Slideout won't slide out

Halfway through my 2 week trip my full side 2 ram slide out won't slide out. It worked just a few days ago and slid in just fine this morning, but today 2 of my shorter slides work fine but my full side slide is totally unresponsive.

I was leveled, hooked to 50Am shore power, engine running, and emergency brake set.  I held the unlock button until it stopped for all sliders but when I went to slide out the long slider it didn't make a sound and never budged.  And, there were no error codes shown on the control.  There is a single lock button for this side despite the fact that it is driven by 2 rack and pinion slider arms.  I relocked and tried it again a few times, but there was no change.

Even though there were no error codes shown I pulled the panel to access the manual override reset button, but this also had no effect on this.

Next I found the breaker buttons in the basement area for both RAMs and pressed them in case it had blown a breaker, but it had no effect.

I am guessing that it thinks it is still partially locked and has overridden the command to slide out.  Perhaps this is a limit switch or the like.  I cannot see exactly what is moving when I engage the locks so I am clueless on how the lock works, where it is located or how it senses that it is fully unlocked.  I see where the motor engages with the frontrack and pinion, but see no sign of the slide lock in this enclosure.

I would sure appreciate any insights for what else might cause this, how the locks work, where to find the lock sensor switches on my 2010 Itasca Suncrusier 37F .  I suppose it wouldbe worse if it were stuck out, but it is annoying to take my first 2 weeks trip in a half open RV.

Thanks!
Joel

edit by staff - changed message icon to topic solved

Can you unplug the lock switch, kill the power to it? There also would be a fuse that feeds the lock switch. Also check to see if you have power going to the switch. Good luck.

Can you manually operate it?

Is your driver's seat all the way forward? Control logic may be seeing an interlock in wrong state.
(My coach had to go to dead to reset logic - all power disconnected for five minutes, batteries disconnected, no AC).

Thanks for all of the suggestions:

Can you unplug the lock switch, kill the power to it? There also would be a fuse that feeds the lock switch. Also check to see if you have power going to the switch.

If I knew where to find the lock switch I would try to unplug it or check power to this, but since I don't understand how the lock works I am not able to find the location of the switch.  There is power to the locking mechanism since I can hear it turning as I press the locking button.  I looked for a fuse/breaker for the lock switch or locking mechanism but am finding nothing in any of the breaker panels in the bedroom or in the basement area where the ram breakers are located.

Can you manually operate it?

I tried pressing the manual override on the slide out control and it had no impact.  I think that this only works to override an error code and there are none.  I didn't try to manually operate it with a socket wrench. This is a bit tricky with a full length dual ram slideout.

Is your driver's seat all the way forward? Control logic may be seeing an interlock in wrong state.

The driver seat is out of the way and is in the same position it was in for the last time that it worked as best I can tell

My coach had to go to dead to reset logic - all power disconnected for five minutes, batteries disconnected, no AC).

I cannot go full dead until the NBA final game is over, but will give this a try later.

Thanks again for the help.  Does anyone know the location of the limit switch in a Winnebago/Itasca?

Joel

Some progress. I just realized that the slide out locks are at the top not at the bottom of the slide out.  I can see now the only one lock at the rear of the coach is operating.  There is an access to this mechanism at the top of one cabinet.  I will take this apart tomorrow and see why it is not operating.  If I can fix this lock I expect the slide out will then work, fingers crossed.

FWIW we just went thru a similar experience.  If you can hear the "lock", unlock it and leave it in that position.  Then pull the cover on the lock and check the limit switches on the lock.  The limit switches have nothing to do with the lock.  What we found was that the limit switches "look" like they are sensing the lock position but in fact they are controlling the power to the slide.  One of our limit switches failed and resulted in no power to the slide so it would not move.  When we bypassed the limit switch, with the lock open, the slide started working normally.  It only took a few hours of a mobile RV tech to discover this after we had tried everything we could imagine for days and eventually had to drive one day with the slide partially out to get to a service facility.  As it turns out, this lock does not do much.. kinda a fail safe, last resort, safety device.  Many coaches do not have them and depend on the slide drive to hold the slide either open or closed as you chose.  If you inadvertently hit the extend switch without the lock it will extend if the limit switch is bypassed so that's something you do not want to do.  The slide, once retracted, will not move unless the drive mechanism moves it.  Ours runs off a hydraulic pump/cylinder so if the hydraulic valves do not open, it won't move, especially with the pump off.

So, once more, make sure the lock is "open" or unlocked.  Then bypass the limit switch with a dead short.  We used a spare fuse to connect the two wires after they were removed from the limit switch.  Slide will operate normally if you have the same issue we did.  Even if the limit switch did not fail, it can not trigger if it were not adjusted properly to sense the position of the lock shaft.  Note that the limit switch does not control the lock shaft... which was the original problem for us, the lock shaft would jam in the "lock" position requiring some assistance from a small hammer. 

It would seem that the manual would have explained this situation but it was silent as far as we know.

There's another thread on this forum somewhere that explains this in more detail, probably with some photos.  You might try to seach for it.

Just a post to close out this issue.  After locating the faulty locking mechanism and taking the cover off inside of the cabinet  I had my DW press the lock and unlock for this slideout while I observed the action.  The motor was clearly under power since it torqued one way and then the other.  I removed the pin that connected the shaft of the motor to the lead screw shaft going to the lock mechanism.  The motor turned freely.  Next I applied some torque in each direction to the end of the lead screw shaft with my vise grips(instead of a small hammer)  and very soon it seemed to free up.  When I reconnected the shaft by reinserting the pin it turned the mechanism just fine.  With the lock out of the way the slideout slid out perfectly.

Lots of thanks to those who made suggestions, especially the thought from taoshum that this can jam in the locked position from time to time.  That gave me the confidence to free mine up.  I saved on a mechanic bill, and more importantly the time lost in getting a mechanic to help.

Congrats -  a great job methodically trouble shooting with success,

Bob

Reminds me on one of our first boondocking trips I asked the DW to open the slides, figuring she had paid attention on previous trips. Not the case! She turned the locking keys every which way and pushed any button her little fingers could get to. Slides wouldn't budge. After that fiasco we NEVER touch the silly key operated lockout thingy....don't need it don't want it!!! :-\

john owens said:

....Slides wouldn't budge. After that fiasco we NEVER touch the silly key operated lockout thingy....don't need it don't want it!!! :-\

Click to expand...

IMO, the key is not so silly. If you turn the key to OFF and take the key out when your slides are out, that would definitely slow down a thief. Can't just drive away with the slides out and no way to retract them. R

) I hear ya on the antitheft thought. If some sucker steals it he better make the payments!!!

RLSharp said:

... Can't just drive away with the slides out and no way to retract them.

Click to expand...

I thought I've seen just about everything related to RVs but a week or two ago I saw an old 5th wheel being pulled with a beat up truck and one of the slides was fully extended on the driver's side. There were no red flags or anything on the extended slide. After about two minutes I closed my mouth 

) John I hear Kentucky is pleasant this time of year..... ;D

Our Dealer told me to not use the slide locks, and I didn't for a few months.  Once I tried them and got confident with how they operated I now use them, but I can understand why he might have said that. 

Almost one week later a 2nd slide lock jammed.  This time I knew what to look for and what to do. Instead of 2 days it took 15 minutes.  I am wondering if these need to be lubricated. It is too coincidental that 2 different locks in the same RV would jam.

Joel,
If your slides are Power Gear brand, there was a service bulletin that is supposed to fix this problem.  My coach has those locks with the fix applied and they've never failed.

Per the comment from ChasA: If your slides are Power Gear brand, there was a service bulletin that is supposed to fix this problem.

I see no details on this lock in my collection of manuals, but the slides are made by Power Gear, so I am assuming this is by Power Gear as well.  Did Power Gear pay for the fix, or was this on your nickel?  Somebody referred to a washer as part of a fix.  There is a free floating washer in this that seems to have no particular purpose, but I wonder if that was the fix. What year is your coach? Was this fix added to all units after some date?

Thanks!
Joel

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.lci1.com/assets/content/support/sheets/pg-82-S0504.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwij-9e8jM_UAhWCcD4KHeEBDfQQFgg0MAE&usg=AFQjCNEzBCTD1g5ZJE_gvWaI4SVVvLmfeg&sig2=Hv-qSce7g_HasCFmip-7ag

Hopefully, after I posted this there will do a link to the bulletin above.

Joel 
To answer your questions..  My coach is a 2010 Journey as shown in my signature.  I bought it used in 2012 and the recall was already done, evidenced by paperwork  I got. I suspect that winnebago paI'd for it.

I am surprised that I am the first to mention it as there ware quite a few posts about it on this very forum back in 2011 and 2012.