twest99

My 1994 Newmar Mountainaire slide out recently refused to slide back in. The electric motor did not operate. I had several RV savy friends try and help me figure out how to manually operate the slide out mechanism but we were unable to do so. I put everything back together. Then moved the unit very slowly for a couple hundred feet with the slide out extended, and turned the entire coach off (disconnected batteries). I came back with more tools to try and work it, and then the motor worked fine... My question: How do I manually operate the slide out in case this happens again? Attached are two pictures, both of the gear box and electric motor which are at one end of the drive shaft. I do not have an owners manual, but I know that the instructions appear to be different if the motor is in the middle of the pop out or at the end... Also... the third picture is of some plastic broken bits that came out when the slide out moved out into position. These plastic pieces were on the floor and came out from under the slide out. There were no nasty noises or crunching sounds, and the motor did not appear to strain or buck or do anything differently while the unit was moving out, and while it was going back in. Appreciate any/all insight into these two issues. Tim

Thanks Rich - I did not appreciate how narrow the fully charged voltage band is for batteries. For the two 6VDC batteries I have, I assume that the 12 VDC numbers you gave me can be divided by 2 to give 6.125 and 6.25 for fully charged voltage for each battery? I'll have to see where to get the hydrometer reading done... Regardless, I'm gonna fully charge the batteries before I go further. Tim

Thanks Brett. Could you explain the "50% discharged at 12.2VDC"? My simple thinking is that the bank is fully charged when the two 6VDC batteries are wired in series and they are at 12VDC. So when they came back from the auto store at 11.8VDC I thought - "close enough". What voltage should I expect a fully charged set of batteries to have? The batteries appear to be in good shape - no bulges. The large gauge wires are connected. I took pictures and notes so they are back they way they were. Also cleaned the connections (sanded with 220 grit paper to remove rust/corrosion - it wasn't bad for an almost 20 year old motor home) so they are nice and shiny. Thanks again, Tim

Brett, You were right! The two batteries are 6VDC deep cycle. Each battery has 3 cells. I'll try not to post something "I think" I remember... Battery specs: US Battery 2200 XC (model num 2C3224N - stamped on case) 232 Amp hrs (20hr rate), 122 Minutes (@75 amps), 474 Minutes (@25 Amps). I took the batteries to an auto parts store and they tested them. Each battery took almost 40 minutes to charge enough to test. Because it was an automotive tester, it was looking for CCA, so we tested it at 450 CCA, and it "passed". After charging and testing, the batteries read 5.93 VDC each. After charging and testing I put the batteries back in the RV and hooked them back up to the charger. I configured the charger for wet batteries (hold invert button for 5 secs, select "wet" with charge button). The good news is that when all wired up I saw 11.8 volts on the whole system (5.9 + 5.9). The bad news is that when the charger had 120VAC on it, it still showed only 11.8 VDC. The charger battery negative is wired directly to the chassis, not back to the batteries... more on that to come... The battery charger/inverter is a Xantrex Freedom 458-20 (single in, single out). The inverter is not wired. It appears shore power and the "old inverter 120 VAC out" are wired together at the charger input - Thats why my appliances only work when connected to shore power. I found an old Newmar wiring diagram with the papers that came with the RV, and it clearly shows the battery negative going to the chassis ground, and NOT back to the batteries themselves. This is how the unit is currently wired. This is NOT what the Xantrex documents show as a standard installation. Given all the "smarts" on the charger, I bet this is at least part of my issue... your thoughts? An aside: I've committed to a "shake down" trip this weekend with the family... if I can't figure out the charger piece before then, can I charge these two batteries with my car charger (12 VDC)? Its an old sears charger with a 2AMP, 10AMP and 50AMP (start) selector. In this way I can keep the batteries charged while we are connected to shore power via the sears charger. I would have to disconnect the Xantrex charger before doing this. I plan to make two calls today: 1) To Newmar to ask about how to run another battery cable from the charger compartment back to the battery compartment. This sounds easy, but this coach is built very well, and is almost "hermetically" sealed between these compartments. The one cable (the positive) runs inside one of the main frame beams between the compartments and is totally sealed. Running another cable in this same way looks impossible... 2) To Xantrex to confirm that using the chassis frame is NOT an option for the negative battery cable. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.... I will post results. Tim

Brett, Thanks for the advice... I was confused about the batteries also - yes, they each have 6 cells (6 water fill caps) per battery. They are deep cycle batteries - do they make deep cycle batteries that are 6DV and have 6 cells? The batteries are the size of a "standard" car battery. The charger has 120 VAC, and shows a green "charge/gel" light when shore power is on. I will post make/model when I get home. I am going to get the batteries tested tonight and will charge them... will let you know more as I do. I did not want to complicate the post, but the system is not wired to use the inverter. Apparently this was a modification made by the previous owner (who I cannot contact to ask questions). So, the only way I have 120 VAC in the coach is when shore power is plugged in or if the generator is running. Thanks, Tim

Hello FMCA! I just got a 1994 Newmar 38' motor home and I've been troubleshooting the house power system... What I know: Voltage at the batteries is 11.4 at best and drops below 11 when several loads (lights/fans) are on. I confirmed this voltage with a meter at the batteries. When plugged into shore power (with house 110 VAC adapter, i.e., not 50 AMP service), voltage is still 11.4 max, and it also drops to below 11 when under load. The batteries are not charging when plugged into shore power, i.e., they do not get above 11.4 when under shore power for a few days. I had the charger replaced and I'm getting the same results. Some really basic questions (my first RV experience, and no owners manual!): The 2 house batteries are wired in series (pos to neg). Voltage across each battery (when disconnected) is ~5.6V. I expected to see two 12 volt batteries wired in parallel! Is it "standard" for an RV to use 6VDC batteries? I could see no markings on the batteries indicating the voltage, although I did see 6 cells that you can add water to (water level was good on all cells). The charger negative is wired (grounded) to the chassis. This seems very odd. I disconnected the negative from the charger to the chassis, and ran a temp cable (used car jumper cable) from the charger negative directly back to the negative of the batteries - I made sure that the negative I attached the jumper cable to was NOT the same battery that the positive from the charger was connected to. I got the same results: 11.4VDC max. I think my next step is to get the batteries tested to make sure that are still good, but I've never seen 6VDC batteries that are the size and shape of a 12VDC car battery... Apologies for dump question... glad to read links to get educated - thanks for any/all help.