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 13voltsWhen 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' long12.46volts !!! 13.0v at battery10.85v at motor existing wire12.45v at motor booster cableIt 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?

Before such heroics, I would suggest doing some probing around to see where the voltage drop is occurring if you can. It's probably easiest with two people. Put your multimeter on the lowest DC voltage range you can, and measure across or between various connections on the positive and ground paths while running the motor. As a start, if you can, measure the drop along the positive path (the battery positive terminal to the motor positive terminal) with the motor running, and compare that to the same on the negative side: are they about equal? If one is 1.5V and the other 0.5V, for instance, you probably have a poor connection somewhere along the 1.5V side. Checking various points along that side should show where it lies.This likely isn't your problem, but I used to have a house battery (since replaced) that had a poor connection with unacceptably high resistance in the battery terminal between the battery post terminal and the threaded stud terminal.

No, that is not normal.I would start following the line to look for major drop.Make sure you check both the ground and the positive.You could start by connecting jumper cable and use it as a test lead from meter.

2017 Sportman Classic 181BH.NOT IN Warraty?Afraid of dealer?

How large is the existing wire? You need to decide if pulling new wire is worth the effort to you.

My fifth wheel setup has a slide out as well and there is a couple of RELAYS mounted close to the battery and have cables going many feet away from the slide motor. This is what sends the 12VDC to slide motor when you operate the switch inside the trailer. I sometimes had to jumper my trailer battery with my truck jumper cables to make the slide motor work better... After looking around I found those connections for the long cables going to the slide motor were not tight and was getting hot on me... Cleaned up all of the connections and re-tightened every thing up and all is back to normal again...Roy Ken

High Voltage drop to slide motor | Good Sam Community

brulaz
Explorer
Jun 08, 2017
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_littleknown_piece_of_new_brunswick_history.html
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Jun 07, 2017
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
Explorer
Jun 07, 2017
Me too, happened to me as well.
I was wrong on once bit I was mistaken!!! Hahaha
RJsfishin
Explorer
Jun 07, 2017
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
Explorer II
Jun 07, 2017
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
Explorer
Jun 07, 2017
@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
Explorer II
Jun 07, 2017
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
Explorer III
Jun 06, 2017
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
Explorer
Jun 06, 2017
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
Explorer II
Jun 06, 2017
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.