Slide won't retract: 2004 Imperial Holiday Rambler

[davehultin]

Hi all, real-time help needed! We're camping with my father-in-law and he can't get on the road because the slide on his 2004 Imperial Holiday Rambler won't retract. I'm looking for real-time help so he can get on the road.

Here's what I know so far:

The slide on the back works but neither of the front slides work. (One on each side, the passenger side is retracted and won't extend, and the one on the driver side is extended but won't retract.)

The relevant fuses appear to be good.

We manually held all of the switches on the storage bay doors on the drivers side to make sure they weren't interrupting the circuit.

The generator and the vehicle itself started so the batteries seem to be OK. And the slides didn't behave any differently when the vehicle was running.

My father-in-law has lots of "farmer smarts" and can fix anything, but so far we haven't been able to figure this one out.

Any ideas?

[Rick_Jay]

Dave,

ON EDIT: I just read the manual provided by Doug. (Thanks, Doug! 🙂 ) Interestingly, it does not show a manual retraction method for the front slide of the motorhome, only the rear slide. For the front slide it states (page 218):

If the Slide Room Fails to Operate:
Check the fuse and auto-reset circuit breaker on the slide-out relay module located in the curbside rear electrical compartment. If the fuses and circuit breakers test okay, it will be necessary to call and obtain mechanical assistance to correct the problem.

That's interesting. There must be some way of doing it, but perhaps the manufacturer thought it was too complex or hazardous for the average RV owner to do.

In looking through the manual, your slides are different than mine and the controllers seem to be as well. But IF the controllers came from the same manufacturer, there could be similarities with failure modes.

It could just be a bad ground to the controllers. When I was troubleshooting mine, I found the slide controller ground wire screw loose on the ground bus it was connected to. Upon inspection, the insulation looked burnt. When I stripped away some of the insulation, the copper was burnt about 6" up the wire, so that wire, I'm guessing, had been loose for some time and I believe that explains why our front slide sometimes seemed to really struggle when closing.

BUT...I also had an issue with the controller. As I mentioned, the soldering looked like it had been done by a second grader, and that is probably an insult to second graders. With this issue, the slide wouldn't move. Like it wasn't getting any power, because, well, it wasn't. Since we were on the road I just did the usual "bad connection" maneuver and moderately slammed the controller against the kitchen counter and reinstalled it. It worked, and I was able to bring the slide in. I had to use that trick a couple of times on that trip. Since I wasn't sure if it was a bad solder joint or bad relays, I replaced the relays and resoldered the entire board. NOTE: I also ordered a new "replacement" controller. But the replacement came as a potted assembly, meaning there was epoxy poured all over the board & components so it couldn't be worked on. As it turns out, when I connected it to our rig, the slides didn't work, so either that one was bad or it was the wrong unit.

Well, hopefully the mobile tech will be able to quickly figure out the problem. Please share the solution on this thread so others with a similar rig might be able to use the info. 🙂

Good Luck,

~Rick

[davehultin]

Rick Jay wrote:
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. ...

Here's more information that didn't make the original post (because my father-in-law decided to head home with us by that time): The rear slide stopped working too. Hmm. :h

But I think you're on to something. One of the last panels he opened revealed what I believe to be the control units you mentioned. I noticed them and thought I'd give each one a solid push to make sure it was seated properly. When I did, I heard a gentle "crackling" sound. I never once thought anything was breaking, but I thought that perhaps it was the sound of something loose (like several pins that I didn't see) clicking into place. I don't remember if that was before or after the back slide stopped working.

Another thing that happened (before the back slide stopped working, I think) is that my father-in-law pulled out the tray with all the batteries to check connections there, and one of the wires simply fell apart when it was moved, looking as if a knife sliced all the way through it. (Battery acid burned through it, I suspect?) We fixed that with some crimp connectors, but that didn't seem to change anything. By that time, we didn't test things as completely as we normally would have, because there were two wives that were approaching the end of their "patience allotment".

As it stands now, the mobile tech is scheduled to arrive on Monday. I bet he'll find it has something to do with those control units you mentioned.

[dougrainer]

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


Page 216 and up. Doug

[wa8yxm]

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

[Rick_Jay]

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

[CA_Traveler]

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

[davehultin]

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. 😐

[CA_Traveler]

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

[CA_Traveler]

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.

[CA_Traveler]

Try a mobile tech.

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

[davehultin]

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.

[CA_Traveler]

Is the rear slide electric and the front ones hydraulic?