Community Forums

HB Phil · 05-09-2007, 09:25 AM

A few times, but not always, my breakers have tripped when operating the front hydraulic jacks. I can hear the braker trip. In 2-3 seconds the breakers cycle and passes power again. Other times there is no problem at all.

It seems to me that the breakers are operating at the high end of their rating.

Another time my hydraulics did not work at all. I found that the wire had come loose from the breaker that I described to you in the shore cord/control pendant storage compartmnet (not your battery compartment).

It seems to be getting better the more I use and "break-in" the hydraulics.

In any case, I'm having it checked when I go to the factory in August.

wrongway · 05-10-2007, 05:32 AM

What you are discribing is a circuit breaker issue. In the front compartment of the unit on the right side as you are looking into the compartment is a 40 AMP Breaker for the hydralic slides. When sliding in the unit the larger slides are drawing more power and is causing the breaker to trip. Lippert is the engineer and designs these slides. On a Competers brand we were having the same issues. Lippert stated that the slides could draw up to a 100 amps at any given point. On these perticular units we installed 2-50 amp circuit breakers to cover the draw. Never had a problem after that. I AM NOT recommending you do this without consulting your dealer or Excel for authorization to do so, just letting you know what we have seen on other units. IMO this is what needs to be done. I have contacted Excel and they are currently exploring this as we speak. Hope to have a answer for you in the near future (today or so).
Running your slides and having this happen is not going to hurt or stop the operation of your slides. IT is merely going to slow down the time that is taking to get the rooms in, do to the circuit breaker resetting itself.
Hope this helps for the time being.

HB Phil · 05-10-2007, 05:39 AM

I believe there are two more 30 Amp breakers in line for the hydraulics that are located in the shore cord storage compartment, on the inside of the outside wall.

If you disconnect the power from these breakers, two in line, the hydraulics won't work.

As stated the wire came loose on mine and I lost the hydraulics. So I think that, in total, there may be 100 Amps of breakers.

wrongway · 05-10-2007, 05:58 AM

I went an relooked at unit on our lot and yes have found the 2 breakers behind the battery disconnect switch on the door side behind the battery compartment. I could not see completely to what amps there are, but if they are only 30's then this would only give you a total of 60amps that you would be using and this possibly still can cause these to overload if drawing more. I will wait to here from Excel to there answer.

HB Phil · 05-10-2007, 06:02 AM

I was thinking that these are combined with that 40 Amp one up in the front compartment.

As stated I basically have the same problem but mine is the breaker(s) trip when I operate the hydraulic front jacks but not the slides.

I have the independent hydraulic leveling system.

Speaking for myself, it is not an emergency situation, just a minor inconvenience that requires a little more time to operate the front jacks - that is when the breakers trip. Sometimes there's no problem. That is why I said that it seems the system is set up at to operate at the high end of the breakers' amp rating. They seem to be on a hair trigger...

But I wouldn't dare put higher rated breakers in there. That's definitely an Excel Dealer/PI item that I imagine would require Lippert certification and approval.

wrongway · 05-10-2007, 06:13 AM

Just recieved a phone call from Curtis with Peterson Industries, who is right on top of the Hydraulic Slides and operations. Excel does use 2-50 Amp breakers inline with the slides. Now 3 different reasons why something may not be working correctly.
1) Weak Battery
2) Loose Connection at the breakers or at the circuit on the pump
3) Weak breakers

Resolution.
1) Check batteries
2) Check all connections
3) Replace Breakers

Now, he also stated that they use 3 different size breakers in the unit 30,40,and 50. If on the line a employee was installing and overtightened a breaker and caused it to crack and POSSIBLY grabbed the wrong breaker, you have to small of a breaker there. So check to verify which size you have.
Hope this assist you and good luck.

ChiefJohn · 05-10-2007, 06:57 AM

Thanks again Tom! Folks, Tom continues to be a big asset for our forum -- would not hesitate to recommend his dealership, Bob and Jo's RV Center, Inc., Guthrie Center, Iowa to prospective Excel buyers.

Other Excel dealers should take notice of the opportunity to assist this forum and the potential resulting good-will in return.

Highgturn · 05-10-2007, 07:15 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ChiefJohn:
Thanks again Tom! Folks, Tom continues to be a big asset for our forum -- would not hesitate to recommend his dealership, Bob and Jo's RV Center, Inc., Guthrie Center, Iowa to prospective Excel buyers.

Other Excel dealers should take notice of the opportunity to assist this forum and the potential resulting good-will in return. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Amen.......brother John.

LindaH · 05-10-2007, 07:41 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wrongway:
Just recieved a phone call from Curtis with Peterson Industries, who is right on top of the Hydraulic Slides and operations. Excel does use 2-50 Amp breakers inline with the slides. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, that's how our's is set up. The 2 50-amp breakers on our rig are located right behind the water heater which is on the street side next to the battery compartment. We had to remove the panel behind the water heater in order to access these breakers.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Now 3 different reasons why something may not be working correctly.
1) Weak Battery
2) Loose Connection at the breakers or at the circuit on the pump
3) Weak breakers </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

In our case, we found loose connections at the 50-amp breakers. We are also replacing both breakers, since the more often they trip, the weaker they become. As I'm typing this, Earl is out buying 2 new 50-amp breakers. Hopefully, by replacing these two breakers and making sure all connections are tight, that will solve the problem. I'll post here what the results are once the new breakers have been installed.

We were very fortunate to find a friend staying here at the Colorado Springs Elks Club when we arrived who is very knowledgeable about electrical matters. He's been helping us trouble shoot and even spoke with Curtis yesterday. Without his help, I'm not sure we would have known what to do!

HB Phil · 05-10-2007, 08:12 AM

Does anyone kmnow the total amp rating for this hydraulic pump/motor? Is is 100 Amps or 140 Amps? More importantly, does anyone know the load capacity of the wiring?

If you put 2, each, 50 Amp in line at the power cord compartment, then, combined with the other 40 Amp fuse in the front compartment, you will be at 140 Amps, total.

Whatever you do, be careful not to exceed the load capacity of the wiring which can create a fire hazard.

Lori & Scott · 05-10-2007, 08:20 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ChiefJohn:
Thanks again Tom! Folks, Tom continues to be a big asset for our forum -- would not hesitate to recommend his dealership, Bob and Jo's RV Center, Inc., Guthrie Center, Iowa to prospective Excel buyers.

Other Excel dealers should take notice of the opportunity to assist this forum and the potential resulting good-will in return. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

ChiefJohn

That is exactly what I was thinking if Tom is this helpful with us on the forum I would be very comfortable buying our trailer there. Darn we can't wait for this house to sell. Hope to see you soon Tom!

wrongway · 05-10-2007, 09:01 AM

Thanks for the positive comments, great ones alway make for a Great Day.

HB, I was incorrect on the front 40 AMP, it does state something about the Hydralics, but this in the in line breaker that comes from your truck battery feed. I inquired about it with Curtis when I spoke to him and he inlightened me on that. Sorry for the confusion on that one.

In reviewing the information that Mike our servive manager gave me, Hydralic slides can draw between 80 and 100 amps, depending on weather and slide rams. Colder weather will thicken the fluid and cause the pump to work harder, causing the amps to go up. One thing that Curtis did discuss with me was that Lippert stated that there is a 80 AMP Manual Reset Breaker. Sometimes the Manuals will take a little bit more amps before they trip. I discouraged him from this due to past experience with a SOB trailer that we use to sell. Customers were alway confused when you tried to explain this breaker. The reset button is about the size of a pencil head and sometimes difficult to see it obstructed by wiring etc. This could be something in the future they may change to. Will have wait an see what they think.

Hope all this has assisted LindaH in their Excel

HB Phil · 05-10-2007, 09:45 AM

This feedback is really terrific. Thanks for tracking this one down. And kudos to Curtis for his responsiveness down the line at PI - just terrific!

LindaH · 05-10-2007, 10:40 AM

The 2 new 50-amps breakers and making sure all the connections were tight did not fix the problem.

Which means there has to be a FOURTH reason for this problem, since we know it's not a weak battery problem -- we have 4 new 12-volt AGM batteries which are currently reading over 14 volts on our solar monitor (besides which, this has been an ongoing problem long before we ever had any solar work done on the rig...I first mentioned this problem back on March 31, and we didn't have the solar installed until sometime in April).

We're waiting for a call back from Curtis to see what the next step is. At this point, it looks like we may have to take the rig back to Smith Center to have them diagnosis and fix the problem since we haven't been successful getting it into any of the Excel dealer's we were close to in our travels. (An interesting side note here...we received a voice message from a woman at the Excel dealer in Moriarty, NM who told us that they didn't have any techs who knew anything about the hydraulic system on the Excels, so even if they were able to get us in, they couldn't have helped us.)