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Old 12-30-2017, 10:16 AM   #1
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slide out won't retract-too cold?

I have a 2006 Fleetwood Flair with two slides. Several days ago the front slide would not retract; the bedroom slide retracted properly. I retracted it manually...wow...don't ever want to do that again! I should say I retracted it mostly. I couldn't get it in the last 3 inches because there was no room for the wrench. Drove above 20 miles to fill up on propane. When we returned to our camping spot, the slide performed beautifully.

The question is, what happened and why (I NEVER want to have to retract it manually again!). The drive motor is a direct drive power gear.

We are in single digit cold. Is it possible the retraction mechanism was so cold that the resistance caused the "auto-reset" circuit breaker to break? And then driving warmed up the mechanism, the circuit breaker reset and life was good again?

Other ideas? And how to avoid this when we move again in a few days?
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Old 12-30-2017, 11:17 AM   #2
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sounds like its related to the cold. If there was any rain, that would have froze. condensation from breathing, cooking, showering inside, could have frozen on seals and too much resistance caused the motor to stall out. Maybe the grease in the gears got so thick from the cold, the motor couldn't overpower it.
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Old 12-30-2017, 11:55 AM   #3
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If you have a slide topper, there could be ice on it that sags the fabric down as the slide comes in and jams between the roller and side of coach the last 3". Other than that 3", it would seem to operate fine.
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Old 12-31-2017, 12:04 AM   #4
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Sounds like low battery voltage to me. Were you connected to shore power or have the engine running when trying the slides the first time. Driving the MH may have put enough charge in the batteries to power the slides. To make it easier to manually drive the slides in or out you need to disengage the brake on the end of the motor.
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Old 12-31-2017, 07:39 AM   #5
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Sounds like low battery voltage to me. Were you connected to shore power or have the engine running when trying the slides the first time. Driving the MH may have put enough charge in the batteries to power the slides. To make it easier to manually drive the slides in or out you need to disengage the brake on the end of the motor.
Great points. Engine was running. Shore power disconnected. Brake diconnected.
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Old 12-31-2017, 07:40 AM   #6
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Great points. Engine was running. Shore power disconnected. Brake diconnected.
Disconnected
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Old 12-31-2017, 08:27 AM   #7
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We had a 34' 1999 Dutch Star and while camping in Feb the only slide ( Long drivers side slide) would not retract. The engine was running but it was in the teens. All I did was lower the front and rear jacks on the passenger side tilting the RV to the right and the slide towards the center. That reduced the weight demand and along with some gravity was enough to get it to retract.

That fix might not work with all slides but it might be worth a try. While you were manually retracting the slide did you at any time during that ordeal again try to retract it electrically?

Here's something else that may have happened. With the cold it creates a higher than normal current demand in 3electrical items. Perhaps when you first started to retract the current went to high and something tripped. Then it eventually it reset.

We just had our kitchen slide fixed. This is a Schwintek slide on a WBGO. The tech who repaired it also gave me this information which is not in the manuals and nobody told us this during our walk through.

When retracting those slides your to keep the button pressed until the slide stops. That's both going in or out. WHY? The system stops working when it reaches a max current draw but it has to learn what that current draw it. It's designed to do that.

If you stop a second or two before it reaches max current then it begins to learn that the max current is less than what it learned before. I hope that makes sense.

He also told me that it may be ne3cessary to teach the system what the new high current demand is. Here's how it's done.

Take the slide out maybe 1/3 of the way then retract it until the motors stop. Then go out 2/3's then return then finally take it out all the way then retract. Always when all the way in or out keep pressure on the switch until they stop. Don't try to guess when to stop just let them stop then release the button.

First of all I'm going to assume what I just learned is accurate. It does make sense to me. On the other hand maybe what I learned is wrong. I'm going to start a new thread with this slide information so others will know what I just learned. And maybe the information will also be supported by some others as well.

The bottom line it would be good to know if it is correct and then we can be doing what we should with these slides.
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Old 12-31-2017, 09:50 AM   #8
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I would do a load test on your batteries. They might have 12 or 6 volts depending on what battery type but they don’t have any Amps. Most any shop can do a load test, you might be surprised. Good luck
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Old 12-31-2017, 11:59 AM   #9
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Disconnected
Same problem this morning. I discovered if I held a hair dryer on the fuse /circuit breaker ... problem solved!
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Old 12-31-2017, 12:03 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by TeJay View Post
We had a 34' 1999 Dutch Star and while camping in Feb the only slide ( Long drivers side slide) would not retract. The engine was running but it was in the teens. All I did was lower the front and rear jacks on the passenger side tilting the RV to the right and the slide towards the center. That reduced the weight demand and along with some gravity was enough to get it to retract.

That fix might not work with all slides but it might be worth a try. While you were manually retracting the slide did you at any time during that ordeal again try to retract it electrically?

Here's something else that may have happened. With the cold it creates a higher than normal current demand in 3electrical items. Perhaps when you first started to retract the current went to high and something tripped. Then it eventually it reset.

We just had our kitchen slide fixed. This is a Schwintek slide on a WBGO. The tech who repaired it also gave me this information which is not in the manuals and nobody told us this during our walk through.

When retracting those slides your to keep the button pressed until the slide stops. That's both going in or out. WHY? The system stops working when it reaches a max current draw but it has to learn what that current draw it. It's designed to do that.

If you stop a second or two before it reaches max current then it begins to learn that the max current is less than what it learned before. I hope that makes sense.

He also told me that it may be ne3cessary to teach the system what the new high current demand is. Here's how it's done.

Take the slide out maybe 1/3 of the way then retract it until the motors stop. Then go out 2/3's then return then finally take it out all the way then retract. Always when all the way in or out keep pressure on the switch until they stop. Don't try to guess when to stop just let them stop then release the button.

First of all I'm going to assume what I just learned is accurate. It does make sense to me. On the other hand maybe what I learned is wrong. I'm going to start a new thread with this slide information so others will know what I just learned. And maybe the information will also be supported by some others as well.

The bottom line it would be good to know if it is correct and then we can be doing what we should with these slides.
Very helpful. Thanks!
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Old 12-31-2017, 12:04 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by Jpiland View Post
I would do a load test on your batteries. They might have 12 or 6 volts depending on what battery type but they don’t have any Amps. Most any shop can do a load test, you might be surprised. Good luck
Thanks. Will do that when we are home.
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Old 12-31-2017, 12:15 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TeJay View Post
We had a 34' 1999 Dutch Star and while camping in Feb the only slide ( Long drivers side slide) would not retract. The engine was running but it was in the teens. All I did was lower the front and rear jacks on the passenger side tilting the RV to the right and the slide towards the center. That reduced the weight demand and along with some gravity was enough to get it to retract.

That fix might not work with all slides but it might be worth a try. While you were manually retracting the slide did you at any time during that ordeal again try to retract it electrically?

Here's something else that may have happened. With the cold it creates a higher than normal current demand in 3electrical items. Perhaps when you first started to retract the current went to high and something tripped. Then it eventually it reset.

We just had our kitchen slide fixed. This is a Schwintek slide on a WBGO. The tech who repaired it also gave me this information which is not in the manuals and nobody told us this during our walk through.

When retracting those slides your to keep the button pressed until the slide stops. That's both going in or out. WHY? The system stops working when it reaches a max current draw but it has to learn what that current draw it. It's designed to do that.

If you stop a second or two before it reaches max current then it begins to learn that the max current is less than what it learned before. I hope that makes sense.

He also told me that it may be ne3cessary to teach the system what the new high current demand is. Here's how it's done.

Take the slide out maybe 1/3 of the way then retract it until the motors stop. Then go out 2/3's then return then finally take it out all the way then retract. Always when all the way in or out keep pressure on the switch until they stop. Don't try to guess when to stop just let them stop then release the button.

First of all I'm going to assume what I just learned is accurate. It does make sense to me. On the other hand maybe what I learned is wrong. I'm going to start a new thread with this slide information so others will know what I just learned. And maybe the information will also be supported by some others as well.

The bottom line it would be good to know if it is correct and then we can be doing what we should with these slides.
I did retry several times during the ordeal to no avail but it did start working after we drove to get propane. Love the tilt idea...never occurred to me. You would think there would be a way to attach a drill and use it for the manual process. I had to lay on my back and use my legs to turn the wrench.
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Old 12-31-2017, 09:38 PM   #13
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If your coach is plugged in your converter will supply the 12v necessary to operate your slides no matter what your batteries are putting out, especially in cold weather.
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