PowerGear Slide-out issue

[3_tons]

I have a 2009 Eagle Cap 995 camper and the slide recently wouldn’t open, but would open later intermittently....It uses a PowerGear two rail rack and gear system, and after a lengthy close inspection, the only wires beneath the slide are the two wires that leave the motor, meaning that there are no limit switches or other associated electrical trappings related to the slide...

When I call Lippert Support (PowerGear), I’m am told that somewhere there should be an adjustable control module that tells the slide when to stop when going in or out, but try thoroughly as I might, evening using a remote camera probe, I’m unable to locate any such a device even after extensive inspection...

Another individual has suggested that there ‘may’ be a torque limiter of sorts on the motor that serves as the controller, which seems plausible but I’ve not been able to verify this as the actual case...

Here’s hoping that someone else has had some first hand knowledge of this possibility!!

Thanks,
3 tons

[3_tons]

road-runner wrote:
When a double pole double throw switch is used to reverse polarity, the outside terminals are jumpered diagonally. Power is fed to the jumpered diagonals, then the center terminals to the motor.

Thanks, Thats good to know.

[3_tons]

DFord said:

“Both positive and negative wires have to be reversed and jumpers on the switch do the reversal. Pressing the switch one way pushes the slide out and pressing it the other way brings it back in. If there's no control board, the motor is wired directly to the switch. The motor should run till the motor stalls in either direction.“

Thanks, this scenario is making sense - I’m starting to believe that this may be what’s happening.

wa8yxm, thanks for the great tip! I do have a tone generator (from years back...), but forgot that I had one.

The camper is in the body shop having suffered the wrath of a distracted driver on a cell phone... I’ll try some more recon once I get her back...

[road-runner]

When a double pole double throw switch is used to reverse polarity, the outside terminals are jumpered diagonally. Power is fed to the jumpered diagonals, then the center terminals to the motor.

[wa8yxm]

The controller senses current. when current "Spikes" it shuts off. So if for any reason current exceeds the limit.. it shuts off. WHERE IS IT.

I was just watching a video where the owner of an RV simply folded down the control panel and there it was right behind the panel (I WISH MINE WAS LIKE THAT).. I had 3 different professional RV technicians who could not find mine.

Finally.. I found it.. I tracked it down with an electronic blood hound.

The first tech cut the motor wires so I was able to hook a wire/cable tracker transmitter to the wires (Got this puppy at Harbor freight. it is two units one is the "Transmitter" the other the detector) I turned it to TONE (The setting to track cable) and waved he magic wand (Detector) and sure enough BEEP BEEP. followed down the wire bundle till I got to a split where wires ran off in two directions.... One way.. NO BEEP. the other way BEEP BEEP. Continued to the net branch.. and so on till I got to the end of a smaller bundle and WOW. THE CONTROLLER.. Right there at the end of the beeps.

now to fix it.

[DFord]

Moving the slideout in and out is done by reversing the polarity of the power to the motor. That's what the 6 terminal switch does. Both positive and negative wires have to be reversed and jumpers on the switch do the reversal. Pressing the switch one way pushes the slide out and pressing it the other way brings it back in. If there's no control board, the motor is wired directly to the switch. The motor should run till the motor stalls in either direction. If you hold in switch in too long, you may end up melting the switch and ruining it. On my last motorhome, the switch was separated from the slideout motor by several feet of wire and I burned up a couple of switches because of the length of the wires. I finally made up a relay box that I installed right next to the slideout motor to overcome the drop through the wire. It solved the problem with the switch and slideout motor ran faster than ever. I never had to replace another switch because it was only handling the control wires and not the load wires.

Not sure if any of this might help but with no control board, your switch may be carry the load of the motor. You might try another switch to see if that fixes the problem. The load the slideout motor may be more than the switch is capable of handling.

[3_tons]

road-runner wrote:
With 6 wires on the switch, I concur that it's "probably" a polarity reversing switch with no controller. If that's the case, the 2 center wires would run directly to the motor. My previous RV had a Lippert slideout that worked that way. There's one statement in the documentation that says if the switch is held after the room is fully extended or retracted, "the control" will shut off the motor after a few seconds. There's no controller in that system, so there's either something in the motor, or they're relying on the required 30 amp auto reset circuit breaker for that. One troubleshooting step says to hook a battery directly to the motor and see if it runs. Maybe that's feasible, maybe it's not. A different troubleshooting step says to hook a voltmeter at the motor and see if it shows power when the switch is pressed, and if it does, replace the motor. (If the meter does show good voltage, I'd personally verify with a direct-connected battery before buying a new motor).

Thanks very much, So if I understand you correctly, your previous lippert system had a six wire switch but no controller, correct??...This kinda makes sense to me but strangely theres only two wires at the dang motor??...The young guy I past spoke to at Lippert says there ‘should be’ a controller, but I’ve combed the camper (and compartments) from stem to stern and can find no such device!!

On edit: come to think of it, I believe (as I recall - I’m not with camper...) that two of the six wires at the switch are just jumper wires...

[road-runner]

With 6 wires on the switch, I concur that it's "probably" a polarity reversing switch with no controller. If that's the case, the 2 center wires would run directly to the motor. My previous RV had a Lippert slideout that worked that way. There's one statement in the documentation that says if the switch is held after the room is fully extended or retracted, "the control" will shut off the motor after a few seconds. There's no controller in that system, so there's either something in the motor, or they're relying on the required 30 amp auto reset circuit breaker for that. One troubleshooting step says to hook a battery directly to the motor and see if it runs. Maybe that's feasible, maybe it's not. A different troubleshooting step says to hook a voltmeter at the motor and see if it shows power when the switch is pressed, and if it does, replace the motor. (If the meter does show good voltage, I'd personally verify with a direct-connected battery before buying a new motor).

[3_tons]

road-runner wrote:
I'm posting info about my power gear slideout system. It's just FYI as yours might work the same way, or maybe not. There's an indirect torque limiting system via a controller that senses current. The controller is p/n 140-1163 and a picture can be found here https://www.amazon.com/Power-Gear-Slideout-controller-140-1163/dp/B01IF99SCI. It has a 25 amp slow blow fuse in it. The only way I know about it is from extensive snooping in every nook and compartment in the RV. Do you have a center-off in-out switch? Does it have 3 wires going to it? Are the wires going to the motor larger (or at least different) than those from the switch? If this is all true, you may very well have this controller hiding someplace. It has 6 connections: power and ground, 2 wires from the switch, and 2 wires to the motor. On the controller I have, there are no adjustments.

Mr Wizard Yes, I scoured the truck camper a d every passage from high to low, even using a flexible exam camera, and off the truck but to no avail... To Roadrunner, I can say that there are only two wires coming from the motor beneath the slide, and (as I recall) six wires at the in-out switch to reverse the current direction I believe - but no controller in between...

[MrWizard]

Is this a truck camper

Have you removed it from the truck, so you can trace the wiring, from the slide motor back to the controller

[road-runner]

I'm posting info about my power gear slideout system. It's just FYI as yours might work the same way, or maybe not. There's an indirect torque limiting system via a controller that senses current. The controller is p/n 140-1163 and a picture can be found here https://www.amazon.com/Power-Gear-Slideout-controller-140-1163/dp/B01IF99SCI. It has a 25 amp slow blow fuse in it. The only way I know about it is from extensive snooping in every nook and compartment in the RV. Do you have a center-off in-out switch? Does it have 3 wires going to it? Are the wires going to the motor larger (or at least different) than those from the switch? If this is all true, you may very well have this controller hiding someplace. It has 6 connections: power and ground, 2 wires from the switch, and 2 wires to the motor. On the controller I have, there are no adjustments.

[3_tons]

newman fulltimer wrote:
Find the motherboard clean the contacts check the ground if that doesn't fix the issue probable cause is a bad board

Thanks, but the point here is that I can find no controller....

[newman_fulltime]

Find the motherboard clean the contacts check the ground if that doesn't fix the issue probable cause is a bad board

[DFord]

Not sure which PowerGear system your rig has but the site I linked to has downloadable PDF documents that cover "Operations and Service" of the various systems with troubleshooting charts. Sorry if there's not an answer to your problem. Hope others can help out.

[3_tons]

Thanks, I’ve reviewed that page but for the life of me, I can find no scenario that suggest a motor torque limiter rather than a slide out control module... Just Saying...