Quote:
Originally Posted by XBoater
We drove back from our winter stay in Florida and almost fell out upon arrival. The stairs did not come out. After driving to fuel up, the steps worked. Now they do not again. I can not find the sensor or switch that activates the stairs. I have looked around the door frame and cannot find anything.
I have a 2014 Journey 42E. Anyone else ever had issues with the stairs.
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We had the same problem when leaving Florida a couple years ago. We stayed at a campground about 100 yards from the ocean. The combination of the salt in the air and the morning mist caused all the moving joints on the stairs to get stiff.
The step controller relies on sensing the amperage draw of the motor and stopping it when it reaches a certain level. When it reaches the current draw that is normally achieved when the steps reach the full open or full closed position the controller shuts off the motor. The controller doesn't know the position of the steps, but rather that the motor has the current draw equal to reaching the full open or full closed position.
Previous versions of the steps used limit switches. The motor was powered until the full open or full closed switch was triggered. This turned out to be a bad idea in that when the stairs get stiff or rusty the motor would keep trying to extend or retract them until it burned out.
In most cases the solution to your problem is to liberally lubricate all the moving joints on the stairs and the motor linkage. WD40 will work, but lubricants with PTFE will work better. The WD 40 will remain damp and any dirt thrown up will get caught on the joints and exacerbate the problem. The lubricants with PTFE are dry and will not attract and hold the dirt.
After our experience I lubricate the stairs and linkage every couple weeks when we're on the road. Since I started the routine we haven't had a reoccurrence of the problem