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vsheetz · 04-21-2013, 09:14 PM

Today when breaking camp after a long weekend the living room slide did not want to come in. Would move a few inches, and stop. Seemed that (with engine running) there was not enough chassis battery oomph to get it in. My son went out and gave it a helping push and in it came ok.

The chassis battery is several years old, so time for a replacement anyway. It is a marine type battery. I assume this is due to the long high electrical draw of moving the slides around, correct?

BTW, tried the battery boost switch - did not make a difference. So this may be a problem with the battery boost (first I have tried it) or also related to weak/failing chassis battery.

thx
Vince

Ray,IN · 04-22-2013, 12:12 AM

You are probably right. Slide motors require good batteries and draw lots of amperage. That happened to me once, DW operated the slide motor while I pushed the slide in, and truck motor was running. Thankfully that was our last night on the road, I replaced both house batteries when we got home. I anticipate the day when we can buy a Lithium-Ion battery(the non-burning kind) for house batteries (at a reasonable price).
As to why your battery failed; some RV manufacturers use a cheap single-stage battery charger in the converter. This type charger will quickly charge a good battery, and it will also over-charge it if left on continually. (my case) I must add distilled-water about every 3-4 months or the cells are dry.

94-Newmar · 04-22-2013, 03:02 AM

It could also be a 12v automatic circuit breaker that runs the slide room. When those begin to fail the symptoms are exactly as you describe.

vsheetz · 05-19-2013, 02:19 PM

Put in a shiny new Wal-Mart marine battery today for the chassis battery - replacing the seven year old one. Cycled the slide a few times without issue. I think all is good now.

vsheetz · 02-15-2014, 03:12 PM

Revisiting this post I made some time ago. The new battery appears not to be a full fix. While it worked ok for several outings over several months, it is now back to sometimes having the problem. Battery checks good on breakdown test, using boost switch does not help. Lubed the rails again. Fails about 2 of 3 times, with increasing frequency.

Any thoughts?

**CLIFFTALL** · 02-15-2014, 03:32 PM

Are they Power Gear ? If so , they say not to lube the rails.
Here's a link to a few tech docs on FW electric slideouts.

Fleetwood Tech Library - Power Gear

Power Gear techs are very available via email . their address is info@powergearus.com

They will respond quickly and will walk you through some diagnostics.