Camper Slider not sliding

[Willcoc]

Hope that somebody can lead me in a direction to resolve this issue.
Friend called when the slider would not move on his pull camper. He know that I had a volt meter. Looked at the fuse panel and could find no blown fuses but also did not see one labled for the slider. Took the switch from the wall and did not get a 12 vdc. To test that the motor worked, just a set of jumper cables. Motor worked fine in both directions. So where else do we look in the camper for a source of power for the slider?

[DmaxMaverick]

Without any further info.....

It varies slightly from mfg to mfg, but it shouldn't be complicated, if you can get to the pump unit (usually located near the battery/ies). The pump unit is powered directly off the battery(ies), and has its own circuit breakers, relays, and a method of manual operation (usually a hole in the end of the motor, so you can use a drill and a 1/4" or 5/16" socket). Some of the older models have a manual hand crank.

Depending on where you "jumped" the circuit, it could be circuit breaker(s), relay(s), a loose wire connection, or dead/dying batteries. If you are trying to power it on shore power (plugged into 110V), the power converter may be going south, not able to provide the needed amperage, and some of them don't do it at all, even when new. Be sure the battery(ies) are connected, healthy, and well charged. If a 12V light dims significantly while trying to slide, bet on a power source problem (dead batteries and/or power converter).

[KallyI]

Mine has inline fuses on the hot wire, one for the slideout, and one for the front legs(5th wheel).

[Willcoc]

Riverside 26BHSS made by Adventure manufacturing
I put power directly to the motor and by switching the polarity, the direction changed. We are doing the testing with shore power connected. The output from the converter is good since nothing dims when we push the button for the slider to operate. The inline fuse sounds like what we need to find but have no idea where it might be. We have opened everything (even areas that made no sense) and still don't find anything.

[rustyk]

There are both hydraulic and mechanical slideout mechanisms. The two are different (obviously). So the first thing is to determine the manufacturer and model.

Some hydraulic (HWH) have a procedure to retract "manually"; there is a relief valve that sometimes pops and has to be reset (or so I was told by my friend, who, with me, enjoyed learning the process in 35F and rain).

[Willcoc]

This is a pull type camper and has a access panel under the trailer that the battery and light cord from the truck go into. After considerable effort, we removed this cover panel. We found several "nuts" had dropped from studs and some wires just hanging. So fixed them and still no power through the system. Then we looked closer at the mounting studs and they are circuit breakers. So pushed the rest button and all was good. The slider is on the same side of the breaker as the front battery. So we are thinking that the battery shorted (read 7.2 volts) and tripped this 40 amp breaker. That then caused the slider to not have power.

Sooner or later, the loose wires would have created a frustating problem with the trailer towing lights so that was good catch before they had issues.

As they say, knowing where to find the problem is the battle. Hope that this might help somebody in the future.

[DmaxMaverick]

Careful jumping to conclusions on the batteries. If it has two, they are likely a pair of 6V batteries, and may normally show 7.2V, fully charged. If there is one 12V and one 6V battery, it could explain why the breaker was tripped (wired in series, that makes 18V, and means overload).

6V deep cycle battery pairs (golf cart or lift equipment batteries) are the preferred DC power source in RV's. If they come OEM with 12V, there's usually only one. I use two and four 12V batteries in mine (depends on where and how long I'm camping, or if I remember to adjust), and dry camp a lot. Four 12V batteries are almost as good (and performance) as two good 6V. Sounds silly, but that's the reality. Amp for amp, 12V is a lot less expensive, though.

[arveetek]

Careful jumping to conclusions on the batteries. If it has two, they are likely a pair of 6V batteries, and may normally show 7.2V, fully charged. If there is one 12V and one 6V battery, it could explain why the breaker was tripped (wired in series, that makes 18V, and means overload).

6V deep cycle battery pairs (golf cart or lift equipment batteries) are the preferred DC power source in RV's. If they come OEM with 12V, there's usually only one. I use two and four 12V batteries in mine (depends on where and how long I'm camping, or if I remember to adjust), and dry camp a lot. Four 12V batteries are almost as good (and performance) as two good 6V. Sounds silly, but that's the reality. Amp for amp, 12V is a lot less expensive, though.

Very good info above, but I would say that finding two 6Volt batteries on a trailer is quite rare. Most trailer owners won't spend the money for that setup. It very likely has two 12volt batteries. Most trailers don't even come from the factory with batteries installed....they're installed by the dealer at the time of sale. Nearly every trailer that we sell at our dealership leaves with two 12Volt deep cycle batteries.

A lot of motorhomes tend to have the dual or quad 6volt battery setup factory installed, however.

Casey

[DmaxMaverick]

By preferred, I didn't mean necessarily more common, but a more effective option, if there is a choice to be made. I've seen the same, lately. More "less expensive" options being provided by dealerships.

However, with a 7.2V reading and the rest of the symptoms, I'd recommend further investigation.

[Willcoc]

It only has one battery. We put the jumper cables from his truck battery to the RV battery for some testing before finding the tripped breaker. We also found a bad connection on the ground wires (white wires) at the trailer frame. Since these are "outside" they are getting corroded. They should have put these in the covered area with the other wires. The battery being bad is just a thought on why the breaker was tripped. The camper has not been out this year but will be in a couple of weeks but the spot has full hook-up so the battery is really not needed.