Okay this weekend took the 5th wheel out camping two hours away. No biggy except that murphy's law got me on all kinds of things.

Before I get frustrated I will say the trip was a blast we had fun except lol.....


Heat 100+ wow and worst AC **** the bed, Water leak bathroom area, no worries I think easy fix. Worst part is my living room slide wont retract I found manual operation near stairs leading into trailer on frame but no crank handle so I need to source one. For now I got lucky I was able to leave trailer there at site for a few days to fix it. What is your thoughts anyone run into this? Some say the fifth wheel trailer jacks use same adapter for slides this true?

Not seeing much guidance on google search need help!!!

I plan to go back up Wednesday two hour drive maybe stay the night but bring it home. I might need to replace motor or something else. Front has a queen bed with slide and that works fine just FYI!

So when I bought this 2000 Holiday Rambler Alumascape 32' fifth wheel we tested everything worked fine. Now Murphy kicked in and I have all kinds of issues.

Worse one is the slide so any thoughts?

 

Does it try to come back in at all? Is Holiday Rambler still in business? If so, call them. In the early days the manual crank handle for landing gear WAS the same as the slides..... My old Prowler was hydraulic... maybe a leak and out of fluid.

 

Yes It did move ever so slightly at first a bit, not all the way and now not much anymore.

I'm getting manual crank handle to at least bring it home before I troubleshoot. Surprised not a lot of people with this issue.

 

Not my wife in that photo that's her sister hold on I got photo if my wife cooking lol

 

 

Try using a pair of jumper cables from the truck to the trailer batteries like you would jump start another vehicle, with your truck engine running and slightly revved up. I've had to do this before. The trailer batteries are strong enough to run lights, water pump, etc, etc, but may not have enough juice to operate the slide.


Also, check for a circuit breaker or fuse for the slide pump. Not sure where it would be on 2000 model, but nowadays, the breakers are usually mounted to the wall inside the battery compartment.


Don't expect any help from Holiday Rambler, although an RV dealer with a decent mechanic should be able to figure out your problem if the above doesn't work.


Holdiay Rambler was sold to Harley Davidson in 1986, and to Monaco Coach in 1996. Monaco went belly-up in 2009, taking Holiday Rambler with it, so the company no longer exists. Navistar International currently owns the name, but they are not doing anything with it.

 

Yes I suspected batteries could be low but then my question would be why would my front slide go in with no issues. Sure it's a smaller slide setup but certainly would put drain on batteries as its my queen bed one up front.

Yes I wasn't going to deal with manufacture. I already know it has a manual crank for rear I just need to figure out where to get this crank handle.

There are some mobile rv repair guys in that area but unfortunately I had to work today and tomorrow so I couldn't stay with trailer until Monday for normal business hours. I called everywhere yesterday and being Sunday all parts dept to source crank handle were closed.

I almost had the thought of going for to door to each RV in the park asking anyone if they have that crank. LoL might do that Wednesday.

 

If the front slide is smaller, it doesn't require as much from the batteries. Also, if it's like most trailers, the front slide is electric, not hydraulic, and the electric slide requires less from the batteries, so it's easier to move.


Any chance you could use a socket and some extensions or did they bury it too deep into the undercarriage?

 

Yes the motor is buried in the underbelly which if I remove that I could access it.

It has manual crank option outside on opposite side located on frame under my stairs leading into trailer. There is a bar sticking out with a small pin locking mechanism to attach a crank handle to and manually crank it in without roving belly to get to motor.

I didn't even think that the battery could be too low to power hydro motor.

Oddly though inside my trailer my battery meter shows batteries good but maybe that's not true.

I can defiantly try the jumper cable method or booster box as well.

 

This is basically the handle I would need and you will notice the end is hollow with the grooves to attach to the bar under my stairs

http://m.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?skunum=55217&rewrote&affiliateid=5193&gc lid=Cj0KEQjwvtS6BRC8pcKn8OXIg_wBEiQAqtpiz0AE1RbLzw 0JIkjpO-kVKit-iQEaKD4CwEwwAcxkGwAaAuTQ8P8HAQ

 

Here is a question once I get this figured out would it be possible to wire rear slide into regular power? This way when I need to power in my slides I don't necessarily have to run them on battery I can just plug it into 30amp outlet and it works? Wasn't sure if that is something I can do or not. This way my batteries will be specifically for fifth wheel jacks and not have to worry about slides unless I don't have electric hookup such as boondock.

Then I would just run generator anyhow but just find it odd setup that slides and fifth wheel jacks are only operable on battery power. Guessing voltage reuqirments?

 

Assuming my landing gear is also low power consumption because it's electric right? I ask because I know I can still operate that as well.

One thing to note my big slide did move a good two to three inches then stops. Now or yesterday when I packed everything up before we left, I did try to move it again having a helper. We pushed on outside giving it some boost while my wife push button to retract it. It did move but felt as if power was low because it wouldn't move much the first couple times.

I will be very pleased if it's just my batteries low and not the mechanic pump failure. I don't hear any grinding or anything as if it went off track or whatever so even though two batteries will hurt the bank if it fixes the issue then at least I know I have brand new batteries.

I'll make sure to pack up my tools and multimeter so that I can test batteries as well. Along with jumper cables and crank handle my buddy is going to lend me when I go back Wednesday. Worst case I call in some mobile rv service and they can get me back on the road.

At least we were not too far for the first trip out and this was a good test of everything so I can fix all issues before we venture back out again soon.

 

First check, charge, jumper or use a know good battery. Second check all of the bigger battery cables for corrosion and circuit breakers (clean corrosion/reset breakers). When my pump failed it would trip both 50 amp resettable breakers in the circuit. Luckily it happened in my drive as the manual bypass is inaccessible due to stupid placement of the pump. My issues was a bad pump motor, thankfully I had extended coverage as they aint cheap

 

You can't trust the battery meter on this one.
The meter can show excellent voltage, but you need current (AMPS) to run the slide.
So your batteries can show 12.x volts and still be too weak to move the slide.


When I had a similar problem, I tried plugging the trailer into the power pedestal, but the converter still didn't supply enough juice to move the slide. The jumper cables from the truck with a high output alternator did the trick.

 

How old is the battery? If more than a few years old, take another with you since you are going 2 hours away. Also, I've had it before on my old trailer that the wire nuts to the drive motor had vibrated loose, so was getting bad connection. Might check that too.