me fix this a few times. We actually shear 2 pins The shear pin in the far left (none motor side) shears first and then the one on the motor side shears second. If I hear the one on the left shear and replace it right away all is good. If I don’t hear it the right motor one shears soon after and that’s when the slide quits moving.

I have attached the drawings I found that closely resembles my bedroom slide set up. I can take pic next time I’m under the bed and remove all the floor covers.




Blue circle is the first shear pin to break. Red arrow is where the second one is.

[dougrainer]

I would order the pins from this source. Doug

http://www.rbwstore.com/Georgie-Boy_c_14-3.html

http://www.rbwstore.com/Slide-Outs_c_4.html

http://www.rbwstore.com/U-18A-316-Roll-Pin-X-1_p_362.html

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

dougrainer wrote:
This is what I posted to you on a private message. Doug
There are 2 types. A Shear PIN and a Shear BOLT. BOTH have to be hardened steel. The Bolt has to have a non threaded shaft that engages the motor shaft and gear. The Shear PIN, must be steel with the strength to handle the force of the drive. If they use standard Pins, they will shear off. The design is, when the room is fully extended or retracted, the Shear Pin will handle the stress. But, yes, it is best to monitor your operation and STOP the second the room is fully extended or retracted. Does your motor/trans assbly make the Ratchet noise when fully extended or retracted?
Now, I don't understand why some seem to insist that the controller has some type of limit. Some do and some DON'T. The ones that do usually have an adjustment POT on the board with an access hole to adjust it. MOST slide rooms have either a Mechanical STOP or a Rachet clutch in the Motor/Transmission to keep from over torqueing the system and shearing off pins and bolts. Another thing that shears bolts and pins is, if you have ANY slop when installing the bolt or shear pin, that will cause a Shear action to cut the pin/bolt. Can you post a pic of the Motor/drive where the shear pin is located? Doug

I have tried two types of pins from the dealer. Roll style and solid. I had a piece of the one that came out and they matched them. The original was a roll type. Both types have failed.
There is no ratchet sound. My dads 5th wheel does that when he puts the slide out.
My MH slides have always just stopped when fully in or out. I have never had to baby them in or out. As soon as I hear them seal I let go of the switches.
So far we have found no mechanical stop. The MH is level when we have installed the pins.
The pin that shears is to the right of the motor. There is a black steel shield covering the gear. I have to unbolt the motor and cover from the rail and slide it out of the gear to see the pin. There is a second pin on the far left shaft, that shears as well. There is another pin right at the gear that has never sheared. I can get a picture of the motor placement but would have to unbolt everything to get one of the actual pin.
I will try and find a picture of it in my documentation.
It really seemed that prior to this the motor stops on its own as soon as the slide seal seat. My other 2 slides seem to do the same thing.
Thanks Doug.

[dougrainer]

This is what I posted to you on a private message. Doug
There are 2 types. A Shear PIN and a Shear BOLT. BOTH have to be hardened steel. The Bolt has to have a non threaded shaft that engages the motor shaft and gear. The Shear PIN, must be steel with the strength to handle the force of the drive. If they use standard Pins, they will shear off. The design is, when the room is fully extended or retracted, the Shear Pin will handle the stress. But, yes, it is best to monitor your operation and STOP the second the room is fully extended or retracted. Does your motor/trans assbly make the Ratchet noise when fully extended or retracted?
Now, I don't understand why some seem to insist that the controller has some type of limit. Some do and some DON'T. The ones that do usually have an adjustment POT on the board with an access hole to adjust it. MOST slide rooms have either a Mechanical STOP or a Rachet clutch in the Motor/Transmission to keep from over torqueing the system and shearing off pins and bolts. Another thing that shears bolts and pins is, if you have ANY slop when installing the bolt or shear pin, that will cause a Shear action to cut the pin/bolt. Can you post a pic of the Motor/drive where the shear pin is located? Doug

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

Thanks for all the info Ruck. Looking forward to finding out if this controller has a current sensor.

[Rick_Jay]

I have that same control module on our dual slide GBM motorhome. If you made it this far without that module acting up, you're doing well. Mine started acting up after about the 3rd year of ownership, but part of that was because the GBM techs didn't adequately tighten the ground connections for the module and about 6 inchs of the copper ground wire charred up.

Then, a couple of the relays started becoming intermittent. When I went to replace them, the printed circuit board looked like it had been soldered by a complete newbie to a soldering iron. I replaced all of the relays and resoldered every connection, PLUS cleaned up all of the wires at the connectors. It's been working great for about the last 8 or 9 years, and just the other day started acting up. I think it's another cold solder joint issue 'cause when I slam the controller, it worked.

Now, as far as it having a current sensor, I AM and electrical engineer and if it doesn't have one, I would be very, very surprised. The system acts EXACTLY as if that module senses over-current conditions when the motor begins to load down. When the slide motor reaches the end of it's travel, the motor starts slowing down and the relay in the module cuts off the power. I've NEVER broken a shear pin on one of my slide motors. (I have had a mounting boss on one of the motors break off...because the tech at GBM mounted it with a screw that was too long and bottomed out in the boss...but I digress! 🙂 )

I ordered one of their "replacement" modules before I tried to fix mine, but while waiting for it to arrive, I got mine working, so I just put their replacement away. Well, just for ha-ha's a couple of years ago, I tried connecting it to see if it would work. NOTHING! And the replacement is a potted assembly so you can't tamper with it. Grrrr!!! Oh well, I ate that expense.

I'll try to pull my controller out this weekend and take a closer look at the components on it, but I'm pretty sure it DOES sense current load. I'll verify that it has the circuity in it this weekend.

As for the people who designed that controller? I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw 'em. My plan for this winter is to replace my aging controller module with a little 12VDC PLC.

Not sure if ANY of this helps, but I DO think that module should disconnect the power to the motor when the motor reaches the end of its travel BEFORE any pins break. Of course, it is possible the wrong grade shear pins have been installed. Then I guess you would experience broken pins before the module cuts off the power.

Oh, I almost forgot...did you say you have to push two buttons to operate each slide? The motors on our motorhome have electric brakes on the shaft of each motor. Our control panel has one switch for IN/OUT and one for BRAKE RELEASE (or some such) for each slide. You should only have to press the brake release button when you try to crank in the slides manually. It will release the brake so cranking can be done more easily. The brake SHOULD release automatically by the controller when you extend/retract the slide with the IN/OUT switch.

At least, I'm pretty sure that's how they worked. Give me to the weekend to take a closer look and refresh my memory a bit.

Good Luck,

~Rick

[J-Rooster]

DSP; I don’t believe that I can help you! But I did break a shear pin one time in 2003 I was retracting my slide out in my 1999 Fleetwood and the slide out roller went over a small thin children’s book. I was going up that steep hill just before you get to Yosemite and my slide out extended out when I went around a corner. I didn’t have my slide out lock in place. After locking the slide into place I went to a RV repair shop and got the shear pin replaced. The RV Mechanic told me that the slide out has to be perfectly level with no obstructions in the way of the rollers, rollers free from debris and no binding in the slides (alignment). Good Luck, Rooster

[fairway2002]

signal probably just control switches after looking closer

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

fairway2002 wrote:
If I was trouble shooting. I would start with the plug marked signal. Maybe a open and closed sw. with using the body as a ground. Should be an easy test.

Good Luck

Our next step was to check the control module wiring. But before doing so I contacted the manufacturer American Technology and they are saying that there is nothing built into their controller that limits or stops the slide. They thought it might be a switch in the motor but as far as we can see the only thing on the motor is the brake. Odd though because other controllers similar to mine say dual slideout current controller. They look very similar to mine.

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

enblethen wrote:
Does your shear pins look like these Roll pin
RBW indicates that you have a Brake motor. This could be coming on for some reason while the slide is still moving in.

I have tried two types of shear pins. The roll type and the solid type. Both have failed.

I had to remove the motor to replace the pin so we bench tested the brake. It comes on and off as specified. When you press the override button on the control panel you can hear the click of the brake release.

Great ideas though. Thanks for responding.

As you can see we have investigated many things and are still stumped. Being careful not to hit the limit when we are putting it in and out works but there must be something we are missing. I can use it this way but would like it to work correctly. Frustrating to say the least.

[fairway2002]

If I was trouble shooting. I would start with the plug marked signal. Maybe a open and closed sw. with using the body as a ground. Should be an easy test.

Good Luck

[enblethen]

Does your shear pins look like these Roll pin
RBW indicates that you have a Brake motor. This could be coming on for some reason while the slide is still moving in.

[Diplomat_St_Poo]

enblethen wrote:
I would look to see if the slide(s) are not adjusted correctly. When they get nearly closed the systems jambs up and breaks the shear pins.
You need to locate the make and model of the slide mechanism.

The slide goes in and out very easily. When the shear pin breaks I can push it without much difficulty. It has no gaps showing on the outside of the MH when it is in.

I did some measurements and both side seem even.

I think the slides were made by RBW Industries but there is nothing on them that says that. Just going by what I have seen on other forums.

Nothing seems obvious except it doesn’t stop when it gets to the end. The other 2 slides work fine. This one did as well till now.