Slide blows fuze

Follow Up
Isolated the hot wires from the slide rocker switch. It still blew the fuse when I towed down to the Salem OR area. This tells me the ground is between the electric panel and the rocker switch. Hooked the wires back up and replaced the fuse (5th time). Slide worked properly while in the rv park. Forgot to pull the fuse when we went on down towards Reedsport.But when parked the slide still worked properly. Had not blown the fuse.Figured that it must have finally arched away enough of the grounding area, so as to not touch any more. This kinda makes sense to me if it is grounding on aluminum. Kinda like fixed itself. Towed on to the Florence area of OR and slide still deployed after towing. But when I retracted the slide it blew the fuse just at the end of the retraction. Hummm? Never done that before. Was wondering if that circuit had a minor grounding episode, but not enough to blow the fuse, just weaken it a bit. But, it had deployed ok, just blew it on the retraction. Came on home with the blown fuse and parked it. Replaced the fuse and it is back to working properly. I don't think it is a good situation, knowing there is the potential for a grounding event, but short of tearing out a bunch of wall/floor what is the alternative? If it stops altogether that is one thing, but if it keeps on occasionally blowing the fuse that is another thing. At this point a dealer probably would not be able to duplicate the problem. While in Salem I went to Highway RV and asked the service rep what she thought,
"Well, a 40 amp fuse seems to make a difference for some owners". Well, the main fuse is a 40 amp one. Guess it could arc longer and bigger with one of those. Not even going to a 40 amper.

Awwwh, I understand. Good idea, will tape the ends of the reds before our next outing, to eliminate the switch as a culprit. Might do the same for the white ground wires also. Found out I was making an incorrect assumption about the wire routing. Was just checking the panel to see what would be involved in removing it to check the wires behind it. Thru a small crack at the bottom I could see all the wires going down under the floor, so the wires run in the basement past the rear door and then into the wall and up to where they can enter the upper cabinet space for all the switches. Seems that all the wires would have to be removed from their fuses or breakers to remove the panel. Would have to tag each one to make sure it is returned to it's rightful place. I suppose the basement makes the wires more accessible, but still a major pain to remove the plastic covering, insulation etc. to gain access. Think I will just keep two lengths of wire around so that I can bypass the shorted area if they should ever get welded together. That is when it would have to be fixed, for sure. Tempted to haul it 1250 miles back to Moreno Valley to let the dealer have the honor of fixing it. Nothing like spite.

Sorry, I realized I wasn't clear in my last post. I meant to say try disconnecting the red wires from the switch and tape over the ends and leave them off before trying another trip with the fuse installed, to completely eliminate the switch as a possible short. Then all that remains is the red wire back to the fuse box.

You're correct that you can save the fuse by pulling it before travel, but what I'm saying may happen is if the short remains after you stop, the fuse will blow when you plug it in.


One more thought: Is there anything else on that same fuse that could have an issue or is only the slide non-functional with it pulled?

And another thought: Since the fuse is at the bottom of the box, is there any chance a bare ground (wire or sheet metal) is near the fuse or terminal where the red wire connects at the fuse box?

I'll check and see if I can find any evidence of sparking on the red and white leads. I may be able to find some shrink tubing that I can put over the bare ends and see if I can get it shrunk down. The switch is about 30 inches in front of the slide fuse and 5 feet above it. I guess in an emergency I could run a wire thru the living space to the switch. So far this incidental grounding has never happen while stopped. So, I kinda thought if the fuse was pulled during tow times then there should be no shorting out, if there is no voltage on the wire. Only problem is, this fuse is at the very bottom of the fuses and the cover makes it awkward to get at. But I can relieve the cover to allow easier access. Think I'll see what a dealer says about fixing it, before hauling it to them. Thanks for the help, advice, info. Feel like I learned a bunch.

You got it figured out correctly. Power feeds to the switch top and bottom in forward and reversed polarity then the switch just picks which polarity to send to the motor.

Pulling the fuse won't hurt but eventually you may find the power wire shorted permanently and won't be able to move the slide. Is there any way to run a new wire from the fuse box to the switch? At the very less I would carry a spare length of wire that you may need to use to power the slide by jumpering to the switch, in the event that you get that permanent short.

You could try pulling the red wires off the switch and taping them up. There's a very small chance that the switch itself is failing in a way that causes one pin to connect to the red and white on one same side at the same time. This would definitely blow the fuse. Again, very unlikely unless one or more of the pins are loose in the switch housing and can fall into the contact inside.

All of the wires that I saw, associated with the slide motor rocker switch, were of a heavier gauge than any of the other wires to any of other switches. I previously estimated that they were 10 gauge stranded. If I could get to the slide motor easily it would be interesting to see just how many wires go to it. Any way, the problem is the intermittent short that occurs while towing. The wiring behind the switch looks to be in good shape with no crimps or excess insulation removed. Kinda tough to check it when it routes thru the ceiling. The best I can do is check the back of the power panel and the route they wires take up past the refrigerator. If the problem is located in a spot that is not easily accessible, what would be the danger of just pulling the slide fuse when ever we tow? Or is there a breaker type fuse for the 12 volt system that could be used?

right. On the other question, there is no "best wiring by going to the motor first.... the electricity has to flow thru the whole wire circuit one way or the other. A better "circuit design" would be to run both wires (= and +) to the motor area and have a "relay / control" circuit right there that your slide switch "talks to"... then the wiring at the motor would likely be one heavy gauge and the control / switch wiring would be a lighter gauge. This maybe the setup if there is indeed more than 2 wires going to the motor / controller.

wnjj: That is exactly what it appears that the switch does. Before testing today I checked the voltage at the battery and at the electric fuse/breaker panel. The voltage was the same, 13.22v. Pulled the fuse and rechecked for voltage at the red/white wires on the switch, it confused me because I got 8.71v. Must be a capacitor in there somewhere. Pulled all 6 wires off the rocker switch and started checking for continuity. With switch in the 'out' position there was continuity between the red/green and white/blue positions. With the switch in the 'in' position there was continuity between the red/blue and white/green positions. So the switch is switching polarity to the green/blue wires. So, do the green/blue wires go to the motor? If so,that means the hot wire from battery goes thru the fuse panel to the rocker switch and then to the motor. Others have said the motor should be connected directly to the battery (probably for best direct connection and function. Does Forest River have a better idea? So, thinking out loud, if the hot + red wire and white - wire go to the switch first and the switch functions by reversing the polarity to the green/blue wires, then my short problem should be between the fuse and the rocker switch. Right? or wrong?

A six pin double throw switch would be wired like this (or you can swap the motor and power supply positions):



So if red and white have power, they should swap sides between the top and bottom and your motor will connect to the center 2 pins.

I plan on taking some more voltage values and then pulling the fuse for the slide. Then pull the wires off the the back of the switch and check for continuity (resistance) between all the possibilities I can come up with. As I have already mentioned, with the slide switch in the neutral position there is no resistance between the blue and green wires. Be interesting to see what happens when the fuse is pulled and the switch toggled to in and out positions. Seems like what I have to do is getting in the way of what I want to do, so maybe tomorrow after church I will be able to get this done. I do remember though, while I was checking voltages the probes caused a momentary retraction of the slide to occur. Seems like that happened while I was checking the lower red and white leads and may have been touching the green or blue wire while probing the red lead. Sure be a lot safer to have the fuse pulled.