Slide blows fuze

[CABigbird]

2017 Forest River Surveyor RKS251. This should be under warranty, but have to haul it 100 miles to repair. So, am searching for help with my problem. The slide (u booth) blows the fuse when being towed. It has happened three times just getting it home from the dealer. Each time the slide works good when parked. Either with the harness hooked to the tow vehicle or on 110v power, or on battery only. I retract the slide before leaving, and when we get to destination the slide fuse is blown and needs replacing. I can extend and retract the slide multiple times when parked, but towing it causes the fuse to blow. Can't find a schematic for our unit so have no idea about the wiring. I don't think there is any connection, but the LED awning lights would not work when we made our first stop. They were not checked during the walk thru because there was not enough room to deploy the awning. The fuse in the panel was not tripped, but found an inline fuse behind the lighted switch that was blown, a 3 amp one, replaced and all is well with the led lights. To me this sounds like a short or bad switch, but does not make sense. Wouldn't the slide switch have to be either in extend or retract position for the fuse to be blown? Thanks JH

[CABigbird]

Update: been distracted for a couple days, but did some electrical testing today. Pulled the switch plate for all the lights, awning and room slide. The room slide switch actually has six wires going to it. 3 pairs. The top two wires are red and white. The red is + and the white is -. The bottom two wires are again red and white with the same polarity. Top red and white wires move the slide in and the bottom two wires move the slide out. The middle two wires are green and blue. There is 13.22 volts between the red and white wires in both top and bottom pairs. The two red wires go back into the cabinet a little and are connect to another red wires of the same gauge. Couldn't see any amp markers on these wires, but appear to be a stranded 10 gauge wire. Between either red wire and the green or blue wire there was .002 volts with the red being +. The resistance between the green and blue is 0 ohms
Didn't check for voltage between green and blue to a white wire, but assume it is about 13.22 v. Almost seems like the green and blue use the switch to connect the two of them. My guess is that the hot wire comes thru the 30 amp fuse, in the electric panel, to the junction behind the switch and to the in and out poles of the switch (top and bottom). The white wires go to the motor carrying the + voltage and ground thru the motor. So I am guessing that it is a 2 wire motor. Crawled under and came face to face with a nice plastic covering everything. Lots of foam sealer where the plastic is penetrated with plumbing, frame or wiring. Difficult to determine where the slide motor is located. so stopped. The wires appear to go up to the ceiling behind the multi switch plate, so am guessing the red wire comes down next to the refrig and into the electrical panel with fuses. Short would have to be between the fuse in the panel and the switch. Any other possibility??? JH

[budwich]

You got it. Since you are sure there is THREE wires going to the motor, then the rocker is responsible for connecting to "in / out function". At the rocker, there will be three wires so you can do your testing as you have done at the motor to check those... to check out your statement about the motor "battery connection" without getting "wet". 🙂 The only "caveat" is to ensure that your ground test point that you use for your meter is a KNOWN ground. If it isn't, then your results may not prove, "beyond a shadow of doubt", what is happening. 🙂 Pay attention to any +/- showing on the meter reading.

As you "surmised", if the slide doesn't move during the travel phase but the fuse is blown, the short is likely at the motor (just coming in at the hot), or going from the motor to where ever the fuse is situated / wired.

[CABigbird]

Thanks 'budwich'. I understand ac wiring better than dc, but have the general concepts. The rocker switch is understandable, so since the weather is still nasty, I will check it out in the dry. If the slide motor is hot all the time, that does mean its direct to the battery and the slide switch just rockers between extend ground and retract ground. If not hot then the switch rockers between extend and retract hot. That is important because it determines in which section of wiring that the spurious problem exists. JH

[westend]

Typically, slide power is connected directly to the battery like Old Biscuit stated. Look on your battery terminals for a separate wire than the positive wire that connects to the distribution panel to verify.

If the fuse is blowing during transport only, there is a good likelihood that the positive wire to the switch is abraded in some manner and comes in contact with frame ground.

[budwich]

pull the switch and check its position / contact configuration to confirm your "analysis". The switch likely is a "double pole switch"... basically a center contact for the ground wire (or battery depending on wiring) and two "poles", which contact the center when "toggled". It could be a different configuration like car windows which tend to actually switch both negative and positive around at the same time... usually because there is only two wire feeds to the responding motor which is DC which in most cases don't care on which contact it receives the voltage / grounds on.

A "three wire" motor maybe be slightly unusual.

[CABigbird]

Have found a schematic on the back of the front cover to the fuse/breaker panel. There are two 40 amp dc fuses in the panel and the schematic says they are reverse polarity fuses. There is no main panel fuse. The 12v from the battery comes to the panel and divides out to 11 circuits to serve the trailer. Can't tell where each circuit goes first, to the controlling switch for that circuit or to the light, motor etc and then back thru the switch. Schematic does not show this. If there is 12 volts at the slide motor then it is obvious that the power goes there first and not to the slide switch. In either case the slide switch will have 12v at one side of the switch, either directly from the fuse panel or thru the slide motor and then to the switch. Only way to tell is check for 12v at the motor. Right? If motor is hot all the time the spurious short has to be before the hot wire is connected to the slide motor. Looks like we have a short pause in our 7 ft of annual rainfall and might have time to do some checking.

[CABigbird]

In the breaker/fuse panel, there are two 30amp fuses, but apparently one is not being used. At least, when I removed it nothing stopped working. Initially I used the fuse in that spare position to replace the blown fuse. I have since invested in a bunch of fuses. Now let me see if I get this straight. The hot wire goes from the positive pole of the battery, thru the fuse in the panel and then directly to the slide motor. At that point two ground wires go from the motor and to the slide switch to make a contact with a ground point. All the rocker switch does is rocker between the ground point for extending and retracting the slide? That means that the hot wire going directly to the slide motor is grounding out somehow, blowing the fuse. Why it doesn't blow while stationary is kinda a mystery. But there are some really rough roads between Southern California and Southwest Washington. I had called the RV dealership and talked with their tech. It was a mystery to him also, but did mention something about a Nut Cover and a lock bolt that controls travel of the slide maybe being not correctly set allowing the motor to bind when retracting, causing an overload. Maybe, but I can't recreate the short when parked, even with multiple extractions and retractions. Sounds like I should check the wiring around the motor and see if anything could be grounding it on the hot side. If it was grounding on the ground side it should be running all the time, which would blow the fuse when at the end of travel and extend the slide mysteriously if on the extend ground side. I sure would like to see a schematic.

[budwich]

just pull the switch and check the condition of the connection involved.

[Slate_CM]

I have seen slide fuses in the panel on a Surveyor. And it was a 40 amp.

[mikakuja]

Old-Biscut, Forrest River has the 30A fuse in the main fuse panel, not an isolated circuit direct to the battery which would be the correct way. This is one of the things that will be changing on our Surveyor.

Sounds to me like there is a loose connection or pinched wire shorting out when the trailer is shifting in transport. Start at the slide motor and trace the wires back as far as possible, then pull the switch panel off the wall that houses the slide switch and check for loose or bad connections there. I would also pull the front cover off of the main fuse panel and check all the visible connections. If none of this reveals any obvious issues then I would make the 100 mile journey.

[Old-Biscuit]

Slide should be wired directly to battery with 30A fuse.

Not thru Fused Panel

Positive wire to slide is shorting out when rig is in motion....\ surprised it doesn't blow fuse when stationary---positive wire should still be making contact/shorting

If you can not ID slide positive wire at battery and follow if to switch then might be best to drag it that 100 miles for warranty work (which will take weeks/months and 'Gee it works fine").
Maybe you can contact RV MFG ----talk with service head guy and get Mobile RV Repairman authorization (you pay for 'service fee')
That way 'they' come to you and you get to watch/discuss problem

[CABigbird]

That makes sense. By the hot wire I suspect you mean the positive terminal of the battery (usually the red wire). There is like a 40 amp fuse between the battery and the other 12v circuits, right? The main 40 amp fuse does not blow, I suppose because the 30 amp one to the slide goes first. The breaker/fuse panel is beneath the refrig at the back door. What do you think the routing is for the wires to the bank of switches on the end of the upper cabinet across from the breaker/fuse panel? Thru the floor and up the outside wall to the upper cabinet or up pass the refrigerator and thru the roof to the upper cabinet with the switches? Seems that most all six of the wires going to the switches from the fuse panel should not have any splices in them and all of them would be hot. So this wire to the slide would have to be shorting out to a ground of some sort. Correct? The most likely area would be at the switches (no ground in the wood cabinet) or behind the fuse panel, OR a pinched wire someplace in between. Might be easier to tow it that 100 miles for waranty work.

[wing_zealot]

The hot wire to the switch is grounding out to something between the fuse and the switch. Could be to loose at a connection, wire stripped to long, insulation worn off or pinched, ... something somewhere.