Slide problems-- UPDATE

[Rondo]

Got home fine and opened up the unit to clear it out from the Fall Rally and now went to close the slides and the bedroom closes fine but when the other two start to come in I hear a weird sound and the lights dim and actually go out. The kitchen and the main slide do not move at all. Mary said she could smell something the day before when closing the slides. She said it smelled like hot metal or something like that. Any ideas what has happened and how I can get the slides closed? I thought about using the drill on the hydraulic pump but will not be able to do it till tomorrow morn. Maybe some ideas will come before I try that. Thanks in advance for any help!

UPDATE 10/16/13---Well I went out this morning and checked the battery for water level and all the connections(all good) then unplugged Monte from the city power and hooked up the TV to it and let it sit for about three minutes, then went inside Monte and hit the button for retracting the slides. Actually, first I put out the bedroom slide since it had retracted fine last night and then hit the IN button to retract all three. Guess what? All three sides came in-- SLOW but they came in. SOOOOO--I hit the OUT button and all three slowly went out. Then again IN button and all three came in-slow again but they came in! SOOOOO-- I unplugged Monte from the TV and hooked up the city power again. YUP, YOU GUESSED IT-- All three slides deployed as they should and I did the whole thing all over again several times and YUP all worked fine! OK, so what was the problem? Who knows! When I get Monte out to the farm and in it's cozy barn, I'll check the battery for power with the gauge and see if it is low on power! My guess is it will be and I'll have to go out and buy another battery. Any ideas aside from the battery being bad that you can think of? The "Smart" converter's little green light was on constant when I checked it this morning before doing all the rigamaroll and when I plugged the unit back into the shore power it started to blink so I'm assuming it was charging the battery. AM I CORRECT? All breakers on it were fine and none of the little lights below the fuses were lit so I'm assuming all is well there also. You come up with what happened both last night and today. Got me baffled! Well you now know "the rest of the story!"

[steves]

Could it be your converter? Do you have any 12V power?

[pineranch]

Hey Ron,
How about rig info! Might help troubleshooting your problem.
Mike

[jimcol]

Rondo, Is your battery in good shape? I've been told the converter won't always supply enough DC current to operate the pump without a good battery. Try plugging your unit back in to the truck and with the truck running try and retract the slides. A battery can supply enough for lights and such but that hydrolic pump is a hog. If you are going to use a drill get a chair and a cooler because that is one slow process. Good luck, Jim

[1retired06]

I would take a guess that since your bedroom slide operated properly, and if like our rig the first to close, the next slide in sequence is jammed and as the pump tries to close, the system stress trying to force the slide closed is causing the power loss. I would be hesitant to try the manual drill routine for fear of damage to the pump until I was comfortable that the slide is not somehow jammed up.

[steves]

Rondo as you know my converter died and I had to either connect to the truck or use a battery charger to maintain the batteries and my 12V feed. Because you said Mary smelled a burning smell and you lost lights I would think your converter had an issue. Also check your breakers to see if any are tripped.

[K0LCB]

The double throw relay quit on mine when we were enroute to the rally. The tech said one of the nuts came loose, now I check them when I check batteries

[BB_TX]

Weird noise?? Is it the same sound you get when all the slides reach full travel and the pump bogs down due to pressure?
You might try opening the bedroom slide back up (at least part way) and then close it again. If it still operates fine then that reduces it to something about the other two slides. If the bedroom slide will not operate now then it points back to battery, pump, or some other common element.
My slides (3) do not seem to have a defined sequence other than the one with least resistance goes first followed by the next least resistance. The bedroom, being smaller, always goes first. Then the other two both sort of bump a little before the kitchen slide stops and the living room slide continues. Then the kitchen slide continues.

[Rondo]

Sorry Mike! It's a 2004 2980RL.

Heading out to check the battery cables and hook the TV up to see if that changes anything.

The weird noise is not the sound when you bring in the all the slides it's a totally different sound. If it is the converter that is causing this, it should be under warranty since we just had a new "smart" one put in two years ago down in Florida. It was while we were with Jan and Paul before we came and visited you guys Steve!

I'll let everyone know after I check things out this morning!

[K0LCB]

Hey Ron, glad you got her figured. My friend, Mike says that if you want something to work on all the time, buy a RV

[jimcol]

Ron, Just my opinion but I would not take it to the cozy barn and check for power unless you have a tester that can check while applying a load. My guess is you will see good voltage but won't generate the amps need to operate the hydrolic pump. While in town pull the battery and take it to a battery place and have them check it with a load. Might save you a trip to town from the country. Jim

[steelpony5555]

I had a simular problem with my batteries this summer. Went to pull my slides in and the bedroom came in but the livingroom would not budge????? Checked my batteries and here the terminals were corroded. Not corroded bad enough to really notice, but once I removed the connections you could see it. A little wire brush and wa la, the slides work better then ever. I was just surprized it took so little to interfer with the workings of my slides.

[h2ojocky]

Sounds like a battery problem. I have a 2005 2955RL and the smaller slides always go first. Like others said, the slide with the least resistance goes first. If my batteries are low the slides move extremely slow. I tried to open my slides once when the batteries were not hooked up, only hooked up to truck, and slides went very slow. Check battery terminals for corrosion, check battery for voltage with meter, and load tester if you have one. Leave your Monte hooked up to shore power and see if batteries will take a charge. If they do not, it might be a converter problem.

[HOOK]

I have a way to fix it! Matter of fact we have 11 ways to fix it! Just sayin!

[DQDick]

And your offering a warranty on more than just the battery.