Slide out

[hobart22]

just got my 2016 45A and was wounding if anyone is having trouble with door side slide stalling out trying to get up ramp? once up ramp works fine, trying to get up ramp motor draws 30 amps

[loisjop]

Originally Posted by hobart22

just got my 2016 45A and was wounding if anyone is having trouble with door side slide stalling out trying to get up ramp? once up ramp works fine, trying to get up ramp motor draws 30 amps

Yes, mine did the same thing. It had a 10a resettable fuse. The shop removed the 10a and installed a 25a. Pj in Cs thought that was too strong so he sent me a 15a. I put the 15a in and tried it. I'm not sure the 15a is strong enough, but I'll leave it for a while and try it a few more times. Bad thing about going to the 25a if you continue to hold the button after the slide is extended the motor has enough torque to possibly tear something up. Call customer service and they will send you the 15a. They might also send a 25a, just be aware of the above. The fuses are located in the first compartment on drivers side. They are on the slide out control board and have a metal cover. The other three slides have 7.5a fuses. Noel

[Gary.Jones]

The issue here is the size of the wire in that circuit. You cannot willy-nilly change amperage of fuses or circuit breakers on wiring without knowing the amperage rating of the wiring.

I have to assume that PJ and everyone at Entegra CS knows the wire size and what it is rated to be able to carry and would not advocate use of fuses or circuit breakers that exceed the wire ratings. Conversely, it is strange that any company would go to the expense of putting in 30A wire (lets say) and put a 5A or 10A fuse in the line).

However, 12V wiring fires are a real mess as they almost always occur in an area that you can't get to easily.

Gary

[loisjop]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

The issue here is the size of the wire in that circuit. You cannot willy-nilly change amperage of fuses or circuit breakers on wiring without knowing the amperage rating of the wiring.

I have to assume that PJ and everyone at Entegra CS knows the wire size and what it is rated to be able to carry and would not advocate use of fuses or circuit breakers that exceed the wire ratings. Conversely, it is strange that any company would go to the expense of putting in 30A wire (lets say) and put a 5A or 10A fuse in the line).

However, 12V wiring fires are a real mess as they almost always occur in an area that you can't get to easily.

Gary

How about 16 gauge?: I believe the wire is 10 gauge and should be good for up to a 30a resettable fuse. Noel

[Gary.Jones]

According to ampacity tables and industry recommendations show that 10 gauge wire has an ampacity rating of 15A (that is a maximum current rating of 15 amps). A circuit with a 30A load should have 7 gauge wire to carry the load.

I don't personally know what the wire gauge is in that circuit, but I am simply making the point that one cannot willy-nilly insert larger fuses or circuit breakers in a DC circuit without knowing the wire size. If it is currently a 5A circuit breaker and the wire size is 10 gauge, then that is certainly "underfused" and could easily be increased to 15A which is within spec but is at the maximum current rating of the wire. It is fairly common to fuse a circuit at below the anticipated current draw of the circuit.

Gary

[The Driver]

Does Entegra not use the slide controllers at least similar to our Travel Supremes...that have variable power output?

[loisjop]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

According to ampacity tables and industry recommendations show that 10 gauge wire has an ampacity rating of 15A (that is a maximum current rating of 15 amps). A circuit with a 30A load should have 7 gauge wire to carry the load.

I don't personally know what the wire gauge is in that circuit, but I am simply making the point that one cannot willy-nilly insert larger fuses or circuit breakers in a DC circuit without knowing the wire size. If it is currently a 5A circuit breaker and the wire size is 10 gauge, then that is certainly "underfused" and could easily be increased to 15A which is within spec but is at the maximum current rating of the wire. It is fairly common to fuse a circuit at below the anticipated current draw of the circuit.

Gary

Wire Gauge Selection Table 12 Volt Circuit
AMPS 3' 5' 7' 10' 15' 20' 25'
0 to 5 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
6 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
7 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
8 18 18 18 18 18 16 16
10 18 18 18 18 16 16 16
11 18 18 18 18 16 16 14
12 18 18 18 18 16 16 14
15 18 18 18 18 14 14 12
18 18 18 16 16 14 14 12
20 18 18 16 16 14 12 10
22 18 18 16 16 12 12 10
24 18 18 16 16 12 12 10
30 18 16 16 14 10 10 10
40 18 16 14 12 10 10 8
50 16 14 12 12 10 10 8
100 12 12 10 10 6 6 4
150 10 10 8 8 4 4

Looks to me like #10 is good for at least 25ft. at 30 amps. Noel

[Gary.Jones]

This is what I am looking at

American Wire Gauge table and AWG Electrical Current Load Limits with skin depth frequencies and wire breaking strength


Gary

[loisjop]

Obviously ENTEGRA does over size some wiring. All the slide wiring is 10 gauge good for 30 amps, but on the 3 non flush floor slides they are using a 5a fuse.

[seeg]

Another, similar thread.

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/slid...on-272664.html

[Cruzer]

The wire gauge is adequate. The reason for the smaller auto-reset fuses is so it stalls out at end of stroke. The motor has lots of torque and if left unchecked it would break things at end of stroke. Our large 45A slide did the same. Entegra freed up the rollers and went with a 15A fuse. Now it doesn't stall out any more.

[hobart22]

ted cook and co said to put a 20 amp in and it now works but strains pretty good they are going back and see if can find real problem and correct it keep you posted

[RubiconTrail]

What Cruzer said is true and an important distinction...the fuse size isn't driven by amperage draw or wire size in this case. The wire is oversize for the draw as is. The fuse size is designed to pop off at a point where the motor won't do damage.

That being said, if it's straining to move in your opinion, I would check amperage and voltage drop (could be some other resistance issue), make sure your slide is adjusted properly, and go back and read the weird Entegra "slides in and out at ride height" instructions if you aren't 100% sure of the correct procedure.

[Gary.Jones]

I hate to disagree, but I must, because Rubicon, you are leaving the impression that wire size (gauge) is not important when considering current load, which is absolutely not true. Wire gauge is ABSOLUTELY designed for anticipated current draw. One should NEVER wire a circuit with wire which is not sufficiently large to carry the anticipated load. Designing a circuit which cannot carry the anticipated load with wire too small for the anticipated load is a sure fire way to cause an electrical fire. You qualify it by the words "in this instance". However, I want to make sure that the general issue is not confused...... you never overload a circuit with a current demand that exceeds the wire gauge and rated current draw. What prompted me to write the first response was what seemed to be the rush to just keep increasing the size of the fuse or circuit breaker beyond the one installed in the factory and I wanted to make sure that people were considering the installed wire size.

Now, your second point, that fusing a circuit much below its anticipated current capacity and gauge so that a fuse or circuit breaker trips early to reduce stress on the components involved such as a slide motor is a completely different issue. According to others, the wire gauge is sized to take a maximum of 30 amps safely so a 5 or 10 amp fuse or circuit breaker is definitely "undersized". It appears that the load on the components produced by the strain on the slide motor makes the factory fusing too conservative and an increase to 20A helps that issue.

Gary