Slideouts Stalling

[Wjohns02]

Wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience. I have aa 2015 Sierra rear living, mid bunk, with 4 slideouts. All slideouts are on 1 switch. Recently the slides have started stalling both when extending and retracting. When they stall, I wait a few seconds and press the switch again which does the trick although it can take 3 to 5 times of this to get all the slides completely in our out. I’m concerned at some point they are going to stall and not start back.

Anybody had a similar situation and figured out what the problem was?

[klutchdust]

old guy wrote:
mine does the same thing and I had the battery checked and they say it is good to go. I even had it plugged into shore power. never did find out what was wrong with it

Here's what I found to be true with my Itasca Cambria bedroom slide. The rails get gummed up and the motor will shut off on the internal protector, cool off, then operate a bit again.
I removed the bedroom platform, cleaned the rails then lubed them up. Be careful what lube you use as wd and similar end up causing gum and you are back to square one.
Get and use a lube designed for sliders.

My rig gets a lot of attention. After each trip whatever needs repairs gets it, however I noticed my bed slide was still having issues.
I removed the platform,(easy two screws and its off) and paid closer attention. I have small cutouts for water and electrical to come through the floor, dust and such was coming into that area and gumming things up EVEN THOUGH I was using slider lube.

Well, I sealed those holes and have had less issues than before. We camp in the desert and on dirt parking lots so with the slide out it is a magnet for dirt.

[Lwiddis]

“Generally hooked to shore power even at home.“

That’s too bad. Really limits where you can camp. What you can do.

[old_guy]

mine does the same thing and I had the battery checked and they say it is good to go. I even had it plugged into shore power. never did find out what was wrong with it

[John_Burke]

I had the same problem. Would get worse the colder it got. Breaker would open, wait a few seconds and start again.
Cleaned the slide guides and drive rails and lubed the drive rails and no problem.

[Elk_traveler]

The battery is probably the culprit in this case. If it's old it may be weak and unable to deliver the steady amperage required to operate slides. Even with shore power on the converter in most RVs deliver from 6-10 amp/hours of charge to battery which takes maybe 3-6 hrs to completely charge the battery. The battery depending upon its reserve capacity has to be able to allow maybe 20-30 amps to operate the slides therefore drawing down on a weakened battery with the amperage required to operate slides cannot be compensated even by having it connected to shore power. Most good or new batteries can deliver their full amperage for whatever the reserve capacity is at 12V without a drop in this voltage. As the amperage is increased the voltage will fall on a weak battery which causes it to heat because of the required amperage demand. If this be the case your slides will move slowly. The other issue is the current through your slide motors will be less causing them to get warm or heat up which is not good. Sounds a little technical but in another life use to be an electronics person.)

[wa8yxm]

At least two common slide out systems use a current sensor controller What happens is this.. For reasons I've been trained to understand when the slde out reaches end of travel and the motor stalls. CURRENT increases. and the controller shuts off.

For some reason CURRENT is increasing mid-slide. can be many things including lower battery voltage (Believe it or not that will increase current) bad connections. lack of lubrication and several other things.

[MitchF150]

BB_TX wrote:
Hydraulic slides have a single hydraulic pump actuated by a single switch. Slides go out one at a time in sequence. Some models have switches to actuate valves to isolate individual slides if you do want to operate all slides.

Thanks for the clarification on that... That makes sense. Mine are all electric motors, so didn't even think about hydro slides..

Mitch

[ScottG]

Converter will run slide. What you have is the classic sign of a weak auto-resetting breaker. Might even find that it's loose or corroded.
Either way, replace it.

[BB_TX]

Hydraulic slides have a single hydraulic pump actuated by a single switch. Slides go out one at a time in sequence. Some models have switches to actuate valves to isolate individual slides if you do want to operate all slides.

[MitchF150]

Why 4 slides on a single switch? My little Rockwood with 2 slides has a switch for each slide. Even my folks old 2005 Challenger 5th wheel that has 2 slides has 2 switches..

No help, I know, but just curious about all 4 slides on a single switch. Have never heard or seen that before.

Mitch

[BFL13]

In the 5er with the 13.5 ft slide, no trouble running it on the 55 amp converter alone, no battery. Just had to connect the two red wires that normally met on the pos battery post with vise grip pliers to make a positive path from converter to slide motor.

Lippert specified a 30a fuse for that motor. On Trimetric coming in, it showed 25 amps at most coming up over the hump at the edge of the main floor, dropping off in amps once it got level with the main floor.

No clue though, how it all works with three slides at once.

[MFL]

If your battery is weak, it will not show it on the monitor, when plugged into shore power. Shore power alone usually won't operate slides. I would check/replace the auto resetting circuit breaker I mentioned earlier. Follow the red wire from battery.

Jerry

[BFL13]

Wjohns02 wrote:
Sorry, one more question on the battery. Battery is probably original to the unit, so could it be weak even if panel board shows it as fully charged? At this point it is pushing 5 years old.

The panel is just a rough voltmeter. A full battery is 12.7v, but your converter does 13.6v on shore power, so even if the battery is dead, but the converter is on, the panel will show "full" by "seeing" the converter's 13.6v.

If you have low 12v on the panel, AND you are on shore power, then you have a converter problem.

[BB_TX]

Most likely the auto reset circuit breaker. Look for something like this near your battery. Likely more than one so you will need to figure which one is for the slides. Cheap and easy to replace.