Slides and auto levelers dead

Vettgrl920 · 06-26-2017, 05:06 PM

I have a 2011 Georgetown 378TS. It has 3 slides. A couple of questions. 1. If I have the generator running, do I use battery power? Does the generator just charge the batteries and then everything runs off them? 2. I just got back from vacation and everything worked fine. I went out today to put out slides and clean it and had a problem. Everything works except the slides and the hydraulic levelers. I might ad that I left the fridge run the batteries dead. So I turned on the generator and started the slide on the right and it went all the way out. I started the slide on the left and it lurched real hard and went out about a foot. I let off the button. I again pushed the button and it lurched again and went out another foot or so and stopped. I had someone check the batteries and they needed to be charged (I had gen running all this time). So I went and started the coach cause I thought maybe the slideouts wouldn't work proper unless coach was level. I set the brake and tried the auto leveler and all the lights were flashing on the control panel for the leveling system. Nothing. No motor running, no sound, no clicks, nothing. I replaced all the fuses in the fuse box and checked the electric switches and all seemed fine. I also noticed that the Carbon Monoxide/smoke detector was flashing and I reset it. What do I do now? I have read forums till I am blue in the face and have not seen my specific question answered. HELP!

ktvaughan · 06-28-2017, 12:57 PM

There is a separate 15A fuse for the hydraulic pump on mine. It's in a little inline socket near the pump motor.
You might also have killed the batteries and they can't deliver voltage.
The hydraulic pump seems to be very sensitive to voltage below full (13.4V).

MNtraveler · 07-05-2017, 11:51 AM

Q1: you use battery power to start it, but not while running it; while running it charges the batteries. But even while running, everything that uses DC power still runs off the batteries.
Q2: yes (except AC and microwave, maybe TV, anything that runs on A/C power directly)

Suggest you fully charge up the batteries which may take a few hours on the generator or 2-3 days on AC power using the converter. Even though one slider worked OK, they draw a lot of amps and then there wasn't enough juice left in the batteries for the others. If they don't work on a full charge, that's a different problem, perhaps fuses which you can check in the meantime.

Vettgrl920 · 07-05-2017, 04:22 PM

Well after many days, a lot of hours with an electrician running down all the wires trying to find an 80amp fuse (Forest River Co said was there) that wasn't there, it was determined that the 12Volt motor was burnt up. I learned the hard way that if the batteries are not charged up enough when you put the slides out, you can burn up that little motor pretty quickly. This SHOULD be in the manual but it is not. There SHOULD be something in place to prevent this from happening. Ugh!!!!! Well $770.00 for motor and $235.00 for new batteries. I'm kinda PO'd because I did not know this, and I read every piece of information I was given with the coach. So before I sign off, I need to know if running the coach motor charges the batteries or if the generator charges the batteries. I can't plug it into shore power because where I park it doesn't have a plug in for it.

MNtraveler · 07-05-2017, 05:42 PM

So sorry to hear this! Generally the engine will charge the batteries as well as the generator, but I'm not certain for your specific unit. The genny should be much more efficient.

Attached is what the FR Class A Owner's Manual says about being plugged in or running the generator when operating the sliders. It does not say failure to do this will cause motor burn out. They leave it open what might happen, and just refer to "optimum performance."

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