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2016 R-179 Slide Totally Dead

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Forum Name: I need HELP!!!
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URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=15385
Printed Date: 11 May 2024 at 9:42am
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Topic: 2016 R-179 Slide Totally Dead
Posted By: DHabibi
Subject: 2016 R-179 Slide Totally Dead
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 12:32pm
My slide is totally dead just happened the other day. Batteries are full and fine and even when plugged in the slide does not make any sound or movement. All fuses good and there is power going to the wall switch. From what I know the controller is under the seat which is now covered by the slide and not accessible. Very smart design, is there any way to reset the controller to get the slide to come to life, again was working fine till the other day, brought it in, drove an hour and tried to open slide and it was dead. I am an engineer and very handy, if there is any way of manually getting the slide to go out so I can access the controller and motor area would be nice. Thanks for any suggestions, power is all good, need to get access the controller which I believe is in the covered area. Nothing under the refrigerator in this model, just two electrical wires, the controller is not there as far as I can see.

More info:

Well I do believe that the controller is in the ottoman, with the slide all the way in you can not get to the hatch, the motors are accessible but the screw to loosen them from the outside not accessible with the slide all the way in. Great design, somebody was not using their brain. Couple of options, I have made harnesses to connect to the motors directly and can try to power them to put the slide out assuming they are OK then I can access the hatch and see what the controller says. Have disconnected batteries from the RV and taken all power away for a min or so and have not had any luck.

Slide has been working fine, only thing I did different when I put the slide in and was towing the RV was that I ran the refrig on battery power, when I got to the camping spot 2 hours away the slide would not work, batteries still fully charged (have 400W solar system and RV was connected to car).

Called factory and they have not been much help, a technical person was supposed to get back to me, meanwhile ordered the outriggers to fix sag which the slide is developing. Will also support the kitchen floor soon, sag there will show up soon too. Somebody also lost my screen slide door and been trying to find one and it is only 10" tall which is not standard so have not had any luck, waiting on factory on this too. Not been my week.

Other options is to cut and access hole into the ottoman problem is I don't know how things are installed inside there and don't want to damage any equipment trying to get in there, will run a scope into the area and look at things, regardless this issue has become huge headache.

Any help appreciated, as I said huge headache which could have been avoided by having the controller installed in a proper location.


Don


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Don Habibi



Replies:
Posted By: StephenH
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 2:00pm
The controller is behind the flap under the refrigerator. Remove that flap and you will see it. I don't know what went wrong. Check your fuses before tearing things apart. You may simply have blown a fuse.

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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7712 - ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 3:13pm
Have looked behind that wood under the refrigerator and controller was not there, just scoped under the ottoman and the controller is there and is even installed upside down so I can not see the codes, the hatch is totally covered by the slide and the wires going to the motors are too thin to splice into, was going to tap into them and run the motors but now will order two harnesses so I can connect to the motors and hopefully push the slide out and not damage the wiring.  The motor wires way too thin, I think they might get cut if I try to splice into them.  Saga continues.  Hate to cut into the ottoman but than would be my last resort to make a access port and then make a door there, will not be pretty but slide not working like this is a very big deal.  Any other ideas let me know.  the motors have brakes in them so don't know about pushing the slide out but then it would also have to be pushed back in if things don't go well.  Screw for loosening the motors is covered by the edge of the slide and is not accessible right now since slide is all the way in. 

Don



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Don Habibi


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 3:15pm
Other option is to cut thru the seat area and then into the top hatch and go in from the top but again it will not be pretty and will need to be fixed later with some sort of hatch.  All pain in the behind.


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Don Habibi


Posted By: StephenH
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 4:02pm
Okay, this falls under the "let no two RPods be built the same" rule. 

Is it mounted against the wall below the slide-out? When you say you "scoped" it, do you have a fiber optic scope that you used? If so, could you not see the codes using that?

I recommend NOT cutting through the seat area. That is the floor of the slide-out and will make a pretty big hole to weatherproof if you cut through that. The ottoman is basically fabric on the sides. It would be easier to reupholster them.

I went out and looked at mine. Here are the fault codes:

Green LED
1 blink - Motor 1
2 blinks - Motor 2

Red LED
Blinks Fault
2 Battery Dropout
3 Low Battery
4 High Battery
5 Excessive Motor Current
6 Motor Short Circuit
8 Wire Short Between Controller and Motor
9 Hall PWR Short to GND

How to manually override

1. Press button 6 times and hold on the 7th press until the lights start to flash
2. Use the normal slide control switch located inside coach to retract room

In your case, you are trying to extend, not retract. The button is in the rectangular cut-out on the front with the LEDs.
Here is a picture of mine.




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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7712 - ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS


Posted By: JR
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 8:07pm
I found this a good resource and has some good maintenance tips which may be helpful to you.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxEYSstvICI - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxEYSstvICI   Hope this helps you resolve your problem.

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Jay

179/2019


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 11:09pm
Thanks yes I used a fiber scope like for car engines and put thru the hole in the back of the ottoman on both sides and looks like the controller is there and it is upside down so the button and codes and LEDs are facing the floor of the RV.  Again who built this.

Was going to patch into the wires for the motors but the wires are so thin I was afraid the tap might damage them and then I have other issues so I order to set of 5' pigtails today so I can power the two motors at the same time manually via connecting the pigtails and then connecting other end to a battery.  RV is leaving tomorrow and coming back on Sunday, wires will be here next week so either that works or I am going to cut thru the side of the ottoman and will then make a hatch there, yes realized today that can not come thru the top since that is the floor of the slide. 

Bought the RV since I have had other RVs from this manufacturer and did not have any issues but R Pods seem to have lots of issues, have addressed most but dealing with the sagging floor issues soon.  Ordered the outriggers from factory and for the kitchen area going to put up two supports and just use a pressure threaded wood there to support things.  I also have metal around and might be able to make a metal support, tried to buy one of the support which the tanks hang off of and factory would not sell it to me.  Thanks for the replies and again yes with the optical scope I see the wires going into the controller but all I see is the back side of the controller.  Hope this helps other people, if your controller is in the ottoman move it or make access to it since the situation I am in is very stupid and frustrating.

Don


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Don Habibi


Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2022 at 7:38am
Dumb question but just in case, did you try disconnecting power to the slide to reset it? Worked for me once or twice when it seemed to be locked up.

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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2022 at 10:59am
Yes I disconnected the battery twice and left it off for a while, a minute or less, wondering if I should have left it off longer I will do that when the RV is back on Sunday.  Have motor harnesses coming Wednesday and last resort is to cut into the ottoman.  Really somebody was not using their brain designing this.  Slide has already ripped the fabric on the ottoman too so starting to sag, waiting on the outriggers, mine actually has 4 connectors under the floor but they are like 2 inches long, no real support.  Thanks for the advice I will post again after all is done.  


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Don Habibi


Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2022 at 11:46am
The other thing you could try is to press the slide all the way in or out, depending on where it has stopped and if it's close to one end of the other of it's travel. It could be the limit switches are now misaligned because of the sag, which might be keeping it from travelling all the way in or out. By pressing on it you might get one of the limit switches to reengage.

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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold


Posted By: Blue Highways
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2022 at 9:23am
First, thanks Stephen H. for your great visuals of the controller box & always trusty tech help. We had our slider go out 18 months ago, and I’ll tell you our experience: first thing I did is use my smartphone to video the specific error blink-pattern that the controller flashed upon the failure of our slider to push out. I also set the phone on slo-mo to record the pattern that way since the error blink pattern flashes such a quick pattern. That info went to our trusted RV repair shop. The result was that one of the little upper (horizontally-mounted) slider motors had corroded with moisture over time - it was basically barely turning the gear in the L worm track. The other side motor was just about worn out and weak but not corroded. The dealer ordered them in and did the somewhat labor-intensive job of replacing both of the quite-buried drive motors. Unfortunately it was close to $1k for the whole operation but comforting we can go on a long trek with virtually new slider drive motors. Since we live in Western NC mountains there are heavy rain downpour days during a storage summer, and we think eventually moisture intrusion and rust got in behind the rubber gasket and deteriorated the cylindrical slider drive motors. To protect our investment we upgraded our off-season Rpod storage to a slot with an aluminum roofed shelter. We can now skip “stressing out” for a long time about any slider functional issues on a long camping excursion. And, should we ever decide to sell & upgrade, (no current plans) the documentation of new slider drive motors would be a big plus in selling the unit. (‘17 Hood River 179). Hope this helps & sorry about facing this “possibly” 1k maintenance repair. Hope your actual repair is far less!


Posted By: Colt
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2022 at 9:57pm
My slide would not go out after arriving at my destination.  The problem was a wire had bounced off in transit.  I photo'ed it with my phone and after staring at the pic, finally realized the red wire was off.

It's always the red wire!  Never cut the green wire! 


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John
'16 R-Pod 180


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 12:57am


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Don Habibi


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 12:58am
Originally posted by DHabibi


Sorry it posted before I could type in.  So assuming your controller was accessible since with the 179 the controller is in the ottoman and not accessible when the slide is in. 


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Don Habibi


Posted By: JR
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 8:00am
I have a 2019 179 and the slide controller is mounted under the fridge behind a wooden sight screen held in place by 3 screws.  Meaning that the controller is accessible whether the slide is extended or retracted. Hope this helps    

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Jay

179/2019


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 10:56am
My controller is mounted in the ottoman and it is even facing the floor of the unit so I can not see the codes being flashed no access to the manual button either.  Bought two harnesses going to try to power the motors directly and put the slide out so I can open the ottoman and I will then try to remount the controller assuming wires can be manipulated, if not will create a hatch into the ottoman.  Very stupid issue to be having, I put a scope into the ottoman and can see the controller upside down, hate to have to tear into the ottoman, we will see how it goes, may be later today, have couple of things to do today but harnesses just arrived.  Motors accessible but screw which holds them in place are covered by the slide on the outside so I can not even take the motors out to push the slide out manually.  Saga continues.  Dealing with the slide floor sag too, fabric of the ottoman already damaged from some rub.  Removed the plastic lip on the side so that it will not tear the fabric any more.  Ordered the supports waiting on them.  Have not been able to get a hold of parts for a week now, need slider for the screen door, 10' tall only which is not standard at all, somebody lost it trying to replace.  If you have any ideas on it let me know, trying to cut a 12' one down to size but don't know if there is enough material yet. 


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Don Habibi


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 28 Jul 2022 at 12:53pm
Update:   I finished making harnesses going to the two motors and put the slide out and got to the storage in the ottoman.  The power wire going to the controller had broken off and I have a feeling it might have zapped the controller by touching the negative.  I moved the controller to the wall under the refrigerator and connected everything and slide only tries to move in one direction and code is motor 1 (one blink) and Power drop out (2 blinks).  I believe my motors are good since they are working when I go to them directly, reversed the motor 1 and 2 wires to the controller and the controller keeps saying motor one power drop out, if there was wiring problem I would have expected the problem to move to motor 2 but the code does not change.  Right now suspecting the controller which I know do not go bad that often but again if connector which broke and was hot touched the ground on the controller then I can see a zapping issue.  Will do some more testing.  Tempted to tap into the original motor wires and connect some wires to them so I can manually put the slide in and out bypassing the system but using original wires.  It is easily doable.  Putting the controller in manual mode does not let me move the slide. 


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Don Habibi


Posted By: StephenH
Date Posted: 28 Jul 2022 at 2:22pm
Thanks for the update. Good luck on getting it fixed.

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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7712 - ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 31 Jul 2022 at 1:01pm
Just another quick update, again with my external wire harness which I made I was able to put the slide out; with slide out and ottoman hatch accessible I tapped into the coaches wires going to the motors and attached a set of wires so I can go to a battery source (with original harness wire ends disconnected from the controller, don't want to put power into the controller from that end) and put the slide in and out manually using the R-Pods original wires which are on the motors. 

People were asking for emergency way of dealing with Lippert system, just wanted to share this since this is the only way to have an emergency way to put the slide in and out assuming the motors are working and at least the black and red wire of the harnesses are OK. 

This way I don't have to disconnect those wires from the motors and reconnect my other patch cord, so I did this for emergency if the controller goes bad again and need to put the slide in or out.  Will put this wiring hardness under the refrigerator so it can be accessed.  Other thing which I have notice; when the positive power wire to the controller broke off it must have touched the negative terminal below it and the wire end is a bit melted.  Since no fuses were blown then obviously this line is not fused; so I am putting a 15 amp in line fuse on this line since my controller is fried due to the short.  People were talking about fuse in the fuse panel but that fuse only takes care of the switch power not the heavy duty supply power which goes to the side of the controller, this line is not fused as far as I can tell since it is still powered even after shorting out. 

Still waiting on a new controller so things can go back to normal.  My original controller is definitely bad.  Bought a used controller if it works great otherwise will order a $350 new one, they are available just very pricey.  If anybody has questions about the wiring I can help, just note that the wires going to the motors need to be reversed for one of them, one motor needs to turn one way and the other the other way in order for slide to go in and out.  Assuming this makes sense.  You need to power both motors at the same time so slide again works, by reversing the connection to the battery you can put the slide in and out so red and black don't mean positive and negative in this case.

Don



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Don Habibi


Posted By: StephenH
Date Posted: 31 Jul 2022 at 4:09pm
I'm glad you got it figured out but sorry your controller got fried. Hopefully, you can get it positioned so that there is no stress on the wire that could cause that to happen again.

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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7712 - ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 04 Aug 2022 at 11:26am
OK my last update on this since I finally figure it all out and got everything working.  So there is a large fuse, I am assuming 30-40 amps bolted to the floor of the RV behind the fuse panel by the door.  So when the positive line on my controller broke off and shorted to the ground it damaged this fuse but did not burn it.  I bought a controller (used) and it turned out to have problems (my luck, returned), my own controller turned out not to be burned, the code 2 it was giving me was not making sense since it was not moving from motor to motor when I was switching connectors.  Any way I put my controller in the system and powered it with an independent battery locally and everything worked.  The large wire from this fuse the controller is very thick (6 gauge or so)  and obviously was not damaged so this fuse is not totally burned but is not allowing enough power to go to the controller.  I disconnected wire from this fuse and used a 30 amp fuse on an empty spot on the regular fuse panel and wired everything and it works great.  25A blows when the slide gets to the end or all the way in since the motors are pulling more than 25 amp when limited, 30 amp fuse is working fine.  At some point I might grab another large fuse and wire things the way they were but for now using regular fuse spot in number 8 which was empty is working fine.  The board should be able to handle the 27 amps or so which is getting pulled by the motors when limited.  I also made a relay system using two relays which would allow me to do without the controller all together for but now things are back to normal, I am keeping the relay system and the wire system which I made for going straight to the motors for emergency use.  All done, hope all of this helps.  To get to the fuse for the slide you have take out the whole fuse box assembly. 



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Don Habibi


Posted By: StephenH
Date Posted: 04 Aug 2022 at 2:24pm
Hmmmm. I don't recall seeing such a fuse behind the power panel in our 2016 RP179. I'll have to look again the next time I have the power panel out.

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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7712 - ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS


Posted By: DHabibi
Date Posted: 04 Aug 2022 at 2:36pm
A very thick wire goes from the left side of the fuse panel to one end of this fuse and the wire that goes under the floor to the other side is going from the other side of the fuse to the controller.  Silver fuse with 2 terminals screwed to the floor.  I have replace with a 30 amp ATC fuse in the number 8 spot for now. 


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Don Habibi



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