slides not coming all the way in

[Capt Kidd]

so when I go to put the slides in and am hooked up to shore power every thing works fine but when not hooked to shore power the slides come a ways and then stop. I release the button and then repush it and it again works for a while then I have to do the stop start again. Any ideas why?

[DQDick]

If the weather is cold it's because the fluid is thick and the pump is drawing enough juice to trip the resetting breaker. Many folks have replaced the original with an 80 amp breaker, it that was the problem, and the issue goes away.

[jcurtis934]

It all comes down to the auto reset thermal breaker that feeds the pump. Cold weather, low battery voltage, etc will cause more current draw and the breaker does its open for a brief time until the bimetallic contacts close again. They also get weaker with time and arcing between the contacts. I always do slides and levelers while hooked to shore power to help keep current draws to minimums.

[rohrmann]

It would be nice to know what rig you have, but yes, most likely your problem will go away when you replace the cheap, undersized 12 volt breaker with an 80 amp breaker like what Lippert says should be installed for the hydraulic pump. In the photo, the line side cable feeds the breaker from the line side of the other breaker, then two cables exit the 80 amp breaker, one goes to the hydraulic pump and the other is the one that goes to the trailer main panel via the battery disconnect switch. To make sure you identify the correct breaker to change out, follow the cable from the hydraulic pump back to the breaker.