Slide help needed

[Vegasdan]

We bought our 2001 National Tradewinds and just got home from our 2400 mile trip from Florida. The main slide as well as the bedroom slide worked when we picked up the coach and worked for 3 more days. After traveling through Houston in a downpour one day over rough roads as well, both slides refused to open that night. The next day we went to S. Texas Rv in Seguin and had their tech check them out. We found one of the "solenoids" (its a rectangular aluminum device approx. 1"X1"x1/4" WITH 2 flat brass prongs sticking out of one end) laying in the bay. The tech reinserted this device into the circuit board and the rear slide works. The front slide did not and he said it was probably a dead short to the motor. We decided to keep moving instead of waiting till monday to tear into it. When we got to Phoenix and were going to stay a few days, I called a mobile RV tech over and he checked the system. To our surprize the main slide opened (he had to work the interior button many times) so he felt it could be a switch problem. After pulling the switch out and checking it, he found the switch to be ok. The slide would retract normally but would not go back out. He then checked for power to the motor while I operated the interior switch in the out and in position. He feels like the motor will have to be replaced. The system is a Power gear that has the gear teeth on two rectangular arms. I can replace the motor as he will ship me one when he locates it. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

[EngineerMike]

As to the piece that fell off the board- welcome to the rattle-trap nature of a house on our nation's highways. See if you can figure a way to assure that piece is better secured to the board. Zip tie solutions are nice when you can make them work; cheap & simple to undo/redo. If that's impossible, maybe the spring clips that hold the spades are weak and need to be adjusted slightly w/a pair of needle nose to hold the spades tighter.

Is your mobile tech a PowerGear expert? There may be failure prone solenoids or relays between that switch and the motor. These are usually cheap in comparison to the motor, and kids who don't know the particular system tend to blame switches and motors because those are easy & obvious. IIWMI'd get ahold of your PowerGear schematic and look for solenoids & relays, then test them.

[Vegasdan]

Mike, he tested electric to the motor and when the interior switches were pushed for "In and Out" there was electric to the motor. The motor just wouldn't move the slide out. Going in was not problem.

[RV Wizard]

The piece that has fallen off the controller is the auto reset circuit breaker. Someone needs to check the voltage at the motor under a load. I bet it is breaking down. I would not be surprised that it is at the controller. The circuit breaker should not fall out. This means that the connections are loose. Also check for good grounds.