Community Forums

dmctlc · 07-02-2022, 05:19 PM

So I posted last year on my rear slide issue and after heading back to the dealers for the 3rd time with yet the same failure where the rear bath/bedroom slide front motor starts pulling the slide in and stops after about a foot or two. N all instances it works for a while on short trips or when on the RV pad at our house but longer trips after a few stops, it stops working again. I have to push it innwhile my DW is pushing the retract button inside. They've replaced the controller once, motor one and last time they claimed the new motor wiring got caught in the gear. I told them it wasn't that easy but took it home tested it on the pad several times a month. On several short trips it was good when our first long trip back to NE third stop starts ot again. The last time it failed not only Tiffin got involved but Lippert, too! Checked everything fault code said short to grd but wasn't convinced and here we are. Obviously dealers techs aren't really troubleshooting it they just throw things in and it works and calls it a day. I'm fairly handy with electrical troubleshooting and wanted to start following the cabling but Tiffin won't give me any sort of wiring schematics how this system works between motor, controller, harness and G6 board to wall switch. Thinking of heading to Red Bay in the fall since once we leave here we need to be back in Florida for several critical Dr. Appts for my DW. I was thinking Vroom but they're booked till April next year. I'm the type that like a challenge but it's tough without any electrical wiring diagrams. If anyone has some insight I'd appreciate it. I'd call Tiffin like last year Brett was on the phone over an hour but this is going to take longer I'm sure and just don't feel comfortable going to anyone else locally. I also attached a couple of pictures because I did notice that inside on the side that fails coming in the roller set up seemed oddly setup not over it rather off to one side. That side of the slide inside is probably as much as several inches off the floor while that back of this slide inside seems to be less than an inch. One picture you can see a lot of light from the outside corner.

dmctlc · 07-04-2022, 07:13 AM

What I find ironic is the number of threads with electric slide issues not just on the day that I posted my issues but for years. VROOM is booked up almost till next summer already and building a large facility to handle the large volume of folks moving to this more robust system. Makes you wonder why Tiffin and other mfgs. haven't pushed LCI/Schwintek to build a more reliable system. Though VROOM is fairly new and does not have any support system outside RED BAY so only time will tell if there system is a game changer.

**Lt Dan** · 07-04-2022, 07:46 AM

Dana, if this is on your large bed slide you may have a shorted wire under the bed. I had the same issue and in desperation took the floor out of the bottom of the bed storage. Under there was a bundle of wires tightly wrapped, including the controller wires for the slide motors, bundled together with the 120v and 12v wires that have to move with the bed. There is no reason for the controller wires to move with the bed. I pulled the controller wires out of the bundle and loosely looped the four or five feet of extra wiring and secured the loop to the floor with wire supports. You can see which two are the controller wires as they will lead out toward the sides of the slide along the floor. Since then, I have had zero issues with the slide. There must have been a wire pinched or shorted inside the controller wire causing a fault. This all has to be done with the slide out so you can get to the bare wood subfloor that's under the bed. I wish I had taken photos but I didn't. If this is your vanity slide, it may be the same issue with the wiring that's behind the drawers.

On your photos, it does look like the roller mounted to the slide is riding up over the one that's attached to the floor. That is not right and should not do that. One or both need to be moved away from each other. Since you have a 2016 OH, which was the first year for that model, it may have been an engineering error and Red Bay should correct that.

dmctlc · 07-04-2022, 10:35 PM

Dan its the bath/bedroom or rear Pass slide that is having this constant problem. The bundle you mention under the bed slide did those wires belong only to the bed slide? I found a wire from motor two from the bed slide in the storage bay on the passenger side where both controllers are mounted. So I've wondering if previous owners had problems with the bed slide or both before we bought it. The bed slide has had no issues. Though as I've mentioned not so with the bath/bedroom (Pass side). Hence why im.trying to figure out how these slides are so I can check them out with my meter. If Bob Tiffin was still the go to for a call I'd call him to get his help. If I can figure it out I might head out there in the fall. Do you happen to know when things are quieter out in Red Bay at Tiffin? Where we're not waiting for weeks to get in to their express bay?

garykk · 07-05-2022, 12:53 PM

I agree with Dan, one of those rollers needs to be moved.

dmctlc · 07-05-2022, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lt Dan

Dana, if this is on your large bed slide you may have a shorted wire under the bed. I had the same issue and in desperation took the floor out of the bottom of the bed storage. Under there was a bundle of wires tightly wrapped, including the controller wires for the slide motors, bundled together with the 120v and 12v wires that have to move with the bed. There is no reason for the controller wires to move with the bed. I pulled the controller wires out of the bundle and loosely looped the four or five feet of extra wiring and secured the loop to the floor with wire supports. You can see which two are the controller wires as they will lead out toward the sides of the slide along the floor. Since then, I have had zero issues with the slide. There must have been a wire pinched or shorted inside the controller wire causing a fault. This all has to be done with the slide out so you can get to the bare wood subfloor that's under the bed. I wish I had taken photos but I didn't. If this is your vanity slide, it may be the same issue with the wiring that's behind the drawers.

On your photos, it does look like the roller mounted to the slide is riding up over the one that's attached to the floor. That is not right and should not do that. One or both need to be moved away from each other. Since you have a 2016 OH, which was the first year for that model, it may have been an engineering error and Red Bay should correct that.

So I'm hoping to make a call to Tiffin in the next day or two to get some answers on how this wiring is set up so I can trace things out. Since being 1500 miles north of our house doesn't lend myself to much versatility in checking things out in a CG. So in going what you said that roller setup seems to be how they were mount originally and I can't see how it could be moved, at least without removing the slide completely plus there's a cable boot and tray that's right to the right face the rollers so I can't see it moving much at all. It's why I posted it because the alignment didn't seem to be right. I'm know someone with a 2018 44OH i'm hoping to gt in touch with to see if he can take pictures on his set up. Not sure if Tiffin has a way of checking out if this had issues and work done on it under warranty or not? I've attached better pictures. I see both ends seem to be off-centered while the two middle rollers match up almost perfectly. If the pics come out right the first two is the roller setup on the side that has the issue. The next two are the two center rollers and the last is the back roller setup... Any insight or if you know anyone with the same model and even the same year that could take pictures I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

garykk · 07-06-2022, 09:57 AM

From your pics it appears that the first ones, on the left side, the bottom roller appears to be much higher than the center and right bottom roller. Is this true or just the way the pictures are? The last picture shows much more of the top roller rolling over the bottom one and NOT causing the slide to pitch.
Yours is an interesting setup. I’ve owned several MHs with slides and this is a first where rollers roll over each other. Is there a lip that the slide must go up over?
When retracting, do all three top roller make contact with the bottom rollers at the same time? This can make a big difference if 1. The rollers are not lined up and 2. The slide motors are not perfectly synced.

dmctlc · 07-06-2022, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garykk

From your pics it appears that the first ones, on the left side, the bottom roller appears to be much higher than the center and right bottom roller. Is this true or just the way the pictures are? The last picture shows much more of the top roller rolling over the bottom one and NOT causing the slide to pitch.
Yours is an interesting setup. I’ve owned several MHs with slides and this is a first where rollers roll over each other. Is there a lip that the slide must go up over?
When retracting, do all three top roller make contact with the bottom rollers at the same time? This can make a big difference if 1. The rollers are not lined up and 2. The slide motors are not perfectly synced.

It appears to me that the front rollers on the slide itself seem to roll up to the permenantly mounted rollers in the floor except the ones in the first few pictures it seems to be pulling it up over the permenantly mounted one. I've done the syncing multiple times with this slide in fact I usually make it a practice to sync all of them everytime I bring them in and put them out. As for a lip there's not one that I'm aware of that I see. I tried to put my boroscope along the inside and outside of this slide to see if I notice anything and nothing sticks out. To my knowledge I've always thought there was two sets of rollers at least on the electric slides where bottom, permenantly mounted one on the floor to keepthe slide up as it comes in while the one on the slide itself is used to keep the slide moving across the floor as it comes in. I just wish I could get someone who has a similar model as mine to see what their setup is like.

garykk · 07-08-2022, 10:57 AM

Have been able verify that the rollers actually turn? Is the problem roller on the floor higher than the others?

michaelt0120 · 07-12-2022, 04:09 PM

I had a similar problem with a rear slide on my 2020 Bus. It worked intermittently and was failing more frequently as time went on. After a year and a half of Tiffin trying different things like cleaning and adjusting, replacing controllers, etc., it came down to a bad wiring harness running to one of the motors. Tiffin replaced the harness and we haven’t had a problem with the slide in the last 11 months.

Jerryss2 · 07-12-2022, 06:46 PM

Don’t bother with a dealer go to tiffin in red bay

We had similar problems, during our May visit they replaced the tracks and added stiffness to the walls. We are on the waiting list for vroom too

rdalemercer · 07-12-2022, 08:38 PM

Dmctlc,
Does your slide "lift" while it is coming in from the deployed / extended position?

Just wondering if the slide lifts, could it be putting pressure on the motor, causing it to overtorque/seize..... and stop?

I may be barking up the wrong tree, but your pictures seem to show that the slide is higher when it passes over the other roller.

Msmoto · 07-13-2022, 07:02 AM

Having not owned a Tiffin since 2014 when I sold my 2010 Bus, I am not certain if Ricky Johnson is still with Tiffin. He was the parts manager at the service center, but he and a friend would wash and wax my entire 44 foot bus at his house and at that time it was about $225 as I remember. So, if one goes to the Allegro Service Center in Red Bay, maybe he is still doing this. Best deal in town, they did it by hand and did an exceptional job. .

dmctlc · 07-19-2022, 12:13 PM

So I'll try to answer several different questions. First does it lift when it deploys? Good question and I'm wondering if that could be the issue since everytime I deploy or retract all my slides is I allow a few seconds once they are all out or in to sync up the motors. When I do this slide it might be pushing it up a bit. It might be it's pushing it up when syncing up. Not sure how to stop that since you at least need to hold it until it's fully extended.
Second question was related to the rollers are they free spooling and the answer is yes there does not seem to be an issue with them.
Now I've been trying to get help from Tiffin Slide Group especially from Brent for the last few weeks and can't seem to get him on the phone or he's out. Whomever answers has no desire to help because I have a chance they either hangup or say something that I can't understand quickly and hang up even if I try to ask for other help. So I still can't figure out the wiring on how these wiring harnesses, etc, run between the motor, controller, wall switch, Data panel or G6 board. Does all the wires from the motor harness go right to the controller and if so what goes where ? How is the wall switch work with the rest of the systems and wiring? etc...etc...etc....
I've thought of going to RED BAY in the fall just not sure of the best time to get in and out without waiting 3 or more weeks. Anyone know the best time please let me know. I may also have my servicing done while I'm up there but need to line that all up ahead of time.
Funny thing is the slides started working again for now and we're only putting it on stays a week or longer. This tells me it's a wiring problem that is induced by the rough roads and bridges we drove on the way up here. We now retract the slide the day before in case it doesn't work I can help it in or if it fails totally like last fall I can disconnect the motor and lock the slide in for travel. Leave it in if it's a short stay a day or two.