slide issues again

[Lost]

Opened up the 5th wheel today the slide issues started again. Using the control panel none of the 4 slides would extend. Using the remote all 4 slide worked fine. What is causing this problem? All fuses are good. several of the cables have quite a bit of play in them and need to be tighten.

[JRTJH]

I believe your trailer has the same (or a similar) type remote control as mine. If it does, then your problem is a bad component on the remote control receiver. That is the "black box" installed in the trailer, probably in or near the battery compartment.

The "problem" is a safety interlock that prevents a "dual input" to the trailer components... As an example, imagine you're opening the main slide, using the remote transmitter and someone inside the trailer pushes the retract side of the main slide wall mounted switch. The motor would be receiving power both from the "OUT" side and from the "IN" side of the motor wiring. That would potentially damage the slide motor, so the manufacturer installed an interlock to prevent two signals on the same circuit.

Here are some photos of my remote control receiver. Notice the two sets of input wires along the bottom (where I'm pointing). If you disconnect one set of those wires and connect them to the same input as the other set, I'd suspect your slide switches AND the remote control will work. The problem comes in when (if) someone uses the wall switches while you are using the remote control. Essentially, what you'll be doing is "hot wiring" the wall switches to the same circuit controller as the remote transmitter is using.

Here is a link to the Lippert remote control systems data file: https://lci-support-doc.s3.amazonaws...cd-0003488.pdf

I believe your remote system is obsolete, but you can check with Lippert to see if there is a revised system that will work on your trailer. There is a part number on the remote receiver. Lippert Customer Service will need that number to see if your system is still available or if it's no longer stocked. Mine has been obsolete for about 4 years now and my trailer is a 2014, so I wouldn't imagine your system is available, but it would be a pleasant surprise if it were.

Here's the photos:

[Lost]

Thanks for your input on this. I took a look at the panel and mine has many more wires than yours. I'm not comfortable tackling that. So reluctantly i think im going to take it to a rv repair establishment.

[Lost]

After i found out how much that part was i decided to dig in and trouble shoot it futher. First, several of the cable slide cables were very loose so i tightened them up, figuring it was putting to much strain on the slides. Next i noticed several fuses were conected to the control box next to the battery so I checked them and one was blown so i replaced that. Everything works fine now. Hope this helps others having this type of issue. Although i still can't figure out why it worked sporadically with a blown fuse?

[Bill-2020]

Originally Posted by Lost

Although i still can't figure out why it worked sporadically with a blown fuse?

Your fuse issue peaked my interest. We have a '23 Cougar. A number of weeks ago we were in Stone Mountain minding our own business one evening, checking the local weather on the tv and suddenly the couch/fridge slide lights went out and a couple others also proved bad as I began to troubleshoot things. At first I thought the dimmer switch had gone bad, but that wouldn't make the other lights go out/not work as well, the dimmer is only for the lights above the couch. I went to the fuse/breaker panel and I could see through the smoked plastic window that sure enough one 15amp fuse was blown according to the lit indicator. I opened the panel door and the lights came on, as well the blown fuse indicator went out. Lose fuse contact was the culprit. Slight movement of the trailer or a fuse contact getting warm from a poor connection and it failed out of the blue. I removed and replaced the fuse, all lights came back on. I tried to wiggle the fuse a bit to see if I could get it to fail again but it wouldn't. Since then I used a small pair of needle nose pliers and gently squeezed each of the fuse contacts (with fuse removed) to make sure they had a tight contact when I replaced each fuse.

This failure didn't really surprise me. I've been in the electronic manufacturing industry for 30+ years and I've seen the same component come from the manufacturer/vendor with a gap too wide. Something in the manufacturing and forming of the fuse holder didn't get done quite right. For that matter, I had to torque down nearly every contact on both the 12V and 120V sides of the panel after I took delivery. They were snug at best. Some of the strands from the stripped wires of both sides were also falling out of the contact points - not good. That would be a short for sure!