Problem with our Kwikee Stairs

[JucenBrudi]

Greetings,

A search for kwikee stairs brought up only problems with sluggish or sticking steps; not my problem. Our stairs are working fine except they no longer retract when the ignition is turned on.

Of course, I immediately checked the fuse and found it was blown (been here a couple of times). What is new this time is with a new fuse when I turn the ignition switch the stairs come in normally then the fuse blows immediately.

To me that indicates a short somewhere between the fuse and the stairs but I've not been able to find any problem at the stairs and tracing the wiring from the ignition to the stairs has been challenging, but I think I'm close to managing that.

Today I did a test which I thought could be revealing. I disconnected the stairs at the stairs and put a new fuse in. I reasoned that if the short is between the fuse and before the stairs, the fuse will continue to blow. If it doesn't blow then it suggests the short is between the connecting plug and the Kwikee control. The fuse doesn't blow when the stairs are disconnected.

To me this information all adds up to indicate a short in the Kwikee control box. How reasonable is this? Am I over looking something?

Thanks for you help,

Bruce

p.s.

Many calls to Kwikee customer support over the past several weeks always got a busy signal and their old corporate number is no longer in service.

blb

[srzak]

My steps went out and would not retract, tried everything ,we were at a rv park and could not drive home. Called a mobil service he removed the motor and the steps still stuck, he took the gears off and what happened was a piece of plastic bushing broke off and was lodged in the gears, once removed all is well. they can drive you nuts.

[RoadRohrers]

Since the steps retract and then fuse blows, the current may not be shutting off when steps reach retracted position. The current will cause fuse to overheat and blow. So I might suspect a bad limit switch in the step, if one is provided. Of course, it might be a current interrupter built into the circuit board. I do not have the schematics in front of me.

[Clay L]

The Kwikee control board senses the current increase when the steps reach a stop pin and turns the motor off. I would think that the fuse would blow on retraction as well as on extend but I don't have a schematic to see how the board senses the current.

You can download a troubleshooting guide HERE and HERE. The second one is on the Kwikee web site and you need to scroll down to "STEP SERVICE TRAINING MANUALS" as I recall. The first has step by step instructions and the site also sells some parts.

Kwikee and Power Gear have been bought by Actuant and the phone customer service has gone from good to non-existent.

It appears that Kwikee has now been folded into Power Gear. Some people have posted that they have been able to get answers from Power Gear by going to the Power Gear site and sending them an email.

[JucenBrudi]

Greetings,

Thanks to all who replied. Here's the current status. The good news is that the problem is gone and has been gone for some time. We are traveling again and the stairs are functioning normally again. The bad news is I have no idea why it started blowing fuses or why it stopped.

All I know for sure is that I poked around anywhere i could, looking for the problem, and it stopped. I'm sort of waiting uneasily for it to start blowing fuses again.

Related comments. Clay is right. Kwikee is alive and well over at Power Gear. I even posted a question at their site and got a quick, useful reply. I emailed the question on the weekend and Monday morning early had the reply. At that point my problem had disappeared so I haven't applied any of the general troubleshooting suggestions.

Thanks again for the help,
Bruce