I had the chance today to bake in the sun while trying to troubleshoot a slide systems with a remote that the owner had attempted to "fix" by disconnecting almost everything that had anything to do with electricity in the fiver.


I finally had to resort to using the manual on the Lippert pump which means 1/4 allen in the end of the pump chucked in a drill. With a quad slide I quickly discovered I had to resort to using a corded drill I carry on the truck as trying to get all the slides in with my Dewalt quickly discharged the battery. If you have a lot of slides, it may be worth considering carrying a corded drill "just in case".


Steve

 

I always carry a cordless drill that has a very short recharge time on the battery, and I carry 4-5 batteries. That is a good thought though.


So what was the problem with the slides? Mine have been very reliable (knock on wood).

 

This was a Montana with a 1st generation GAMA remote and I am still learning my way around as remote everything becomes more and more prominent. Since everything was taken apart as though someone had been on a search, it is hard to tell, but I think the remote had stopped working. They had taken apart the distribution panel and changed 120 volt breakers along with 12-volt fuses. When that didn't work, they disconnected the wires in the bay to the wall switch for the slide, the landing gear wiring, and the wiring to the transmitter board.


I am not done working my way through things, but what I found was the off/on switch for the remote in the small panel on the outside of the fiver had a bad set of terminals so no red light. Since the switch had a second set of terminals, I just moved the wires to the other side of the switch and all was well for the remote. I still have to connect the power back to the inside switch and the landing gear.


Once I had the wiring diagram, it is all pretty straight forward, but I was not impressed with the way the wiring was done or the circuit breaker and fuse locations in the forward bay. Just not very neat.


Can't help but wonder how many folks carry a 1/4 allen wrench with them to fit down inside the butt of the motor.


Steve

 

I have some allen wrenchs and several different sockets/rachets. But no drill. Guess I better throw one in.

 

Man, Scott, you do not want to attempt doing this by hand. I think your arms would fall off before you are done! I had multiple sets of allen wrenches on the truck and cut one down with my roto tool using it like a drill bit.


Steve

 

Perhaps because mine may be newer it has the needed wrench clipped to the side of the motor and the spot to use it clearly labeled.


I do agree that the remote wiring is a mess how they do it. Everything works so I am not going to fix what isn't broke although I have looked at it trying to understanding why the landing gear was not wired into the remote system. Plenty of room on the circuit board and the remote is programmable.

 

Might be better not to have everything go down if the remote or other related system component were to fail. I know you could still do the landing gear manually, but I have never been a fan of having everything flow through one component no matter which system. I don't like having one thermostat and one board feeding two AC units or the combo board on the Atwood water heaters managing both propane and AC, etc. either.


it's probably just me, but given the lack of reliability of RV components, I find it faster, cheaper for the customer, and simpler to trouble shoot when things are kept separate.

 

My jacks are wired into the panel for the auto leveling system. If I ever have an issue with that I will have to take the box open and use a drill there to manually raise/lower the jacks.

 

On my trailer, at least, there are manual switches for all that the remote controls. The only reason I would need to use the drill would be a failure of power to the hydraulic motor.

The remote is a nice option, but I have had it "fail" (forgot to charge it ), but I have been able to use the hardwired switches.


Steve, I sure hope your customer did not over-react due to an uncharged remote.

 

The wall switch is great until everything has been disconnected and it is dead. I am typically confronted with lots of loose wires and no wiring diagram.


Sometimes it just takes me and my meter some time or maybe a lot of time to sort things out. Everyone thinks I can just look at things and automatically know where it all goes, but it can be slow going when I am working on a system I have not seen before or a whole lot of stuff has been disconnected.


As I mentioned, in this case the switch that powered up the transmitter boards was bad, so the board couldn't talk with the remote and, as is so often the case, folks just go hunting for the problem rather than getting wiring diagrams and thinking things over.


Steve

 

Where can we get wiring diagrams for our units? All I got was a generic owners manual.

 

Go to the website of the manufacturer of the equipment in question. For example, go to Lippert Support and then in the menu choose the component you are interested in. It is pretty much the same for all manufacturers, although for some you have to be registered as a dealer or service center.


For most towables, there are no wiring diagrams available for the entire unit. last time I called Forest River, I was told they had no wiring diagrams available, but Jayco does have complete wiring diagrams available. For those you have to check with the manufacturer of your rig.


Steve