Slide won't retract: 2004 Imperial Holiday Rambler

Is the rear slide electric and the front ones hydraulic?

All are electric.

We left the motorhome in the campground and brought them home with us, we now have time to figure out the details.

Try a mobile tech.

There is a tremendous amount of knowledge on the ramblinpushers forum, so suggest you go there.

As far as I know there are manual procedures for retracting the slides. This should be documented in the user manual or a good mobile tech can help, Depending upon what is done it may be necessary to block the slide closed from the inside with wood bracing for example so that it can be driven for repairs.

Also Monaco bought HR and by 2004 HR was another Monaco model and hence Monaco is another source of knowledge.

Thanks for the suggestions. We're in the middle part of the story now and my father-in-law is waiting for a tech to come to the campground to check it out (hopefully in the next day or so), so we'll see what happens after the tech takes a look at it.

I feel so bad for him. He's 80 years old but has never let age (or mechanical problems!) keep him from joining us on trips. This time, though, he seemed pretty defeated and I'm sure it's really bugging him. The first part of the story is that on the way to the campground we pulled over on an exit to grab some sandwiches, which is where he discovered a fuel line had wiggled off. Thank goodness we "just happened" to stop before it became a much bigger issue. He tried calling Roadside Assistance but they couldn't line up a mobile tech or a tow on the weekend so they stayed in their motorhome on the exit ramp overnight, about an hour away from the campground. Like I said in the original post, he can fix anything, so by morning he had done enough tinkering to get it running again and they joined us in the campground.

So with the slide still stuck in the extended position, yesterday ended with them coming back home with us in our tow vehicle and another family member meeting them at our home to get them the rest of the wait to their home, and with a call in to a tech in the area where the camper is at to take it from there. When they get the all-clear they'll make the 400-mile journey to retrieve their motorhome.

There are many family conversations of "updated smaller motorhome" starting up, I have a feeling this story has a ways to go before the final chapter is written. :-|

Thanks for the update and hopefully they'll be back on the road soon. :)

Hi,

At this point, this may or may not help you, but I'll share it anyway.

I know nothing about this motorhome, but our motorhome is about the same vintage and has dual electric slides with a single slide controller box. At the time, GBM did make a three slide floorplan and it had two (identical) slide controller boxes, as the controller could only do 2 slides per box.

If yours is wired similarly, it's possible the front two slides are on one control unit and the third slide is on a separate unit. Since your rear slide works, that controller is functional. IF it's the same as the front slide controller, you might try swapping controller boxes to see if you can retract the front slide. (By the way, we had slide controller issues on ours after the first few years of ownership. The original soldering was terrible, and while it was out, I replaced a the relays as well. For what it's worth, our slide controller was located on the floor behind the AC breaker panel and interior DC fuse panel.)

Even if the above is not helpful, there SHOULD be a manual retraction method outlined in the owner's manual. Or do a search online. You might have to release an electro-mechanical brake before manual operation can be done. Again, search around to see what you can find for that specific RV.

I feel for your father-in-law, my uncle went through something similar as old-age set in. I was able to keep him camping as long as possible, doing most maintenance and even driving the rig for him to the campground, but eventually he had to call it quits. I know that day will be in my future too. The age of 80 is only 17 years away for me!!! Hard to believe I'm that freakin' old! LOL

Good Luck,

~Rick

I will say this .. There are basically 4 kinds of slide outs that I knwo and on 3 of them I an help you with manual operation. (Alas Id don't knwo the 4th at all)

But I have to know
Hydraulic (HWH)
Rack and pinon (Power gear)
Cable operated (Accuslide)
Or the other one (Swinteck ifI spelled it right)

The first 3 it's fairly easy though you may need more than one person to do it.

I've done all of the first 3

https://www.holidayrambler.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/08/2004_Imperial.pdf


Page 216 and up. Doug