How to burn out the hydraulic pump motor on a Berkshire

[Superchief]

If you are having slide out creep on the Sofa slide and think the answer might be to bleed the air out of the hydraulic system, don't do what I did, you might burn out the pump motor in midstream resulting in no hydraulics. A long story short, I was advised by an Equalizer Rep. That I could not hurt my unit by raising it up to its maximum height by fully extending the stabilizer jacks in order to bleed the air out. I followed the Equalizer instructions as written on their Website, to raise the unit up off of the ground using the jacks. I held it in place for 20 minutes as advised, and then slowly lowered each jack a little at a time, until I thought the wheels were back on the ground, and then I hit retract all. It moved a little and stopped. Problem was the jacks were still down and the two main slides would not work. After a considerable amount of time trying to resolved the problem, I manually retracted the jacks at the pump using a drill. The slides still would not work. I was able to start the coach and inflate the air bags. I checked to make sure I had good ground and that there was adequate power to the pump. In frustration, I took the unit to the dealer to see if there was a fuse somewhere that had tripped. Was told the fuse is self resetting, except for the 20A fuse below the pump, but that one was good. I was told that I had a burned out pump motor, a very expensive item. Luckily I had an extended warranty policy which covered the cost of a new pump motor (less $100 deductible of course). I also paid for overnight shipping from Equalizer, because I needed the repair done quickly. I wish this had happen at the recent rally, but it waited until I got back home. The dealer tech thinks that the motor may have been weak to start with and I just helped it along to failure.

As for my Sofa Slide Creep issue, Equalizer now uses a new anti-creep valve, which I just received from them and will have installed tomorrow. It was not free - $138. It better work!!!

[kingwood390bh]

Craig,
I think you may have written about the creep issue some time back. Were you the one who brought up slide locks? Did your sofa slide partially extend on its own? Hooray for the extended warranty and Boo to the motor burn out. My sofa slide, when extended seems to drop into a groove. The motor is having a tough time pulling the slide out of this groove and retracting. I will be watching the stress I put on the pump to avoid burnout.
Will

[Superchief]

Yes, I wrote about it last December, when I got the jacks stuck trying to get any air out that was causing the sofa slide to creep out while in storage. I think it was Tom who mentioned that he uses the slide locks. I did try that this time, but the pressure on the slide lock from the hydraulic system was putting to much stress on the inside molding of the slide. There is not really a solid anchor point on the slide molding. I have been checking my slide all day after they put the new type Anti-Creep valve on. It is staying locked in position and not creeping. I have added a picture of the old valve setup and the new valve setup. I am still trying to figure out what they did with the two missing hoses. I will post a picture when I find them.





New valve (on sofa slide)



Old type valve (on the Kitchen Slide)

[tmmar]

Craig,
Too bad you did't mention the creep to Randy at the rally. They may have been able to fix it for you there.
Tom

[Superchief]

Tom,

Timing is everything? Didn't start until I was on the way home. Funny how things work out!

Craig

[tmmar]

Yeah- I hear you. Look what happened to my awning while at the rally!
Tom

[Superchief]

For those that may be interested, I finally tracked down what they did when they put the new Equalized anti-creep valve on my sofa slide. As noted above in a prior post, there were 3 hoses on the old anti-creep valve, one with green tape, one with green striped tape, and one with no tape. As noted on the new valve, there was a connection to the piston and one to the green striped tape. What they did was eliminate the hose with no tape, which went from the old anti-creep valve to the other end of the piston rod (located about half way in the middle of the storage compartment). They then connected the hose with the green tape to that spot. (In the picture I posted with old valve, the hoses have purple tape because the old valve for the sofa slide was replaced, but hopefully you get the idea).





The slide is now working great. No creeping!! Hope this helps someone.