Community Forums

Alpine Road Warrior · 08-13-2011, 04:36 PM

I am traveling with another Alpine and we arrived at a park and none of his slides will go out. The jacks work OK and the storage bays work OK. The slides will not go out or go in. Any ideas?

Alpine Road Warrior · 08-13-2011, 05:27 PM

Forgot to mention he has a 2007 Alpine

EngineerMike · 08-13-2011, 07:07 PM

on mine the kitchen slide extend valve is the forward left small solenoid valve. The tank cap has a 1/4" nut driver in its tip you can use to back out the 1/4" brass nut on the valve, takes about 3 full turns. You'll hear pressure release when you get it open, then go 1/4 to 1/2 turn more. Run the slide out by switch, then close the valve by reversing the above. You are on your own as to the extend valve locations otherwise. The HWH nomenclature is slide 1, 2, 3, 4 starting w/DS-front, DS-rear, PS-rear, PS-front. Most SE or APex owners find the two DS slides on 2-slide + 2 SmartBeds are all on the same line of HWH manifold. If more than 4 sliding devices, there will be a second manifold behind the water tank between frame rails. If 4 slides + 4 beds, then there are 4 pairs of valves on each (HWH compartment & behind water tank) manifold, w/2 forward slides on forward manifold, & two rear slides on rear manifold.
Hope this helps.

kraig · 08-14-2011, 11:13 AM

There are the 7 unmarked HWH 15 amp breakers on left of the HWH that go to the manual switches. They are easy to check voltage out.

On mine, the manual power switch (far right switch in HWH compartment) is used to bypass everything inside the coach. You can run everything except the jacks. I don't have to open the valves. Everything else is the same as Mike says, except my cap doesn't have the nut driver.

Alpine Road Warrior · 08-14-2011, 12:17 PM

We had an RV Tech come out and look at it and found out that it was a solenoid on the back side of the HWH valves (Not the one you can see). He did his magic and got the sides out and now trying to find a part. We are in Kenai, AK. Does anyone know the part numbers for both solenoids? Might be handy to carry one just in case.

Jim A · 08-14-2011, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraig

Everything else is the same as Mike says, except my cap doesn't have the nut driver.

Mine has the nut driver, but it stripped easily. (It is plastic.) I bought a 1/4" stubby nutdriver from Lowe's to use. If you look for it, they are in the electrical tools area, not the main tool area. I bought mine online with store pickup, and when I went to pick it up, they could not find it. Then he thought to look in the electrical section.

The good news is I haven't needed it since I bought it.

EngineerMike · 08-17-2011, 12:48 PM

1) I actually use a small Craftsman 1/4" ratcheting wrench w/extension 1/4" driver that work ideally for these manual solenoid operations. They are still a pain when its raining, but that's not the wrench's fault.
2) Warrior- you can substitute a starter solenoid available from your local NAPA for the balance of your trip. There are currently two solenoids HWH uses on the pump. The White-Rogers main solenoid is not real easy to find, is a good product w/a good usage history, and is ~$70 or so IIRC. The Trombetta solenoid is a piece of junk, dies prematurely and should be substituted out for a better unit IMO regardless. On older Alpines w/the HWH in the little door behind the PS front tire, they used two W-R solenoids IIRC.

I used a Cole-Hersee solenoid as a permanent replacement for the pump solenoid and its been working fine for 3+ years. See post #11 in that thread. Also the rest of the discussion might be useful.

In lieu of the Cole Hersee unit, you can get a starter solenoid for a Ford Mustang, c. 1965-68, Ford Pinto, Ford Falcon ~1963 etc. Take the old solenoid to NAPA and get one that has matching main studs & coil studs (i.e. 2@ 5/16" main, + 2 coil). IIRC the coil ohms on the oem unit and the Cole Hersee were pretty close at about 13ohms, so the coil would use ~1A; you can put your ohmmeter on the NAPA coil studs and see what their solenoid would draw. I mounte the C-H unit on the rear wall of the HWH compartment where I could easily get to all the connections in case of any future issues (rather than strap it back to the pump where connections are a pain to access). I haven't remote-mounted the Main solenoid yet, but would in a heartbeat if the thing died and needed replacing.

Christopher Cratch · 08-17-2011, 06:47 PM

I just visited HWH in Iowa, they assured me they would do everything they could to help, especially ACA members. Phone no. 563-724-3396.

Alpine Road Warrior · 08-17-2011, 07:10 PM

Thanks for all the replies. The coach in question is due to go into a shop tomorrow in Anchorage to have a solenoid replaced. We hope that will take care of it.