New battery, slideout won't work

[sacmarata]

Went camping over the weekend. Lights and slideout all worked but the electric jack quit working. Used my manual crank and figured I would get a new battery upon returning home. the old one was dated 2008, so it had outlived it's expectancy.

Well, I get home and now the slidout wont fully extend either. Almost, but no cigar. No biggie, I knew it was likely the battery so I put the jumper cables on the camper battery and the jack instantly worked. Didn’t even bother to check the slide out because I assumed from the jack suddenly working, that it was a battery problem. Hop in the truck, run to Walmart, get a brand new (July/2014) Deep Cycle 690 CCA battery and head back to the camper.

I get to the camper and hook up the new battery only to find that now the slide out won’t even make it half way out. Worse than before with the old 2008 battery. I check the jack to see if it’s getting juice and NO PROBLEM…jack works fine. Lights work fine as well. The slide out…not so much.

So, I assume the new battery must be weak but am perplexed because when we were camping, the slide out worked but not the jack, so you would think the jack takes more juice to operate…but now…the jack works and the slide out doesn’t. In fact, the slide out barely moves before giving out now. It does try, but doesn’t make it far.

So, just in case, I let the battery charge overnight through the camper charging system. Get up this morning, check the slide out…same results!

I have checked the slide out for any obstructions inside the camper and underneath. There is nothing binding or preventing the moving parts from moving. The camper is level.

I have one last theory to test, and that is:
I parked the camper further away from the house to give the grass a break. Because of this, I had to use my 25’ extension cord (first time ever on an extension cord). I verified that it’s getting juice and the breaker is on. The cord is rated adequately and I remember it cost an arm and a leg. However, my theory is that the extra length of cord is creating a degradation and unable to supply enough power for the slide out. This doesn’t make sense to me because I thought everything ran off the battery…but it’s the only theory I have left that I haven’t tested. I suppose, the new battery could have been strong enough to power the jack, but too weak to run the slide out because it came depleted off the shelf and the charging system in the camper has taken a******and not properly charging??? It’s a long shot but that’s all I got.

Keystone Cougar 294RLS
Nothing binding the slideout

HELP

[Old-Biscuit]

2oldman wrote:
Please read all the OPs posts.

:S

[2oldman]

Please read all the OPs posts.

[fpresto]

Take a car or truck, park it beside your trailer and using a good set of jumper cables jump straight to the slide motor. That will eliminate the trailer battery and wiring from the equation. A good battery jumper pack should also work well. If it works with the jumper check your ground connections. A loose or corroded ground can cause your issue.

[sacmarata]

tegu69 wrote:
Cool. Glad to here you got it. It always amazes me...check that, not so much anymore, what comes out of some of these manufacturers.
I wonder if the wire took your other battery down.

Good question. I didn't turn it in as core so I may try to rescue it.
The water was low enough to see the top plates. I'm hoping with some distilled water and a slow trickle charge I may salvage it and use it in my golf cart 🙂

[tegu69]

Cool. Glad to here you got it. It always amazes me...check that, not so much anymore, what comes out of some of these manufacturers.
I wonder if the wire took your other battery down.

[sacmarata]

Well, everything checked out fine with the volt meter. Battery holds under load and is charging fine.
So I struck bad battery/charger off the list.

Moved to looking further into something binding. Spent about an hour, manually cranking, shoving, leveling, checking seals, checking wires, cables, cords, slide rails, measuring, etc...
Nothing was binding or catching. Struck that off the list.

Moved to the motor itself...
Upon inspecting the motor before taking it out I noticed the battery wires were tightly wrapped around the motor making it hard to get to the mounting bolts. I also noticed that the wires were wrapped tightly around the end of the shaft where you would mannually crank it!!! There is a keeper pin in the end of the same shaft and it's a miracle the wire had not got tangled in it and rolled up in it (and ripped out.)

So I'm sitting here thinking about what an idiotic way that was to route a wire because sooner or later it would A) catch the keeper pin and rip the wire out or B) the spinning shaft would wear into the wire.
I figured option B would take quite a while because of the slow speed of the shaft and the fact that slidouts dont get run in and out alot...but I would definitely reroute it in a more practical area.

As I could see no damage I assumed those were dodged bullets and continued to assume the brushes in the motor were bad, so I proceed to take the motor out and VIOLA! Once out the battery wires unwrapped and now hung loose and there was a worn spot over an inch long in the hot wire right were it was wrapped around the shaft!

It would be like running the brake lights to your truck around your drive shaft to keep em from dangling. GENIUS!!!

The sad part is that this was routed this way from the factory. It was wrapped around the motor and shaft very tightly and zip tied in place even.

I can only assume that the genius at the factory thought that the shaft spun at such slow RPM that it wouldn't wear into the wire. Either that or they knew it would, but would take a long time and they would get service fees for fixing it years down the road!

Anyways, lesson learned. These camper manufacturers are light years from being up to ISO 9000 quality standards or even shade tree mechanic standards.

I patched the wire up and used heavy zip ties on the frame rails to keep the wires from dangling. Works like a champ now 🙂

[tegu69]

OK, so the jack works now and the slide works going in, but not out so well. I just don't see that being a battery problem. You are hooked to shore power, so it should be charging the battery. I don't know what type of slide you have but it just sounds like something binding or stuck. On my slide, I think I have a design flaw, where the power wires tend to circle the grey water valve when the slide is in and then tend to grab something (like valve) on way out.

[sacmarata]

bshpilot wrote:
most shelf batteries have minimal charge - lord only knows how long that battery was sitting on the shelf before you bought it.

when in storage use a maintainer - the battery(s) will last YEARS longer.
I've never seen a slide that ran off of 120vac - usually theyre 12vdc.

The shipped date on the battery was 07/14 so it hasn't sat on the Walmart shelf long but who knows how long it was at the manufacturers. I can only guess it wasn't long.

Anyone know what the camper charging system runs at? 2amp? 6 amp?
Also, does anyone know if the 2005 Keystone Cougar RLS has overcharge protection?

[sacmarata]

tegu69 wrote:
In reading your post, it sounds like the slide goes in, but not out. Inferring that from what you said about it going almost fully out and then later only part way out. I was wondering if it went all the way in evenly or not.

It runs in easier than out. It struggles to get 1/4 way out but slides back in relatively easy.
I actually wondered if my slide out awning was binding somehow. I need to get up there and check it out. Can't imagine that being the problem, but without an extra set of hands with the volt meter, it's all I got right now.

Strange though, if the battery is indeed bad off the shelf, which I know happens, why is there suddenly enough power to run the electric jack that quit working but not enough for slide?

The whole thing doesn't add up. Can't wait to get the volt meter on the thing.

[tegu69]

In reading your post, it sounds like the slide goes in, but not out. Inferring that from what you said about it going almost fully out and then later only part way out. I was wondering if it went all the way in evenly or not.

[bshpilot]

most shelf batteries have minimal charge - lord only knows how long that battery was sitting on the shelf before you bought it.

when in storage use a maintainer - the battery(s) will last YEARS longer.
I've never seen a slide that ran off of 120vac - usually theyre 12vdc.

[sacmarata]

I have and know how to use a volt meter, just only have two sets of hands and no helper till later tonight.

All wires are hooked correctly. I've farmed my whole life and am my own mechanic but hey, it never hurts to ask yourself the simple questions cos even with my experience I've hooked a battery backwards before. It was covered in pollen and dark under the hood, but it happens 🙂

I'll check with meter tonight. I was just hoping to hear someone give one of those "happens every time" answers thats model specific; similar to Camreal's answer. Thanks btw, I'll double check the slack in the cables.

I'm not assuming the brand new battery is good. Last year I bought a Walmart Everstart right off the shelf that was DED DED DED!

Until I get an extra set of hands I'm only playing the trial and error game.

Still, it's funy that the jack started working and the slide out quit.

[Camreal]

Not sure where your cables are located but on my Keystone they where under the couch area and were binding against each other preventing the slide from going out all the way.
Adjustment was fairly easy to get the slack out of the cables.

[RoyB]

Every time I read someone has just changed out the battery and are having strange events I always think the battery terminals might be installed wrong.

Find the words "NEG" or the SYMBOL "-" stamped on the new battery case and make sure this is the terminal that goes to the trailer FRAME GROUND connection point.

If the battery is connected wrong or perhaps you sparked the cables when installed may be an in-line fuse close the battery or two fuses in DC Power Distribution Panel marked REVERSED POLARITY may be blown. With these fuses blown then the charging DC Voltages from the on-board converter will not have a direct path the battery due to the blown fuses.

Having a inexpensive multimeter on hand is almost a must have items for us RV'ers. They only cost $7-$25 available from LOWES-WALMART-Any number of autoparts stores, and AMAZON...

Most definitely pick one of these up for you RV TOOL Box... Will take care of all the guessing what may be wrong. i.e. A fully charged battery will read 12.6-7VDC at its terminals without shore power turned on. When you connect up to shore power this DC VOLTAGE should jump to 13.6VDC telling you the on-board converter, fuses, and batteries are all connected properly.


Roy Ken