Manual Slide Retract Works

AdrianLee · 03-26-2006, 06:07 PM

I have a 2006 Itasca Ellipse 40FD. Last week the bedroom slide on the drivers side chose not to retract when the retract switch was pressed.

Yes I wanted to hit it with a bigger hammer but I managed to hold onto my sanity.

HWH Tech told me what to do. I read a lot of helpful posts here and decided to give it a try this afternoon since I am heading for Las Vegas to get it fixed Monday morning.

I opened the valve 4 turns with the wrench built into the fluid resevoir cap. The slide slid in about half way all by itself (the coach is level). I then tried pushing on the slide with little effect. Remember - the bottom of the slide is about 6' off the ground and I am 5' 8" so everything I am doing is over my head. I would not trust a ladder. As instructed by HWH Tech, I had DW push the retract switch and I applied about 10 to 15 lbs of force -

The slide slud in just like it was supposed to.

AdrianLee · 03-26-2006, 06:07 PM

I have a 2006 Itasca Ellipse 40FD. Last week the bedroom slide on the drivers side chose not to retract when the retract switch was pressed.

Yes I wanted to hit it with a bigger hammer but I managed to hold onto my sanity.

HWH Tech told me what to do. I read a lot of helpful posts here and decided to give it a try this afternoon since I am heading for Las Vegas to get it fixed Monday morning.

I opened the valve 4 turns with the wrench built into the fluid resevoir cap. The slide slid in about half way all by itself (the coach is level). I then tried pushing on the slide with little effect. Remember - the bottom of the slide is about 6' off the ground and I am 5' 8" so everything I am doing is over my head. I would not trust a ladder. As instructed by HWH Tech, I had DW push the retract switch and I applied about 10 to 15 lbs of force -

The slide slud in just like it was supposed to.

ichn2go · 03-27-2006, 02:20 AM

Great Adrian,,its good to know it works as "advertised". Just hope I never have to resort to those methods..Hope you get it fixed ok...Good Miles

tomsm · 03-27-2006, 02:37 AM

Great news, Adrain! Nice to know it's doable if I ever find myself in that situation.

troth · 03-27-2006, 03:53 AM

Adrian, please keep us posted on the real solution as to why your slide would not retract...

AdrianLee · 03-28-2006, 09:39 AM

Got the coach into Findlay RV in Las Vegas this morning and they fixed the problem quickly. The problem was a lose wire / pin in one of the plugs going into the control box down under the front of the coach. I had looked at each of these plugs last week but could not find a lose wire. Apparently it was there.

Someone posted to check these wires so I did but apparently not close enough. I believe if I have a similar problem in the future I will find a way to check the wires better than I did by just pulling on them with my fingers. Perhaps a gentle tug with needle nosed pliers would be better.

It is fixed and we are happy

rebelsbeach · 03-28-2006, 10:14 AM

Darn loose wires.....that was the problem with my Triptek as well.

Glad you're sliding with ease again!

lenOrge · 03-28-2006, 11:23 AM

Hi AdrianLee....Thanks for the information. I know where that"wrench",and now I'm gong to find the slide motors.....lenOrge

2003 Brave 34D

AdrianLee · 03-28-2006, 12:16 PM

lenOrge,

Not sure where the slide motor is on a Brave but on my Ellipse it is under the second inside step. There is a 7/16 nut in the center under the lip of the step. Remove the nut and raise the step. You are then looking directly down on top of the whole slide pump assembly. The motor is down at the bottom of the assemply on the left. There is only 1 motor for all of the slides.

troth · 03-29-2006, 03:34 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">and now I'm gong to find the slide motors.....lenOrge </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

lenOrge, what kind of slide problems are you having? Your Brave will have the HWH hydraulic system, not a "motor" per se. Your HWH hydraulic pump & solenoids will be right behind the front bumper.

Dave and Cris · 11-16-2008, 06:15 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AdrianLee:
I have a 2006 Itasca Ellipse 40FD. Last week the bedroom slide on the drivers side chose not to retract when the retract switch was pressed. Yes I wanted to hit it with a bigger hammer but I managed to hold onto my sanity.

HWH Tech told me what to do. I read a lot of helpful posts here and decided to give it a try this afternoon since I am heading for Las Vegas to get it fixed Monday morning.

I opened the valve 4 turns with the wrench built into the fluid resevoir cap. The slide slid in about half way all by itself (the coach is level). I then tried pushing on the slide with little effect. Remember - the bottom of the slide is about 6' off the ground and I am 5' 8" so everything I am doing is over my head. I would not trust a ladder. As instructed by HWH Tech, I had DW push the retract switch and I applied about 10 to 15 lbs of force - The slide slud in just like it was supposed to.

END OF QUOTE

I know this is over two years later but I found your post extremely informative and encouraging. Right now we are "stuck" in Bloomfield, NM with both living area/room slides full extended and unable to retract the bedroom slide. There is a small amount of hydraulic fluid around the front driver side jack. HWH tech support is not available on the weekends so I called Coach-Net. The tech essentially isolated the electrical power to the hydraulic pump to the engine batteries and we were able to retract the small bedroom slide on the passenger side. Coach-Net has made arrangements for a mobile service to show up on Tuesday to help manually retract the slides and off to Albuquerque Camping World we go:-)). I plan to call HWH first thing tomorrow AM (Monday) but I thought I would ask if you or possibly others might have some add'l ideas/solutions/insights to this problem.

Dave and Cris

cbeierl · 11-16-2008, 06:35 AM

It's hard to know without more details, but it sounds like you may be low on hydraulic fluid in the HWH system. If you're jacks are down I would try raising them up--that will put more fluid back in the reservoir. Also, running the engine will provide higher voltage to the hydraulic pump than just running off the chassis batteries.

Dave and Cris · 11-16-2008, 07:02 AM

Thanks for the reply. I had thought about the low hydraulic fluid but the Coach-Net tech felt that was not a problem. I have never checked the fluid level in the hydraulic reservoir so I am not sure how to do this. One of our jacks was replaced last August in Forest City so I am assuming the fluid level was checked after installing the jack. I hope it is low fluid that is causing this problem.

Dave

Chandler Bing · 11-16-2008, 02:42 PM

Last spring we were camping and the slides would not come out, we had a tech come to the campground and he talked to hwh and found out there was a bad part (a valve) that had happened to others and so he switched the slides to the jacks control and they worked. We just could not use the jacks until we replaced that part. They shipped it to our home, my hubby installed it and everthing worked then.