2016 Vista 31BE Class A Slideout Issue

[Lette-WO]

Well my tow dolly is fixed and now another issue surfaced with my Slideout. When closing or opening, it will only move 3 - 4 inches and stop with clicking noise. (Clicking noise is coming from upper corners where motors are located) I can press the slide-out switch to continue and it will continue to open or close by 3 -4 inches repeating the clicking noise. I've researched on this site but have nothing points a a root cause. I found the control module. I suspect the "code" they refer to is being displayed on the actual LED within the switch which calls out for an error 4. I still have to pull apart my storage area where the module is to get a good view. My battery voltage on the vehicle battery is 12.67 while the coach batteries are 13.xx. Batteries are 2 years old and upgraded. With a clicking noise (Both motors), battery voltages known, still moving the slideout...is this a controller module issue? I'm heading underneath to reconnect connections on the control module (all looked good) or am I dealing with 2 defunct motors (hard to swallow that diagnosis)?

In general this Winnebago has been solid with only minor issues. Have been thinking of moving to Tiffin or Newmar only because of the gel coat finish...god awful maintenance required!

In any event, any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Eagle5]

Hi Lette,
If it were me, I would go into Google Maps and search for "RV Technicians near me." The Google Review should be a good guide. You could also try these two things:

1. Keep your engine running when deploying or retracting the slide-out
2. Lubricate your gear racks and surrounding seals

Eagle5

 

[Morich]

Clicking is a hard one to define to others as we may not "hear" what you do!
Afew different things that I feel might be called clicking come to mind. Maybe you can isolate it down to stop worry about some of those?
There are gears that run along the tracks on front and back of the slide. If one of those gears begin to skip a tooth, that might make a "click" in that area nearer the top side of the slide? Anyway to say if it is coming from high like that or more likely from below?
tough thing to answer! Maybe if the slide is open a look at the track for any signs of damage from teeth skipping, etc? Check to see if you can see the teeth on the gear by pulling the rubber seal back?
Some other things that might click. I think of those modules as solid state items that are not likely to click but maybe a loose connection where it might be arcing? Any way to tell if it seems to come from the module area? Is an arcing sound a click or a snap? But arcing doesn't meet what I think of as repeating in the same fashion as they seem to burn together or stop arcing!
Sorry, not much to offer other than random ideas!
Maybe help to locate control if not seen it before?
Looking for this but I see no LED?

Maybe listen for some click from it?
Wish you luck in the chase!

 

[powercat_ras]

I'm assuming your Vista has the LCI "Swintek" slide movement system. If so:

The slideout controllers monitor motor current and think that when current goes above a threshold that the slide has reached it's end of movement. There is a force adjustment on each slideout controller that you can increase.

The aluminum slides move within bearing blocks in between the slide wall and sidewall behind the weatherstripping. They have tight tolerances and want and need the aluminum to be smooth in the slot that the bearing block shoe sits in.

The aluminum tracks are designed NOT to be lubricated, lubricant attracts dirt and grit that will score and roughen the aluminum and actually make the movement take more effort from the motor. There are movement surfaces on the bearing blocks that require infrequent lubrication with a specific PTFE spray lube so they can move in and out laterally to compensate for any slight mis-shape in the slide box. LCI has instructions online and there are youtube videos online for reference.

If you have lubricated the aluminum tracks, try to use denatured alcohol and clean the lubricant and any debris that the lubricant has attracted as best as you can. If the tracks have been scored and are rough, and you still have problems with the force adjustment turned up all the way on the slide controllers, you may have to have new tracks and slide bearing blocks installed to restore normal operation.

 

[Lette-WO]

Hi Lette,
If it were me, I would go into Google Maps and search for "RV Technicians near me." The Google Review should be a good guide. You could also try these two things:

1. Keep your engine running when deploying or retracting the slide-out
2. Lubricate your gear racks and surrounding seals

Eagle5

Thank you Eagle5. We do run the engine as it’s recommended. We did hear the two motors. I will clean the tracks though…… (low battery on my keyboard is causing issues...lol)

 

[powercat_ras]

FYI, the force adjustment is under the circle with the X in it, you poke thru the label and there is a small straight blade screwdriver adjustment on the circuit board there. The farther clockwise you set the adjustment the more force is applied before the controller decides a motor has stalled and stops applying power to the motor ( which the controller assumes means it that side of the slide has reached its stop ).

 

[powercat_ras]

Here is a 1 pager on lubricating the LCI Swintek Slideout Bearing Blocks, FYI.

 

[Lette-WO]

FYI, the force adjustment is under the circle with the X in it, you poke thru the label and there is a small straight blade screwdriver adjustment on the circuit board there. The farther clockwise you set the adjustment the more force is applied before the controller decides a motor has stalled and stops applying power to the motor ( which the controller assumes means it that side of the slide has reached its stop ).

Ok, i’ve had some time to diagnose and here’s the update so far. The control module that I have in my Winnebago power gear dual planetary gear motor sink control. The part number is 151-000-0236.. I am seeing an error code of four red and one green which implies motor one is no good. There are some voltages that I can check which I will do tomorrow now keep in mind it does not travel 12 inches as they indicate and I can’t figure out what Manual override is, but I will take those necessary voltage readings tomorrow all tracks have been cleaned and I have been looking at videos of how to access the motors, but I do feel it is a current or overload type issue so if this module has the same override or improvements in current, that can be done as mentioned above, I’d like to know. The clicking noise is clearly coming from both motors as if there is more tension on the motors, triggering them like an overcurrent issue and there onboard breaker pops. Hopefully you understand what I’m saying. I think you are right and that it’s associated to a force issue. So the issue is there an adjustment on this particular module?

 

[powercat_ras]

Note that posts #4, 5, and 6 assumed you had a different slide out system that what you posted photos for above. You will want to search online for the information on your specific system. You might have paper ocumentation in your Winnebago manual bag in the Supplemental book, or possibly even a separate manual.

It does not appear that your controller has the force adjustment access hole.

Good luck.

 

[Morich]

This post makes a very important point we should ALL keep in mind. First step should be to find what we are actually working on! No matter how good any written instructions or info on what we have, it can always be wrong! If what we find on OUR RV is not what others tell us, we have to get better info on what WE have as a first step!

 

[Morich]

Let's drop back a step or two if we now agree what parts we need to look at for solutions?
My first posts had snips of what the parts catalog shows on this controler and at first look it did not seem to match what the OP had. But that is because their picture and my snip were turned over!
What their picture shows they have:

What my snip from the parts catalog shows when turned over:

So it looks like the parts drawings were correct and they DO have this Lippert control.
But the name is not really that important once we get down to sorting the problem!
What I feel they will need to do, once past gathering info on specifics of the control, is going to involve checking input and output from this control. It's the old story about "garbage in, garbage out" ! If we don't put the good stuff in, we don't get the good stuff out, so one of the first things I would do is verify that the input are correct and that they are reliable. Since this seems to start and then fail, I might guess there is a loose connection but it may be more involved so we have to start somewhere. I would check the inputs are good, clean and steady! Things as simple as battery and ground may cause all kinds of havoc if the connection is lost when the slide starts to move!
Maybe the plug is the problem and loses contact when the slide moves?
Once past the basics, we might then need to move to check outputs and that gets harder as we likely need the info on what and where each wire is going out to the motors!
But that info is both on the label as well as stamped on the wires Winnebago added.
We can use either info if it seems correct. If we need to crosscheck that wire info, we can go to the Winnebago wire ID list and check the ID stamped on the wires to see where the list shows that one specific wire should go. Maybe the problem only "seems" to be at the control? It may not be here but at the far end of a wire that goes someplace like the motors? But if we want to fix things, we need to keep in mind that every wire has two ends, right? Since they have this end found and semi-easy to check, I would start here to make sure this is good before trying to get to the motors to check.
But there is a pretty common thing with slide wires and controls as they both can go bad! One of the things I hear/read about the wiring for slides is that it is not well supported in lots of RV. With 5-6 feet of wire loom hanging loose down the side of the slide, it can get worn or broken where the wire pulls down and wiggles every time the slide moves!
Since this slide seems to move a bit and then stop, I might imagine there is a wire that gets in the wrong spot as the slide moves and then when it stops the wire falls back from that contact? Or maybe it is not a short but goes open when the slide is moving and then makes contact when the slide stops?
The trick seems to be chasing down those intermittent problems!
But we still gotta start somewhere!

 

[Lette-WO]

Note that posts #4, 5, and 6 assumed you had a different slide out system that what you posted photos for above. You will want to search online for the information on your specific system. You might have paper ocumentation in your Winnebago manual bag in the Supplemental book, or possibly even a separate manual.

It does not appear that your controller has the force adjustment access hole.

Good luck.

Yes, I have had to download 3 seperate documents so far referring to my controller and diagnostic options. There are documents calling out other documents. Ugghh. I think what I have available to me is "Jog" mode which allows me to move it 3 to 4 inches at a time after reading these documents. I am focused on motor one failure but will replace both motors. Stay tuned!!

 

[Morich]

Just something to consider? When you get a motor fail indication. that may not be totally true as bad wiring can make the motor fail! One of the problems I have seen with slides is what I feel is not the best setup to make the wiring last. Can't say it is true for your RV, but take a look if you can at how the wiring may be left hanging down from the motor!
I have seen several reports where that long section of wires has swung back and forth due to the motion of the RV and graduallly worn the wire, either at the connections at the top of the motor or sometimes where the wire hangs down over the side of the motor!
If you can pull the rubber seal back to get a look at the end of the motor where the wires connect, you may be able to spot a problem that can appear to be a motor failure but is actually a motor that is not getting what it needs due to bad wiring!
What I have seen shows a long wire that has no clamp or attachment to secure it, only the solder joints on the motor!
Just a thought for something to look over before jumping to actually having a bad motor! A good motor with a bad wire may look much the same to mechanical brains!

 

[Tillie]

I just had a similar issue with my Vista 29 and the issue turned out to be damaged wires. I had a repair shop diagnosis and fix it so I don’t have more details but from what I was told they had to replace several damaged wires that had become pinched by something. Apparently it was not syncing the motors due to the damaged wires.

 

[Lette-WO]

Well we are still at it with this issue after weeks. The controller has been changed and the motor being reported as a failure. LCI technician has been requested but I suspect it’s a wiring issue based now on the reports above plus what has been replaced……a continuity test is the easiest way to check this….

 

[Lette-WO]

Just something to consider? When you get a motor fail indication. that may not be totally true as bad wiring can make the motor fail! One of the problems I have seen with slides is what I feel is not the best setup to make the wiring last. Can't say it is true for your RV, but take a look if you can at how the wiring may be left hanging down from the motor!
I have seen several reports where that long section of wires has swung back and forth due to the motion of the RV and graduallly worn the wire, either at the connections at the top of the motor or sometimes where the wire hangs down over the side of the motor!
If you can pull the rubber seal back to get a look at the end of the motor where the wires connect, you may be able to spot a problem that can appear to be a motor failure but is actually a motor that is not getting what it needs due to bad wiring!
What I have seen shows a long wire that has no clamp or attachment to secure it, only the solder joints on the motor!
Just a thought for something to look over before jumping to actually having a bad motor! A good motor with a bad wire may look much the same to mechanical brains!

Hi Morich; We are unfortunately lost on analysis. The repair shop has checked everything! Replaced motors, replaced control module and performed contiunutity testing on all wires to and from control module to motors. Talking with LCI they thought they had the wrong controller but a second one came in today and the slideoput moved out and won't move back. Unfortunately, we are suppose to be heading out today for 9 days!!! Any other ideas?? What are they missing??

 

[Morich]

Moves out but won't move back in! That may be a big tell on what is going on but we need to give it some thought.
this is a type motor that reverses/turns the other way when we reverse the power! It is the same motor winding and such inside the motor but we have to give it batt6ery and ground on reversed pins to make it do the second movement in the other direction.
Has any body gopt down to test what happens to that battery and ground when the slide is told to move out versus what it is told when we want it to go the other direction?
I don't know which pins those battery and ground are on but if both motros are unplugged, so nothing really moves, I would think looking at the correct pins on the motor that seems working, would show what the good one gets and then could be compared to the what the one that fails is getting?
I can't really read the labels ion this pictures of the controls to sort which pins on each plug to test but, I would start with first finding which item is causing the problem.
There are several different parts, starting with getting the basic needs to the control box.
We can say it is getting battery and ground, since it works to go one direction. But there are some simple items to test before we know if it isthe switch, the wires or the control or motors. I like to decide which has failed before changing parts and it looks like that should be done where we can get to the wiring without tearing too much of the RV apart.

If we say the main bat/ground are getting there since one direction works, we might ignore that in red.
But we need to know that the signal from the inside control switch is getting to the control box! I can't read the label on this drawing but that should be pretty simple to find and test at the blue spot? Does what you see going in when the switch is pressed and works, then reverse pins when the switch is pressed the other direction?
We are saying the bat and ground get to the control, so does the switch and wiring let the control get the signal to go one direction the same as it gets to go the other direction?
And at some point we need to know that if the signal gets there for both directions, does the control box send out the correct info to the motors? One way I might look at to test up to and including the box is swapping the plugs from motor one to motor two. That might lead to finding if the fault moves with changing the plugs, there would seem to be a problem on out toward the motros? But if we are sending the right stuff but the problem stays on one specific motor plug, THEN we have to looks for what is wrong with the box?
But I've learned to be disappointed in some of my first looks at things it seems to have lots of tricks!
Maybe that is the difference in techs and guessers? In the stuff I've been trained on, it was just too much time and expense to even consider swapping out parts.

 

[Lette-WO]

The technicians have measured all voltages and also during operation plus continuity testing. They replaced harnesses to both motors and the control module (700156) twice to make sure we’re not dealing with a defective module. There is a harness called out on the new Lippert controller (Harness 387587) that is for WGO service but I’m told by Lippert is not needed unless your dealing with a different motor interface? Not confident on that response. They were going to perform a more detailed current test to rule out frayed wire. They are receiving mixed results where now the Slideout does not move in or out. Another mobile technician is coming on Monday to their shop as a second set of eyes. I see an optional lockout relay in the drawing (63912-02) and wondering if this is another part they need to assess…..Lippert is fielding their questions daily….this is really disappointing right now ….we’re missing something……maybe the second set of eyes will unearth something….our trip this week to Normandy Farms has been switched to a cabin….ugghh. I need to determine the next steps if they truly can’t determine root cause….possibly driving to factory service?

 

[Morich]

Sorry to hear about the trama! Been there on various repairs and it gets to be a real headache that can seem to have no solution. Sometimes it seems the more you do, the worse things get and that can be a good time to step back, set down and ask why you are doing what has been done.
Changing parts is one way to really confuse things if those parts and changes are not done for a good reason and using good parts and methods when doing the changes!
Are they still getting the clicks you first reported and have they found what was clicking and why? That might seem to be an obvious item that is defintiely not normal, so a good move might be to find what is clicking and why?