Slide won't slide

Greg C. · 06-20-2018, 02:17 AM

Some of you might remember an earlier post where I told about the main slides on our 38rl would not slide. On Friday were going to bring them in so I could trim our yard which comes right up to the fifth wheel. The company had given us some plastic strips to put down on the floor to protect the tiles from being marred by the rollers on the slides. One of them got caught under the slide and I had to pull it out. So on Friday when I started to bring them in it was the same old story, they would move about 2 inches and stop. We tried several times and could not get them to come in. My wife made the comment that maybe getting that strip caught under the slide might have put it in a bind. So I went out and raised the front of the trailer and put it through the auto-level feature and voila the slides came in without a hitch. So I thought I would pass this on. It might help someone or not, but it would be worth a try as a last resort.

XCMARK · 06-23-2018, 02:54 PM

on my 2015 RL38 the main kitchen and living room has a common hydrolic piston so if one side or the other was sticking the other would come in. The Bed room has a different style control and drive. it has a gear driven motor that recalls how many turns it takes to pull it in so there are many more possible issues with it. The bed room drive system is much more power hungry make sure the shore power is turned on and the converter has your battery at 90% or better 12.9 volts or higher. make sure the roof is clear and nothing is getting stuck on top. look under the bed and in the draw for any item that could cause it to jam . If all this isn't a issue you may need to reset the drive motors because it thinks it need to stop before it in all the way. as I said its a smart system and it know where all the way in and all the way out should be. look in the owners manual or give the manufacture a all you can explain how to reset travel distance.

the main kitchen and living room slide on mine is a dumb system , it doenst know where either slide is . The pump just make pressure and hits the relief valve at either end of the stroke. Its also possible for the 12vdc breaker to trip with low voltage, there are many owner reporting issue with landing rear and some slides in the winter due to heavy oil.

Greg C. · 06-23-2018, 03:36 PM

We also have the 38rl, 2017. We started having trouble with ours a year ago about this time. I was able to get the slides in and we took it back to the dealer, twice in fact, and both times they would report that they never had a problem with them. I think they did replace the solenoids. But I truly believe that the kitchen slide was in some kind of a bind because of that plastic strip getting caught. If I'd known what I know now I would have tried the same thing that I described above and possibly avoided two trips to Elkhart and one cancelled vacation. Thanks for the reply.

Greg C. · 07-23-2018, 03:39 AM

To update my situation. I still have the same problem. I took it to the dealer I bought it at twice last year but they were unable to come up with a solution. I just took it yesterday to a different dealer but they were unable to come up with any ideas. My next question is we had no problems with it until the hotter summer weather got here. It worked fine during the cooler spring weather but as soon as the hotter weather got here it quit working. This weekend has been cooler and the slides seem to be working ok. When they don't work the kitchen slide comes in about an inch and stops and you hear a humming noise. Not the type of noise you hear when the pump is straining at the end of the cycle when they have reached their limit. Could there be a breaker of something to do with the pump that changes with the hotter weather? We went to Branson two weeks ago and had to crank the slides in by hand the whole trip. If nothing else I'm developing some good arm muscles.

blackjack711 · 10-30-2018, 09:49 PM

The livingroom and kitchen slide will not go out. Thought it was the LCI electronic leveling board. Replaced it, nothing. Any suggestions?

XCMARK · 10-30-2018, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackjack711

The livingroom and kitchen slide will not go out. Thought it was the LCI electronic leveling board. Replaced it, nothing. Any suggestions?

My RL 38 has a hydraulic ram under the center of the coach that uses the pump and runs two solenoids to control fluid and direction of movement. If you don't hear the pump run check the breaker that runs the pump . There is a lot of reports on 50 amp breakers not resetting . This time of year the oil get thick and requires more power to run . LIC fix is to go up to 80 amp breaker. I will add that if you don't have the truck plugged in and running or shore power turned on your not helping the slide motors or the self leveling pump. Low voltage causes high amperage draw , that one of the reason for failer.

Greg C. · 10-31-2018, 12:38 AM

One other thing to check make sure that your fluid resevoir is full. My unit is actually at the dealer right now. They are replacing the hydraulic cylinder that operates both of the slides. It had a small pressure leak.

xtasee · 10-31-2018, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg C.

One other thing to check make sure that your fluid resevoir is full. My unit is actually at the dealer right now. They are replacing the hydraulic cylinder that operates both of the slides. It had a small pressure leak.

Very interesting...

I have posted about trouble getting my dining room slide in along with the kitchen slide going out when retracting the jacks.

In order to get my dining slide to move, I closed the valve to the kitchen side and it came right in....I would think that points to some kind of by-pass going on.

mhs4771 · 10-31-2018, 01:18 AM

There are two hydraulic cylinders, one for the Kitchen and the other for the Dining. If either cylinder has an internal leak where it won't build pressure the other slide won't move either, unless you close off the problem cylinder.
We lived with our Dining slide in for several months until we could get into the Service Center. It started just giving us a problem bringing them in and just kept getting harder and harder for them to come in. The final straw was when it took us 90 minutes trying to get them in, once in I closed the Dining slide valve until we made our appointment. And wouldn't you know, when we got to the Service Center it worked fine, but on the advise of Lippert, RW changed the Dining slide and that was 3 years ago and haven't had a problem since.

Greg C. · 10-31-2018, 03:22 PM

That sounds similar to the problems I was having. I could close the valve to the kitchen side and the dining slide would work. I had it back to the dealer I bought it from twice the first year and it would always work when it was up there and then I would bring it home and within a week or so it would act up again. There is a test that you can run that Lippert sent me to see if there is a loss of pressure that I can send you if you would like .

blackjack711 · 10-31-2018, 03:30 PM

Yes PLEASE. Thank you

Greg C. · 10-31-2018, 03:38 PM

Here is the test that Lippert sent me. They also sent me instructions on replacing the cylinder. https://www.lci1.com/assets/content/...inder_Test.pdf I was lucky when I took it to this dealer that the slides would'nt work. So I left it there and they have told me they fixed it, I just have to go get it.

Greg C. · 10-31-2018, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtasee

Very interesting...

I have posted about trouble getting my dining room slide in along with the kitchen slide going out when retracting the jacks.

In order to get my dining slide to move, I closed the valve to the kitchen side and it came right in....I would think that points to some kind of by-pass going on.

That sounds a lot like what our slides were doing. If we weren't able to get them to come in on their own I would take a wrench and get under the kitchen slide and manually turn the slide in. Then if we operated the leveling system the kitchen and the dining slide would drift out. Then same thing I would manually crank them in but because there is no pressure to hold them they would drift back out after driving a few miles.

mhs4771 · 11-01-2018, 02:25 AM

OK, I have to ask: How do you crank in a hydraulic slide?? Or were you just using a wrench on the square shaft that connects to the two tracks.

Greg C. · 11-01-2018, 03:03 PM

Yes, my wife would push the button and I would turn the shaft.

mhs4771 · 11-02-2018, 03:06 AM

OK, here is what I was told by the Hydraulic Expert at Lippert: There is an O-Ring in those cylinders and if that O-Ring is not in it's groove that cylinder can't build pressure, fluid just passes from one side to the other.
When we had our issue and it worked fine at the Service Center, Randy didn't know what to do, so he called the expert at Lippert. After a brief conversation Randy handed me his phone and said "You explain the issue", which I did, including the numerous calls I had placed to Lippert Tech Support. So that's when he explained the O-Ring issue and said he would have Randy change that cylinder.
And it's been working fine since then and that was three years ago and we're "Most Timers", not quite Full Time, but generally from 9 to 10 months a year in the RW.

Greg C. · 11-02-2018, 03:25 PM

We have struggled with this issue since we bought it two years ago. I even called Redwood and they wouldn't do anything about it. They told me to take it to the dealer, which I had already done two times in the first year but it always worked when it was there. So the dealer that has it now changed the cylinder and I would think that it should take care of the problem. The warranty was going to run out in Nov. so I was starting to sweat.

xtasee · 11-02-2018, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhs4771

OK, here is what I was told by the Hydraulic Expert at Lippert: There is an O-Ring in those cylinders and if that O-Ring is not in it's groove that cylinder can't build pressure, fluid just passes from one side to the other.
When we had our issue and it worked fine at the Service Center, Randy didn't know what to do, so he called the expert at Lippert. After a brief conversation Randy handed me his phone and said "You explain the issue", which I did, including the numerous calls I had placed to Lippert Tech Support. So that's when he explained the O-Ring issue and said he would have Randy change that cylinder.
And it's been working fine since then and that was three years ago and we're "Most Timers", not quite Full Time, but generally from 9 to 10 months a year in the RW.

Michelle,

I find this very interesting.. I think the slide that does not come in is not the one with the issue. Because when I shut the valve to the kitchen side, the living room comes in correctly, I think that points to the Kitchen one being the culprit. Unless there are other valves that can cause this in the system.

Your thoughts?

Shane Wood · 11-02-2018, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtasee

Michelle,

I find this very interesting.. I think the slide that does not come in is not the one with the issue. Because when I shut the valve to the kitchen side, the living room comes in correctly, I think that points to the Kitchen one being the culprit. Unless there are other valves that can cause this in the system.

Your thoughts?

Have you tried shutting the livingroom valve and try the kitchen side to see if it works

xtasee · 11-02-2018, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shane Wood

Have you tried shutting the livingroom valve and try the kitchen side to see if it works

Well not really because this issue is the kitchen comes in and then nothing happens on the living room side. Like I mentioned, I closed the kitchen valve and the living room came right in. The other symptom is like some of the others are having where both slides come out when razing the Jacks. However, the living room side is the only one I have had the issue of opening a few inches on the road....

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