Making a remote for slideout repair

[daveinaz]

On our last two month trip from AZ to NM, TX, KS, IA, WI, MN, SD, WY, UT and back to AZ, our hydraulic slideouts developed the dreaded “creep” issue which is most likely a leaky cylinder piston. I bought some 1.25” PVC pipe and along with some rubber bumpers, I was able to lay them on the floor at the ends of the slideouts so they didn’t creep out for the remainder of the trip.

Testing for which cylinder is leaking looks fairly straightforward, although I highly suspect it’s the large 12’ LR slide out that leaking since it used to come in and out with no problem and now it wants to pause and take two or threes tries.

Anyway, I was wonder if anyone has made a remote to operating the slideouts. I’m thinking that a two way toggle switch and some wire should do the trick. That way I can be under the rig extending/retracting the cylinder for R/R without having to go inside and hit the switch on the wall.

Thanks

[daveinaz]

So i’m thinking that i just need to put 12v to the center leg of the toggle, then connect the other two terminals (negative) to the two spade connections on the motor for retract/extend.

center toggle connector to the positive battery
left connector to extend spade
right connector to retract spade

Does this sound right?

[RMcNeal]

You'll have to provide 12 volts to both the reversing solenoid and the appropriate hydac valve to extend or retract the slide. I downloaded a really good troubleshooting doc from this forum some time ago that will show you what you need.
Take a look at this thread...
https://www.montanaowners.com/forums...ad.php?t=84598

[RMcNeal]

Or you could just manually open the hydac valve with an allen wrench temporarily I suppose.

[daveinaz]

Originally Posted by RMcNeal

You'll have to provide 12 volts to both the reversing solenoid and the appropriate hydac valve to extend or retract the slide. I downloaded a really good troubleshooting doc from this forum some time ago that will show you what you need.
Take a look at this thread...
https://www.montanaowners.com/forums...ad.php?t=84598

Thanks for the link to the thread. I don’t have hydac valves on my old rig — just the 4 position manifold with screws that you manually screw in or out to select the slideouts. So since I don’t have to worry about 12v to the hydac valve, I should be able to just make a remote by clipping the center of my toggle to the 12V on the motor and then the two sides of the toggle to each of the spade connectors.

[twindman]

My 2013 mountaineer started creeping out within 2000 miles of new on the way to the rally. Took it in to Lippert eventually and they had it from 7 am until about 12:30. they didn't even test anything. They said is is usually the largest slides so replaced the living room and kitchen cylinders. Probably about 2 hours was waiting from them to get the parts from a warehouse in another town.
It fixed the issues (after getting the air out of the lines) and all was good after that.

[rohrmann]

For the start and stopping issue with your slides, I would suspect the breaker that feeds power to the motor is failing. I'm thinking with that older rig and only hydraulics to the slides, the breaker should only be maybe a 40 amp auto reset type. I'm also wondering if the breaker is tripping out near the end of retracting the slides too soon, maybe the slide hasn't actually fully retracted tight and that is allowing the slide to drift out a bit. I would also suggest the terminals and wire connectors look like they need some preventive maintenance with all the corrosion on them. Not sure that would help with either issue but would help prevent a failure in the future.

[daveinaz]

Originally Posted by rohrmann

For the start and stopping issue with your slides, I would suspect the breaker that feeds power to the motor is failing. I'm thinking with that older rig and only hydraulics to the slides, the breaker should only be maybe a 40 amp auto reset type. I'm also wondering if the breaker is tripping out near the end of retracting the slides too soon, maybe the slide hasn't actually fully retracted tight and that is allowing the slide to drift out a bit. I would also suggest the terminals and wire connectors look like they need some preventive maintenance with all the corrosion on them. Not sure that would help with either issue but would help prevent a failure in the future.

Yep, cleaning those terminals has been on my list!

[bethandkevin]

Just an observation on ours with a recent trip. Ours is a 3402RL which is all hydraulic slides. When the wife was putting them in, the last slide in bound somehow and got cocked. She called me in to show me what had happened. Didn't see anything prohibiting movement and didn't want to put all slides out, so I closed all the other valves and put the big slide out, then back in. All worked well, so we went on our way. An hour or so down the road, I noticed the bedroom slide had crept out a bit. Now we have had zero issues with slide creep, but I remembered I had not reopened the other slide valves. We pulled off and I opened the valves. When I opened the bedroom valve, the slide settled in. I pulled them all in and we had no further issue. In my case the problem was with having a closed portion of the system and as the temperature warmed, the oil expanded and forced the slide out. Just thinking out loud and wondering if slide creep issues for others might involve a similar circumstance with closed or partially closed valves?