A Little "Hiccup"

At least it was a really nice campsite!

     As we were preparing to leave our campsite and move on to our next destination, we followed our usual process of bringing in the slide outs. Barb usually does this from the inside while I am outside disconnecting the water/sewer/electric lines. As I was doing my chores, I heard a rather loud questioning inquiry and a call for my immediate presence. Upon arrival Barb asked me if I knew why only one side of our bedroom slide was moving! After a quick check of fuses and wiring, I could see no reason for the problem. We tried to manually push the slide in with no luck. A call to Tiffin service and we determined that one of the two motors that retract the slide was bad. Either a connection wire had come loose or the motor had died. With the slide stuck out it was impossible to quickly and easily  determine which problem it was. We immediately checked with the campground owners and they could accommodate us staying for another night or two. They also had the contact information for a mobile repair guy who could come out and provide further trouble shooting. We called and he came out that evening. The general consensus was that the motor had failed and that it needed replaced.  The next morning we called Tiffin again and found out a few things:
     1) The motors were still under warranty so they could be shipped at no expense to me.
     2) Since they were a warranty item, Tiffin would pay for the repairs. I only had to send them the bill.
     3) Subsequent to my coach being built, the motors in this particular slide have been "upgraded" with stronger motors. Now that the onsite tech had determined that the motor was to blame, Tiffin would send me two of the newer, stronger motors to replace the existing ones.

     The folks at Tiffin also agreed to ship the motors to me "overnight" to limit my down time. As this was Thursday, the parts would arrive Friday afternoon and the techs planned on coming out first thing Saturday to make repairs. So, once again we checked with the campground to see if we could stay through Saturday and luckily they had openings. Had this occurred the coming week, it would have been Memorial Day and the park was booked up!

   Things happened as planned (for a change!) and bright and early (7 am early!) Saturday morning the techs showed up. Surprisingly to me, the motors are reached from the inside of the coach. In the picture above, the guys have moved the mattress and are removing trim around the edge of the slide. As the trim was removed the motors were easily visible. The offending motor was removed and upon closer inspection, the wires came loose from the motor!

     I was surprised at the small size of the motors considering the size of the slide that they have to move. Above are the two new motors. The object at the bottom of the picture is a normal ball point pen.

     The motors were replaced and we ran in the slide. A couple of things happened:
     1) The slide began to come in and both motors were working.
     2) At about 3" of travel the right side stopped working and the left side continued.
     3) If we released the extend/retract button for a moment, then continued the operation, the slide retracted as normal and aligned itself upon closing.
     4) The same thing occurred on going out, except the left side stopping and the right continuing.

     It being Saturday, Tiffin service was not available. We put our heads together and, since the coach was movable, we would continue on to our next destination and call Tiffin on Monday.

     The move was uneventful and after talking with Tiffin, it was determined that the computer controller for the slide motors was defective. Tiffin has mailed it to our campground in Sturgeon Bay, WI and we will get it when we get there on June 6th. In the meantime, we can function and continue our journeys.