High Voltage drop to slide motor

[RasMouSein]

Good day folk 🙂

I just purchased a 2017 Sportman Classic 181BH.
I noticed the slide felt "sluggish" like the motor is not getting proper juice.
Decided to do a test and by-pass existing wiring and check with booster cable strait to the battery.
I had just "un-plug" the converter .
Battery voltage is 13volts
When checking voltage at the motor with existing wire that goes all around the trailer to the switch and back. It showed 10.85 volts. More than 2 volt drop in the wires.
The battery voltage stayed the same.
Then I checked with booster cable #6 or 8, cheap kind 6' long
12.46volts !!!

13.0v at battery
10.85v at motor existing wire
12.45v at motor booster cable

It peaks at 14 amp in both scenarios.

Motor sounds better with booster cable.

Is this normal?
I'm thinking to add relays to remove a lot of the small wiring length.
And by doing so it should lengthen the life of the motor.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

[brulaz]

RasMouSein wrote:

...
Trotsky !!! hahaha Had to google him. No Jail here, but Dorchester is near, and near the Capital, Fredericton, they had a concentration camp for jews...

Ouch, "concentration" camp is harsh, although it wasn't a very pleasant place. Think the Nazis have a near monopoly on that term.

Here's an article on "Internment Camp B70":
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/03/internment_camp_for_jews_in_second_world_war_a_little...

[wa8yxm]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I have looked at many a slideout electric systems. Never ever ever have I seen one done even remotely correct. Jaysus H Criminy! A 20 amp rocker switch for a motor that draws 33 amps?

THank you MEX.. I tried feeding my slideout motor from a 25 amp fused circuit. Turned fuse into a flashbulb.. NOW I know way

Wires are 40 amp (25 amp was chosen for other reasons) so I guess I can "Upgrade" a bit.

[RasMouSein]

Me too, happened to me as well.
I was wrong on once bit I was mistaken!!! Hahaha

[RJsfishin]

Quote:
, maybe I should wait till the battery stabilize to 12.7v to do a proper test.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In reality, there will be (and you should have seen) more of a voltage drop w/ the battery standing at a surface charge of 13+ volts, than if standing at the true 12.7-8.

[BFL13]

Or more likely the Trimetric shunt does not show all that it should because all the negs do not pass through it like they are supposed to?

Dieppe had a POW camp in WW1 for Germans. Trotsky was put in there for a time after leaving New York IIRC.

This says the camp was in Amherst. Guess I had that wrong.
http://ns1758.ca/quote/trotsky1917.html

[RasMouSein]

@wa8yxm, Thanks for the idea, I did not look to close in that mater yet, but I believe there is a limiter in the gear... but your idea might be better than the original system. Which usually isn't to hard to beat hehe

@BLF13, Well it don't, and the converter was un-plugged(1-2 minutes), maybe I should wait till the battery stabilize to 12.7v to do a proper test.
Maybe 14 amps is not much for my bank.
But either way, the voltage difference between the existing wire and the booster cables was still 1.6v. I could "easily" remove that drop.
Yes they are big !!! 120lbs each!! Way over-kill!! I had a deal on them.
https://www.solar-electric.com/lib/wind-sun/Crown-CR-215-specs.pdf
Here beside a Honda EU-2000i

Click For Full-Size Image.

I have yet to dry-camp, but i'm confident I'll have juice!!! I can't escape for the next 3 weeks ggggrrrrrr.

Trotsky !!! hahaha Had to google him. No Jail here, but Dorchester is near, and near the Capital, Fredericton, they had a concentration camp for jews...

[BFL13]

RasMouSein wrote:
Yup the voltage at the battery stayed the same,The bank is 430amp/h 2x 12v wet cell.

And the size of my trailer I'm everywere all the time !!! Hahah

The trimetric stayed at 13v during the test. While I had my Multimeter at the motor.

My switch is rated 40amp.
But I will need to check voltage on that one...

It looks like I will go to relays tho.
Even with perfect connection a voltage drop calculator still shows 1.5v drop in that length of #10.

I am having trouble understanding this. My Trimetric shows battery voltage and that always drops a bit whenever there is a load such as the furnace coming on. Same with the slide moving, same with the inverter when it draws 12v from running any 120v loads.

IMO there is just no way the Tri stayed at 13v (which is already higher than a full battery at 12.7) Was shore power still connected and your converter was in on this?

BTW what kind of 12v batteries do you have? Two making 430AH--they must be big!

BTW again--ISTR Dieppe NB is where they kept Trotsky for a while. Unfortunately they let him go 😞 .

[wa8yxm]

RasMouSein wrote:
@ time2roll

Use of 2 dpdt relays
Something like this would work.


Click For Full-Size Image.

It is looking like the controller for my slide out is ...toast.

possible the motor too but the tech is due out like tomorrow to test that (Should have earlier but alas)

I told her I could design a control system that was a bit more manual but retained the safety interlocks... Alas, you beat me to it, (My design is identical to yours

One change I will suggest.

On each relay, a MICROSWITCH, that will open when the slide is either FULLY OUT (for that relay) or FULLY IN for hte other (AKA Limit switches)

All Electronics (dot com) has all the parts near as I can tell for less than 50 bucks total. Which means it would NOT qualify for free shiping. (Not a problem. I can always find other good Junque there).

[RasMouSein]

Yup the voltage at the battery stayed the same,The bank is 430amp/h 2x 12v wet cell.

And the size of my trailer I'm everywere all the time !!! Hahah

The trimetric stayed at 13v during the test. While I had my Multimeter at the motor.

My switch is rated 40amp.
But I will need to check voltage on that one...

It looks like I will go to relays tho.
Even with perfect connection a voltage drop calculator still shows 1.5v drop in that length of #10.

[BFL13]

RJsfishin wrote:
I thought the subject was voltage reading under load at the motor,.......a whole bunch different than battery voltage !

Is the voltage drop different at the load from at the battery? I can see how the voltages might be slightly different to start with although no current is flowing, ? but then would each end not drop by the same amount with current flowing?

One guy can't be in two places at once, so OP does not give voltage drop at the battery or what the motor voltage was before running it.

Another thing is that the voltage sag at the battery (and the motor) also depends on the battery bank--more AH less sag, and less sag with 12v vs 6v and even less with AGMs. So it is not just the wiring.

OP said:
"When checking voltage at the motor with existing wire that goes all around the trailer to the switch and back. It showed 10.85 volts. More than 2 volt drop in the wires.
The battery voltage stayed the same.
Then I checked with booster cable #6 or 8, cheap kind 6' long
12.46volts !!!

13.0v at battery
10.85v at motor existing wire
12.45v at motor booster cable"

I don't see how the battery voltage could have stayed the same.

[RJsfishin]

I thought the subject was voltage reading under load at the motor,.......a whole bunch different than battery voltage !

[BFL13]

I just tried ours out-- one big slide in our 5er, 13ft wide approx. Lippert electric slide. 30a battery fuse as specified by Lippert.

Used Trimetric monitor for voltage and amps at the battery bank. Was on shore power, so turned that off, knocked down surface charge with kettle on inverter, turned that off, now sitting at 12.6 volts with the slide in the out position.

The slide motor is close to the back of the trailer and the four batts are up front with the in/out switch about half way.

Bring slide in up over the hump--Voltage dropped from 12.6 to 12.2 and held. Ran it out again and switched Tri to amps. Bring slide in and see approx. 25 amps coming up over the hump, then settles to approx. 15 amps the rest of the way in along the flat part.

Ran slide out again, about 14 amps going out then rose to 18 amps going down over the hump and to its stops.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

ECHO

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I have looked at many a slideout electric systems. Never ever ever have I seen one done even remotely correct. Jaysus H Criminy! A 20 amp rocker switch for a motor that draws 33 amps?

There are some wonderful suggestions in this thread. But lose the original rocker switch and replace it with a genuine Cole-Hersee switch. Identical fit. Ten thousand times more reliable. Use relays. eBay. Genuine TYCO.

Freakin' manufacturers will kill over a lost nickel. It is doubtful the men who built your rig attended 6th grade and that is no joke.