Surprise! You need a drill! Slideouts not working

[Lloyd in S.C.]

So trip to Myrtle this past weekend, one night to visit father for fathers day. Boondocked int he Walmart.

Get ready to come home yesterday, and the slideouts won't work. Get out the books, thinking fuse. Blah, blah, can't find a thing wrong, get the wife to hit the buttons while I trouble shoot with the test light and see that the solenoid is working, and the motor is getting power but no go.

Crack the books, find the emgency proceedure for slides is as follows,,,, "Turn little red nurled knob clocwise while pulling out, take plastic cap off motor, use drill at a minuim of 2000 rpms with 7/16" nut drive to drive system and run hydaulics". Ahh, I don't have a drill. BUT! I am camping at the Walmart. In we go, can eliminate many of the drills due to the RPM's needed, but find a corded drill that will do the job, and a nut driver.

Attach it to the pump, she hits the button, i hit the drill and in goes the slide. I notice the drill lost its load very quickly. She starts hitting buttons and they all go in without use of the drill.

BTW, when we get home, the slides again would not work. I think I have a bad pump motor. I will post more about that when I dig into the repair.

Lesson learned,,,, recomendation to others: Read your book, find out what is needed to bring your slides in incase of failure. I was at the Walmart, could easily buy a drill. Going to leave it in the rig. But I was unprepared to do this, had no idea I needed a drill.

Oh, and for our rig the leveling and slideouts are one system. No leveling or retraction without a working pump!

L.

[R2Home]

A drill has many uses and one stays in our MH all of the time. Just add it to the 'list' of tool/stuff needed.

[luvlabs]

Check the electrical connections to your pump - especially the ground connection. Bad grounding is the source of many HWH problems.

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by luvlabs

Check the electrical connections to your pump - especially the ground connection. Bad grounding is the source of many HWH problems.

X2! Saw that first hand on mine a couple years ago. The grounding strap used by HWH is a tad "weak" so it was replaced with a substantial 10AWG strap.

[Lloyd in S.C.]

Originally Posted by luvlabs

Check the electrical connections to your pump - especially the ground connection. Bad grounding is the source of many HWH problems.

Yes, eliminated connections. I think the motor is fried. Anyone had success with getting a pump motor rebuilt? I have a really good starter/alternator rebuild shop about 3 miles from the house. Going to remove it tonight and give them a look at it.

L.

[lllkrob]

Originally Posted by Lloyd in S.C.

Yes, eliminated connections. I think the motor is fried. Anyone had success with getting a pump motor rebuilt? I have a really good starter/alternator rebuild shop about 3 miles from the house. Going to remove it tonight and give them a look at it.

L.

Before removing the motor, check the solenoid that sends current to the motor. It should be mounted next to the motor and when the slide switch is operated it should send 12v to the motor. They are often the problem.

A good automotive electrical shop should be able to rebuild the motor or a marine electrical shop certainly should be able to repair or replace the motor.

[nothermark]

FWIW May I suggest a corded drill. Most of us have a generator so the power is no problem, they have more power and the battery will not be flat. Probably also significantly cheaper given the cost of batteries. ;-)

[SarahW]

We always have a power drill on board. Husband was a Boy Scout.

[CLIFFTALL]

Off topic posts have been removed. Let's all get back on topic ,please

[VSPA]

Excellent addition to any RV tool box. Added a Ryobi 18v drill, two batteries and a charger to the RV "tool box" a couple of years ago. For this extended temporary full timing while house hunting, I chose to add the Dewalt 18v to the tools as it has more torque and battery life. I have the charger set up in one of the bays that has 110v power on a switchable power strip. Have a set of bits, and had a full set of nut drivers and bits until forgot to put them up and someone decided they wanted them.

[Lloyd in S.C.]

yes thanks, I went with a cordless. I get the drill maybe handy to have there, but pictured reaching for it and the battery is dead due to infrequent use. Most of the cordless drills they had, couldn't make the minuim requirement in the manual to turn 2000 rpms.

Took the motor out this evening, will take to the local rebuild shop tomorrow. It is a good deal smaller than a starter motor, hope they can do it.

L.

[wa8yxm]

Your motor has a dead spot.. yes. that is a bad motor.. once it was spinning it worked, inertia carrying it past the dead spot.

This is also a fairly common issue with Kwikee steps.. I re-indexed mine like 9 years ago (Made a change that caused the motor to stop in a different spot) and no problem since.

Congrats on having the brains to read the fine manual Many do not.

[Lloyd in S.C.]

Update:

The motor cannot be rebuilt, armature is burnt, Bummer.

Placed an order for a new one at Equalizer Systems, $263 plus shipping. Seems priced high, but have a trip coming up and need this working to go. Not a lot of time to research and find a better deal.

L.

[hdzcar]

I carry a cordless drill with right socket for that reason (bringing slide in) but have never tested it but that's on the list.