Newell Gurus

Went to the Fall closing of the Coolspring Power Museum. Trip started off with the Recaro seat not inflating, bounced all the way to Coolspring. Parked and had trouble with the rear slide not going out all the way. Tried leveling rather than in travel mode, slide went out. Most confusing as Newell states "slides should be operated in travel mode".

Next tried to start generator but nothing doing. Racked set out and started from Kohler panel, came inside and WT & OP plus run indicator lamps working. Started checking wiring from set towards coach. Next checked wiring at connection point location in front of passenger seat (also fuse panel located here) loss of connection between set & connection point. Result open conductor, thankfully our Newells have ample spares (the guys do such a stellar job of bundling cable sets),and there was a spare which when connected solved the problem.

Then the grounds administrator asked us to move so went to travel mode and front slide went in but rear slide wouldn't budge. Went back, to level and tried again, this time the slide came in. I'm pretty confused at this point.

Moved to a new spot and while in travel mode front went out and rear went out half way but would not budge past that point. Called a fellow Guru and tried several things but nothing worked (included relieving pressure by manually opening solenoid valves). finally gave in and called Tommy Keyes. "Start your engine and parallel your batteries and try again to operate the rear slide", it worked!!

All day I've been working this over in my mind and my resolution is: The hydraulic pressure needed at that distance from the pump is more than the pump can do if motor voltage is down just by a small amount . By paralleling and utilizing the 300 plus ampere capacity of the main engine's alternator, the voltage is kept up enough to generate the pressure needed.

I hope this helps someone whom may experience the same problem.

Gordon. Do you think the wiring to the pump is undersized? Bad ground?

Oh I know how it feels to have "everything" go wrong on one trip!

I leave my coach running when operating slides. Do you normally operate slides with engine off?

Like Jason, I run my engine on high idle in travil mode to bring the slides in and out. I try not to do this too early in the morning when in an RV park.

I think that everyone should know the correct order by now, but for those of you who missed it or are a "Doubting Thomas"....

Arrive at campsite and pull into space and park leaving the engine running and the coach in "Travel" mode ONLY.. Next proceed to deploy front and/or rear slides (order means nothing). Next put your leveling system in "Auto level" mode and if in a steep grade or bad campsite switch to manual on the keypad and adjust until all the orange lights are off and the coach will re level automatically in 30 minutes. Some pre 2004 coaches will experience a Parking Brake conflict on occasion , which a release of it and re leveling usually works on the first try. Never stop in the middle of a deployment cycle or as you retract. Often the locking pins won't engage and you will need to do the cycle completely again to move on down the road. Never move slide rooms unless the engine is running and the coach is in "Travel", NEVER....you will have problems now or in the future if you use any other method.

Larry,
Are your slides Valid or HWH? When do you release the park brake? If right side of site is low should you put the left slides out first?

Ron, I believe Larry has one of the last half dozen coaches built with HWH slides.

Yes Ron, Michael is right. the parking brake is released only if the coach won't level and seems like one side or the front won't cooperate. so if you release the parking brake it unbinds the frame position and when you relevel the coach is usually already right on level. I was told it was a common issue.. slide order shouldn't matter unless your on a steep hill. Hope your feeling better Ron and look forward to riding with you again, so get better soon , ya hear !!!

jimmy, I do not think there is a bad ground. The voltage seems to fall of when pump is running, if anything, the pump HP is low. This would mean that if a larger HP motor was used the wiring size may have to increase.

I didn't receive much of a "slide school" after purchasing this coach and had never had any issues with the main engine off, until now! Thank you Larry!!

Gordon: are you measuring voltage from motor input wire to steel ground or just across the motor wiring. You probably did the former and got it right, whilest I've done the latter on occasion and spent a lot of time looking for love in all the wrong places.