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tbone49 · 10-09-2016, 10:37 AM

My 05 Fleetwood Southwind has a main room slideout that won't retract. It starts to move and then stops. I always have the engine going when I retract or extend the slideouts. And when it is parked at the house I always hook up shore power. The Aux and Main battery gauges say I have over 14 volts when engine is off and hooked up to house power. So there should be enough power to retract.

A week ago, we got back home from a 3 week trip. It didn't happen even once during the trip. So we lucked out there.

I crawled underneath and disconnected the motor and unlocked the motor brake by turning the lever CCW. Then I tried to retract with a wrench but it didn't budge at all. But I only had a small wrench.

This slide has always operated slow, in my mind. But this is the first time it refused to operate at all.
I also tried to raising the driver side with the levelers to take some weight off the slide, no luck.... then made sure I leveled it. No better.
Can anybody out there help? Thanks.

Skip426 · 10-09-2016, 05:14 PM

Do you know the brand of slide mechanism ?

With the motor drive disconnect you mention , I'm thinking Power Gear.

Have you looked for a circuit breaker in the power supply wiring , some times a weak self re-setting circuit breaker can cause the condition you describe.
Is your slide control , push and hold for slide operation , or a single push to operate the slide? The singe push type usually means there is a controller in the circuit , that may have an adjustable amp load limit for operation.

NMBluept · 10-09-2016, 05:32 PM

Sounds like the slide is getting jammed. Since you say it starts to move it appears that the motor is getting power. If it were me, I would extend the slide,then disconnect the motor, disengage the brake and try to manually crank it in. It should move the same amount as when under motor control then become jammed,but perhaps you can determine what the problem is. It could be a support roller or the motorgear/rack assembly. May even try jacking the slide up and looking under it for obstructions.

Good luck,

tbone49 · 10-09-2016, 10:33 PM

It's a push and hold switch to either retract or extend.
I'll check for the circuit controller.

Thanks.

tbone49 · 10-09-2016, 10:36 PM

I'll look for an obstruction or try to see if the slide is jammed. A jam sounds more likely than an obstruction but I'll check for both.
Thanks very much.

mhbell · 10-10-2016, 08:20 AM

My Friend had the same problem. He would extend the slide and then get 2 or 3 friends on the outside to push on the slide while his wife worked the switch to get the slide in. He finally found the problem. It was a dead cell in one of the batteries that worked the slide. Replaced the battery and all is OK. Hope this helps. I would check all of the batteries and the cells with a hydrometer to check the specific gravity. A dead cell can keep a slide from working even with the engine running.
Mel_B

plasma800 · 10-10-2016, 08:31 AM

Just an added thought, you might consider swapping the switch itself with another in your coach. I had an old switch fail giving the same symptom.

You can also research how to pull the wires from the motor and directly connect to a battery. Lots of people do this to test the slide and motor, eliminating the controller, switch, fuses.

The switch itself simply reverses polarity. So when you direct connect to a battery, one way will make the motor operate in one direction. Swap the leads polarity and it will operate in the opposite direction.

tbone49 · 10-10-2016, 10:42 PM

Sounds like a great idea. I'll check the coach batteries. I had the chassis battery checked recently and it checked out good. But didn't check the two house batteries.
Thanks!

tbone49 · 10-12-2016, 02:13 PM

Problem solved. Not electrical at all....although I replaced both 6V house batteries anyway. they were due.
Slideout plate was jamming up against the laminate floor edge. Must have finally built up enough to prevent slideout from closing. I removed the one plank and slideout retracts. Now I have to customize something to cover missing floor board. The new floor is higher than factory. Just glad this didn't happen on the road. Thanks to all that replied!