Steps not working. Have a mind of their own

[roadhand]

Just bought a 2001 Fleetwood Storm and of course the steps worked just fine until we took off in it  (1st trip) and now the seem to have a mind of their own.
They don't always come down when I park but will now & then when you open the door.
Once they did not want to go back in but did when I started up the next morning.

Any suggestions?

 

[Mavarick]

You don't say what kind of steps you have but most are controlled by a master switch. One position allows the step to open and close with the door. There is a mag switch at the jam that controls this. The other switch position will allow the step to come out and just stay there. The only over ride for the switch is the ignition key. If it gets turned on or even to acc position it will automatically retract the step no matter what position the switch is in. The step will now only come out when the door is opened and close again with the door. If parked make sure all your batteries are charged as that can affect step operation. Find the switch and test each function to see what really works and what don't. You also can have a look at this site for manuals, troubleshooting, etc, hope this helps.
http://www.powergearus.com/products/steps

 

[PatrioticStabilist]

Mine has a switch at the dash and one by the door.  Sometimes I get them out of sync and its just plain aggravating.  But since I had the new one put in, much better.

 

[Dar]

One position of the switch means function with the door (in our case switch is "on") , door open - steps out, door closed - steps in.
The other switch position (in our case "off") means stay out once I open the door the first time. Door open - steps out, door closed - steps still out.
As Mavarick stated the ignition key is the override, this means function with the door regardless of what position the switch is.

 

[Clay L]

This is the URL of a trouble shooting flow chart for the Kwikee steps HERE.

There used to be a service manual on the old Kwikee web site but I can't find it on the Power Gear site. There is one HERE that has good trouble shooting info.

The old service manual had a lot of information on all of the different series of motors along with trouble shooting info.
I have a pdf copy I can send but it is about 14 MB and I have to go through a convoluted path to send a file that big.
If someone has a web site it can be uploaded to so folks could have access to it, I could send it to them - providing that doesn't violate some copyright rule.

 

[John From Detroit]

If you have Kwikee steps (more or less the most common) it is very very easy to check your door switch in the evening on a fairly new rig.

Standing outside the RV, open the door and look down below the door (Around the steps) if you SEE THE LIGHT (yellow light) then the controller sensed the door opening and turned on the step light.

If you do not see the light.... could be a bad bulb, disconnected or other non controller/switch issue, or it could be a bad switch.

Closing the door should turn off the light.

The light is mounted next to the controller, above the top retractable step when the steps are retracted.

IF the light is DIM, you may have a wiring issue or a frozen motor.

ON my coach, when new, the dang steps worked when they felt like it.  I would crawl under and "Thunk" the motor a couple of times and they would behave for a while.

Finally I "Re-indexed" the motor (Basically this involves opening the transmission and moving a gear so the motor no longer stops at the same point in it's rotation, IT always stops at EXACTLY the same point due to hard stops)

So far (over six years since I did that) no further issues.

 

[roadhand]

Thanks for the ElectricStep Troubleshooting Flowchart

I will give it a try. It has to be a loose connection somewhere.