Livingroom right slide won't come in

[Upslady]

2005 Itasca Horizon 40AD

Our right living room slide won't come in. You can hear the motor when you push the button in but nothing happens. Our left living room and bedroom slides work fine. Never had any problems before. We need to move the motorhome and need slide in. Coach is level with jacks down.
We did start MH and tried with engine running and still nothing. We have looked under step but not finding the slide solenoid. 
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks for any and all help on this.
Brenda

 

[SCVJeff]

This is a copy n paste of my reply on the other forum incase you didn't see it:

---snip---

ON MINE.. The control board is up front on the passenger side of the coach, ahead of the steps. There is a clear plexiglass pane over it. If you can dredge up a model # of that board, or the model# of the leveler system, PM me your email address and I can send you what I have in .pdf.

What I remember when I had a solenoid quit was that I was somehow able to figure out which one it was, OPEN the valve manually (there is a knob on top), and then retract it with the pump as normal.

Also, there are several fuses on that board. If you have a voltmeter you can remove the clear cover and get to them with the help of a blanket to lay on, and a doubled-up pillow to keep your head and shoulders elevated to reach in. Be careful where you are because that board also controls the jacks, and airbag dump, so stay in a safe position incase the coach dumps air or jacks retract.

There's the other question... Does ANYTHING work, or just the retract slide?

MORE: IF it's like mine, look closely at the stairs, two of them are on a hinge, and you have a couple of screws locking them in place. Remove and lift

 

[SVTotem]

Jeff has you going in the right direction, but I would also suggest looking in all of the basement compartments under the slide for hydraulic fluid. A leaking fitting or pin hole in a hydraulic line can also cause this. I have had each problem with that slide in my Journey.


If you must move before you find and correct the problem, opening the relief valve on the appropriate solenoid will allow the slide to be pushed in manually. That is hard, but doable with assistance. Remember to close the valve again when it is back in. A mobile tech should be familiar with doing this and it is probably a good idea to get such assistance for this. Ensure that who ever you call is familiar with doing this. If they are not, call another until you find one. Of course, this assumes you have choices and I know this isn't always the case.


Good luck.

 

[Upslady]

We have checked for leak and nothing.

We are in a very small town, not much choice on tech help! LOL Storms today so hope to work on it tomorrow. We do not have a plate or strap to pull the slide in and see no place for that.
Will post back if we find the problem.
Thanks for all the tips on what to look for.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Are these hydraulic or gear-driven slides? If you hear the motor run, the solenoid is not the issue - the motor is getting power. Does it run (continuous whine) or just click and stop? Geared slides may have a shear pin so that breaks before the motor is damaged by overload. If sheared, the motor runs but nothing happens. On hydraulic slides, the motor runs a pump which builds the hydraulic pressure needed to move the slide. If the pump fails or fluid is lost, nothing works.

Manual override:
If it is hydraulic, the basic manual technique is to disconnect the lever arm from the hydraulic ram and get several hefty boys to push the slide in by hand. Then you need to lock the slide in somehow (if you don't already have a slide keeper of some sort). A 2x4 between slide edge lip and the wall will do. If mechanical, there is usually a disconnect at the motor gear, then push in by hand as above.

 

[John Canfield]

Gary - we have the identical coach as the OP, all slides are HWH hydraulic.  The right salon slide is long but not very wide and I have never been able to see the mechanism, I believe it is hidden behind the front accordion fascia.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Thanks, John. I wasn't sure which slides on the Itascas were hydraulic. Bedrooms are gear, I think. Do you know if there are separate motor/pumps for each slide, or one common system valved to select which slide actually moves?

 

[John Canfield]

Gary - pretty sure the bedroom slide is hydraulic, it moves in and out quickly and there is no motor or mechanism noise in the bedroom (the slide switch is on the wall in the bedroom.)

Under the front steps is the pump (pretty sure it's just one pump), hydraulic fluid reservoir, and a manifold of valves.

 

[SCVJeff]

John- You were the one I was hoping would see this when I sent her here from RV.net. It still sounds like a control board or solenoid problem to me; I've had both

 

[John Canfield]

Jeff - fortunately we've never had any issues with the slides so I've never had to get down and dirty with them.  She could check for a voltage present on the solenoid for that slide, that would at least eliminate the control board. 

 

[taoshum]

Some pics would help? 

We had a slide retraction failure and in hindsight, it was a leak in the pressure manifold... a blown o-ring and a crack in one layer of the manifold.  Of course we could see the leak from the big oil puddle on the ground but didn't know where the leak was located until later.  All the early diagnosticians told us that it was a solenoid... finally after months of this, a tech found the real issue.

Anyway, in order to get the slide retracted, manually... you do need to find the "release" solenoid that releases the pressure on the hydraulic cylinder or it will be nigh on impossible to retract the slide, or remove the hydraulic hose on the retract side of the cylinder.  Using the solenoid release, keeps oil in the system of course.  The solenoid can be opened manually, call HWH to get instructions or go on-line.  Once the pressure is released, if it is like ours, a few strong folks can slide it in and maybe it has a lock or you can use RV Roamer's 2X4 approach...?  If the strong folks approach doesn't work, our's had a pair of lead screw/threaded rods in parallel with the hydraulic cylinder.  It took a 3/4" rachet to turn the lead screw/threaded rod which retracts the slide.  It will take probably 100 or more full rotations of the lead screw/threaded rod, 10 on the left then 10 on the right, then repeat.  I attached some photos of our slide.  One photo shows the "head" of the bolt/rod/leadscrew that needs to be turned CW to retract, again 100's of rotations.  The other photo shows how long the threaded rod is!

Remember, when you get to the repair facility... they will not believe that the slide is locked in the retracted position by a long threaded rod, even if you tell the service desk writer 10 times.  You have to speak to the tech and make sure that they know to "release" the threaded rod... otherwise the hydraulics will not operate, even after being repaired.  They also cannot believe it takes 100's of rotations to release the rod.  Just sayin'.

 

[taoshum]

Any news???

 

[Upslady]

Well we still have not found the problem. When this first started it was only the right slide. Other slides worked fine and the jacks worked. Now we have no jacks and the step cover won't work! We have a guy coming tomorrow and hope he can find the problem! Love living in a small rural area until you need a tech to help! LOL I called Winnebago and the tech said there were 2 fuses under the second step for the slide.  Well we both looked and never found a fuse little lone 2!
On the good side we did put a new queen mattress in and it's great! 
Brenda

 

[John Canfield]

Now it's sounding like an electrical problem, keep us posted.