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Old 04-02-2016, 01:14 PM   #1
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Connected problems, or not?

I moved from Yuma to Tucson area yesterday. And to start the trip, within an hour the alternator looks like it was going on the fritz! (Not a real concern, fired up the generator, and will look this over next week when home. If bad, will replace with the Delco Remy 180A.)

OK, got to camp, backed into our sight. I dump my air first, to get as low to the ground as possible, then level. Once level, went to open the slides, and the rear would not open. Pushing 'close' I could hear the solenoids clicking. But open, no sound (that I could hear over the motor). Went out, and saw on the dash that we had a red warning light fourth HWW Leveler. Hit the HWW Leveler Reset, then Level again. Red light stayed on the dash. Sat down, put foot on brake, put in Drive, hit the Travel mode, and the coach started to go into travel position. Hit the HWW Reset again, to shut it off before going all the way back to Travel level. Again hit the HWW Leveler. When complete, the HWW Red Light still remained on the dash. So, then tried to go back and do a full Tag up, down cycle, as I had raised the tag when cutting into the space. HWW Red Light still remained on. Go up and thought why not try the front slide. Went out normally. The DW tried the Rear Slide again, no cigar. I hit the HWW Reset, again, just for grins. She tried it again, and the rear slide extended. (She did say she thought she may have pushed the button to extend up more to the middle, vs the lower part of the switch.) Have not idea if I have a switch problem, or a slide problem, or?

OK, so I said the heading 'Connected problems, or not?'. Turned the engine off, much to the pleasure to the other campers! We were outside setting things up, when I heard a hissing noise. Opened the front drivers side bay, and the drier for the Thomas Compressor was leaking. The air valve with he solenoid attached to it (My name for it. Looks like and on/off valve for air.). I took of the the brass air fitting on the end of the electric valve. Tapped it out hard and shook out some white deposits. These same white deposits are in the bottom of the glass bulb too. So need to maintenance the bulb again. I took my wrench, and also tapped (But with not so gentle wording!) the electric looking valve. Put the brass fitting back on. Air still slowly leaking this full time.

Went in, cycled on the ignition, went into Level Mode. Waited 20-30 seconds for the Thomas to kick on and finish the leveling. Turned this time, the air stopped leaking out of the Thomas air drier valve. Dumped some air again, and again relieved. And again after cycling on/off the air drier valve seemed to shut off normally. No air leaking.

So the 'connected or not' question. Does the HWW system detect a problem with the valve, and keep there Red Warning Light on the dash? The Red Light did remain on, the last time I looked. And, is their any connection with the rear slide not wanting to open?

We leave Tuesday AM, so hopefully the rear slide will come in. The HWW will go into Travel mode again without a problem, and once we get rolling I hope the HWW Red Warning Light will be gone... (Around 8 month ago, we had a few days of this Warning Light staying on, which turned out to be a stuck ride height valve.

OK. One of my normal crisp posts. But was trying to share as many of the steps that I went thru, as it my jog someones knowledge bank and say: 'Smitty, here is what you want to check!".

Best to all, and TIA for any thoughts,
Smitty

04 Allure 40' High Cascade with two Drivers Side Slides.
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Old 04-02-2016, 06:47 PM   #2
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Smitty, my Allure has air leveling only, no hydraulic jacks. My large LR flat floor slide is Powergear and the galley and both bedroom slides are HWH. While I cannot help you with the specific problem you have I can confirm if the coach is trying to level (or in any stage of the leveling process), I cannot deploy any of the three HWH slides.

So, I guess I am suggesting that if something is causing your HWH brain to think it is still trying to level the coach, it is preventing you from deploying the slides. Mine will also not let me deploy the slides (other than the PG) if the 'excess slope' message is displaying.

If the leak at the Thomas pump is causing the system to think you are trying to level it would make sense that you cannot deploy the HWH slides.

Not sure I am making sense. Hope you get it figured out.
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Old 04-02-2016, 10:21 PM   #3
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Thanks. Both for reading my long thread, and sharing what you have observed. Our era's are different, but I understood what you were saying.

Very possible that the larger and deeper front slide is one manufacturer, and the smaller shallower rear bedroom slide is another. If HWW, I could see how they interconnect...

I also have been searching some for a thread I think I remember reading here, or maybe on CC User Group, about a switch that was acting up. As I recall it, it was a bedroom slide, and the rocker switch just stopped working.

I've told my wife that when we get up and get our coffee started on the day we're to head out. That I want to try then to bring in the rear slide. So that if I have a problem, I'm not up towards the end of checkout time. If I end up needing to bring the slide in manually, I'll have the time to do so. (Not something I'd like to have the experience accomplishing!).

On a good note, I did double check my alternator to make sure it did not have an obvious mechanical problem. Belt looks good, and the pull i snot wobbling. So we'll just head on down the road with the generator keeping us going!

Best,
Smitty
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Old 04-03-2016, 09:16 AM   #4
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Old 04-03-2016, 09:53 AM   #5
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Smitty,

We were having trouble with our bedroom slide going part way out then stopping. It could be made to go the rest of the way out by moving the living room slide. Ours is an HWH system with two hydraulic slides.

I checked continuity on the bedroom slide extend/retract switch and it ohm'ed out good. So I stopped at Premier RV Services in Junction City on my way home from Arizona to have them take a look at it. They decided that even though the switch checked out OK with a meter, it was not carrying the full current load when in use. i.e. it was dropping some amount of voltage across the contacts when under load. They replaced the switch and that solved the problem.

During all of this I discovered a couple of things. One is that, like you, I would dump air to get the entry steps low before leveling. However, at sites that were not level to begin with, if one corner or edge of the coach touched down before the others, the HWH would sometimes fail to level. This is because the HWH first attempts to achieve level by lowering the high corners or sides. Under some circumstances if the system lets air out of a bag and that part of the coach does not lower some amount, it quits or runs the compressor forever.

I don't know if that is proper functioning or not. But now that I know this, when dumping air if the coach noticeably touches down on one corner or edge before the others I raise the whole coach a bit before leveling.

Two, those extend/retract switches do interact. If a slide stops in mid travel, either going in or going out, jog the other slide while holding the switch of the misbehaving in. That usually will kick off the pump and supply enough pressure to complete the operation.

As an aside - during this process I was reading the manual and found that it said to hold the switch in for a few seconds at the end of the slide travel. I had forgotten that, if I ever knew it. Instinct told me to let go of the switch as soon as the slide hit the end of its travel. But the system is designed to rely on hydraulic pressure to keep the slide in or out as the case may be. Therefore the pump needs to run a bit after the slide stops to replace the drop in pressure caused by the hydraulic cylinder's increased volume as the result of the piston traveling from one end to the other.

A lesson learned, for about the thousandth time - if you even think the switch(s) is causing trouble, buy one from HWH and install it yourself. As it turns out, these switches fail frequently.

Better yet buy one for each slide. HWH charges $10.00 for the switch and $14.99 for shipping. You may think that's a lot, taking shipping into account. But it will be a lot more if you have someone else do it.

FWIW
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Old 04-03-2016, 10:11 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smitty77 View Post
Thanks. Both for reading my long thread, and sharing what you have observed. Our era's are different, but I understood what you were saying.

Very possible that the larger and deeper front slide is one manufacturer, and the smaller shallower rear bedroom slide is another. If HWW, I could see how they interconnect...

I also have been searching some for a thread I think I remember reading here, or maybe on CC User Group, about a switch that was acting up. As I recall it, it was a bedroom slide, and the rocker switch just stopped working.

I've told my wife that when we get up and get our coffee started on the day we're to head out. That I want to try then to bring in the rear slide. So that if I have a problem, I'm not up towards the end of checkout time. If I end up needing to bring the slide in manually, I'll have the time to do so. (Not something I'd like to have the experience accomplishing!).

On a good note, I did double check my alternator to make sure it did not have an obvious mechanical problem. Belt looks good, and the pull i snot wobbling. So we'll just head on down the road with the generator keeping us going!

Best,
Smitty
Hello Smitty, sorry to read of your problems,
Last year on a trip, boondocked over night, started out in the morning, dash volt Gage and scan Gage read low on voltage...........fired up the genset , and the voltage came up quick.........ran it for about 2 hours. then shut down, and the dash gauge and the scan gage were back to normal. It will take the alternator a lot longer to charge them all than the converter/charger. I also had one chassis battery going bad, internally shorted......but did not know it at that point.
Did you use a meter and check the out put of your alternator right at its post? Then to move on to your battery charging system while driving and charging with the engines alternator........I do not know how your system works? or how it is suppose to work? BIRD SYSTEM????
Check the out put of your alternator to make sure it is dead.......
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Old 04-03-2016, 11:49 AM   #7
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Thanks for the longer posts...

Smitty (and others),

As a relative new CC owner, I find your posts thorough and most helpful. Reading through your troubleshooting process helps me get ready for the time when I will need to diagnose an issue. In this case, brevity is not necessarily a good thing!

Thanks to all for your comments and help.

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Old 04-05-2016, 03:12 PM   #8
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I wanted to update the results of our first move since having the slide problem.

The rear slide came in without any problems. And after getting into travel mode, I was glad to see the HWH Dash Red Light warning was not on.

Upon arriving at tonights destination, all leveled without any problem (No hissing sound. So the temporary cleaning and tapping with moderate authority of the electric Parker dryer valve, seems to have bought some time!), our Rear Slide would not extend.

As Dave described, by extending the front slide (I stopped at about 1/2 extended. Something I normally try to avoid doing.), the Rear Slide was able to be extended.

So good chance the switches are going out... We'll be off the road doing other maintenance for about a month, so I'll call HWH (Probably actually call Kevin Waite first.) on getting some replacement switches.

And as an aside, our alternator does not seem to be putting out consistent power. So we ran the generator and MS2813 charger to keep us moving on down the road. (Will for sure test the Alternator next week or two, looking for hopefully easy problems. But good chance this OEM alternator is on it's last leg!).

Best to all,
Smitty
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Old 04-05-2016, 05:06 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smitty77 View Post
I wanted to update the results of our first move since having the slide problem.

***
So good chance the switches are going out... We'll be off the road doing other maintenance for about a month, so I'll call HWH (Probably actually call Kevin Waite first.) on getting some replacement switches.
***
Good to hear you're making progress, Smitty. The HWH switch part number is RP90042.

Good luck!
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