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Old 05-16-2013, 03:26 PM   #1
Pmedic4
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Landing Gear and Slide out Fuse blows

Well, read lots of tales of blowing the fuses for the landing gear, but mine is a little different. Did a quick trip to test out my repaired water system, and hooked up and came home, putting the 5ver away, and noticed the Landing Gear wouldn't come down. Based on all the wonderful suggestions here, checked the fuse, and sure enough it's blown. Didn't have a 40Amp replacement, so I just cranked it down, and then made a trip to the local Auto parts store and got a pack of replacements. I tried putting in a new fuse, and it blew right away! I wasn't even running any motor for the landing gear. Thought maybe one of the switches was 'stuck', because the one for the landing gear would stick sometimes in the on position. It wasn't, so I checked the other switches for the slide-outs and the Awning. They all seem free and working fine.
Remember, I used the landing gear to hook up, so something happened on the way home??? Also wondering if the remote switch was stuck on for the rear stabilizers, and making it stuck on running all the time trying to raise them even though they were up, so I ended up taking the battery out of the remote! No luck. I have to assume some wire is pinched, and shorting out to the frame causing it to quickly burn out the fuse. It blows the fuse in like 1/4 a second, and arcs pretty good for a 12 volt system.
I'm probably going to take it in for warranty repair, but that's another 200 mile round trip... Bummer!
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Old 05-16-2013, 03:32 PM   #2
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Sounds like you have done all the things others have suggested. I had over extended mine and blown a fuse. I replaced the fuse and that took care of it. Keep us posted on what you discover.

John
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Old 05-16-2013, 03:56 PM   #3
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When you were raising the landing gear for the trip home, you may have pinched the hot lead for the front gear. Crawl around in the front compartment and see just where that pink wire goes and see if there's any bare insulation or if it may be crimped against the steel bulkhead. Good luck !!!
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Old 05-16-2013, 06:52 PM   #4
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Pinched wire

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Originally Posted by JRTJH View Post
When you were raising the landing gear for the trip home, you may have pinched the hot lead for the front gear. Crawl around in the front compartment and see just where that pink wire goes and see if there's any bare insulation or if it may be crimped against the steel bulkhead. Good luck !!!
Must have been something like this, as we used the motor to raise the landing gear for the trip home. The interesting part was we had to raise and lower the landing gear 4-5 times, because we couldn't get the pin to latch. At first I just thought we overheated the fuse, and it just finally failed after a few bumps, so when we got to our storage lot, the fuse was blown and I had to use the crank to lower the landing gear. Figured I would just have to buy new fuses and that would be the end of story.
I'm going to try and look again tomorrow around the 12 volt wires and around the landing gear mechanism - your comment makes sense, to look where it was last used. Hard to imagine the 12 volt wire running all the way to back of the RV for the Slideout and Awning would be the one shorting, if the stabilizers and landing gear were the last used functions and those switches are right up front.
That's what great about these forums! Thanks
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Old 05-20-2013, 05:09 PM   #5
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Talking Update on Fix - Question?

Through a little troubleshooting today found the problem! Yeah! The wires for the Landing Gear got too hot, melted and shorted out. I just ended up cutting back about 2 inches and rejoined the 2 sets of wires back together. About a 5 minute fix, and about a 2 hour hunt. Don't know the exact issue to cause it, but prior to this happening, the Landing Gear switch would 'stick' in the On position to retract. Wondering if it did that when we left the campsite? Part of that is that Keystone uses this black foam to stick things into place - If it wasn't the switch stuck, then maybe just the heat of our using the switch several times to hook up just held the heat in, causing the other wires to short out. I removed the Foam gook, and repaired the switch so it doesn't stick any more. Might look at something to hold it together like Keystone does. Good news, Landing Gear, rear stabilizer jacks and slideouts work, so technically, I'm a Happy Camper!

Now, the Electric Awning doesn't work??? I checked, and there is no power to the Awning switch, but there is to Slideout switches in the same panel. Is the Awning on the same fuse? Does the RV have to be plugged into shore power to work the Awning?
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Old 05-20-2013, 05:47 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pmedic4 View Post
Now, the Electric Awning doesn't work??? I checked, and there is no power to the Awning switch, but there is to Slideout switches in the same panel. Is the Awning on the same fuse? Does the RV have to be plugged into shore power to work the Awning?
The awning should be on a separate fuse. First, check the fuse panel inside the trailer. If a fuse is blown, the red LED next to it will be lit up. Next, in the front compartment where the remote master unit is located, there should be several inline fuse holders. You'll have to pull each fuse, but the ATC style fuses are easy to examine. It could be one of them.

(Helpful hint: Those inline fuses are not labeled. When you figure out what one controls, label it so that you can identify it easily the next time that the gremlins attack.)

The awning runs off 12vdc so as long as your battery is charged and online, the awning should be working.

One other thing, check to see if you can run out the awning with the remote. Many times, if there's a blown fuse, the remote system will still operate the awning or slide or landing gear even though the switches won't.
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Old 05-20-2013, 08:21 PM   #7
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Cool Fuse Panel Inside trailer-

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Originally Posted by SteveC7010 View Post
The awning should be on a separate fuse. First, check the fuse panel inside the trailer. If a fuse is blown, the red LED next to it will be lit up. Next, in the front compartment where the remote master unit is located, there should be several inline fuse holders. You'll have to pull each fuse, but the ATC style fuses are easy to examine. It could be one of them.

(Helpful hint: Those inline fuses are not labeled. When you figure out what one controls, label it so that you can identify it easily the next time that the gremlins attack.)

The awning runs off 12vdc so as long as your battery is charged and online, the awning should be working.

One other thing, check to see if you can run out the awning with the remote. Many times, if there's a blown fuse, the remote system will still operate the awning or slide or landing gear even though the switches won't.
You point out what I was wondering - could the Awning be on a separate circuit? I did take down the panel and found there is no power to the switch for the awning, but power to the slide switches. My assumption, since it is ran by the remote control, it would be the same fuse as the Slides and stablizers. However, I did have the battery switch off, so no power to the interior fuse panel - so, without going into the conversations about what should be off from the battery disconnect switch, now it makes sense for me to try and turn on the disconnect switch and try the awning.

Dang, why didn't I think about that when I was at the 5ver!
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Old 05-27-2013, 07:18 PM   #8
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Everything Worked!

Got to finally try out my repair to the landing gear/slides/rear stabilizer wiring, and everything worked fine this past weekend. My one big question was the awning, which wouldn't work off the remote, and was wondering if it was powered with the Battery cut off switch, and that is the case. Slides, landing gear, and rear stabilizer are powered directly from the battery and the cut off switch is for everything else - little confusing to me, as you would think the everything controlled by the remote would be off the same power, but now that I understand it, no problem.

I really like the remote, and some of you might remember my initial comment from the service center, and the service guy saying, the remote isn't that good. In my view, he was wrong. it is so nice to stand right at the landing gear, and make sure the pin is at the correct height to connect, or disconnect, and put down the stabilizers with blocks.

Great weekend for camping, even though it was a little rainy. Hope everyone else got out to enjoy the first 3 day weekend.
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Old 05-28-2013, 06:41 AM   #9
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Your landing gear wiring issue could have been caused by a loose connection. If the hot or ground lead was loose, it can cause the wires to heat up, especially since you said you had to run it a lot hooking up...
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Old 08-05-2013, 06:55 AM   #10
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Landing Gear Motor

HI Folks:

I have a 2008 Montana 3075RL, with 3 slide config. This issue with blowing fuses, particularly with the Landing Gear seems like a very common problem. I posted a few weeks ago thinking that this happened to me only at altitude, and for the past few years, that was the case. I live at sea level, and now it is happening often here too. I went through 10 fuses trying to get my landing gear to 1) get off the hitch, and 2) level off. I finally had to hand-crank it (that was not pleasant).

Then when we left 3 days later, everything worked fine again! I know this is going to happen. I jumpered the fuse and of course it got super hot super fast, and the motor was drawing way more amps than it should (30 amps should be plenty).

I consulted an electrical expert friend of mine, and, like many other items on my unit. the 5 years period is exposing all kinds of issues, none really major, but painful enough.

So, his recommendation is to replace that motor (like I did on a previous unit and it worked these fine). They just start to get tired, or sometimes the gear-teeth stick, and that causes an big draw that the motor tries to fight through, and blows the fuse.

I am curious if anyone else has after a period of time replaced their motor?

BTW, batteries are fine, less than 1 years and i service them every few months, so the voltage is fine.

~g
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