Trombetta Solenoid?? Orvan to the rescue!

[GoonF250]

Travelling home this week(Friday) from the South , pulled into cg and started to set up for the quick over nighter. Unhooked from truck, hit the auto level, all good . Told the better half to go ahead and open the slides. No go, and of course in the pouring rain. The hydraulic pump would start if the button was pushed to retract but nothing if pushed to extend, tried the switch at the pump with same results. Recalled hearing about the resets in the front compartment, unpacked the front and found the resets, all three were good. Wife got a hold of the Lipperet factory service , there was a waste of time! Did I say it was raining,lol. Tried switching the wires on the switch , no go. Wife said I’ll call Orvan (Amish Rv), Late Friday afternoon not a chance he will answer the phone! Well folks he called us back and I explained the situation and he replied it must be the trombetta relay! I said I didn’t know what the was! He told me to switch a couple of wires on it and I got the slides out, switch wires back slides go in! I can not say enough good about this guy. If you need work done on your CC and can make it to Indiana he’s your guy. Now I know what a “trombetta relayis!

[Reverse_snowbird]

Glad you listened to your wife.

[Daycruiser]

Dealer would have likely told you to bring it in and leave it for month or two and they'll try to get to it. It's 693 miles from my house to Orvan and worth every mile. Headed that way in a couple of weeks for more work unless Covid-19 becomes an obstacle.

[richp]

Hi,

Got my unit back last week with great satisfaction for the work they did, and the time Orvan personally spent with me. It was 190 miles each way, and worth every bit of the time and fuel expended.

While I was dropping off, there was a couple also dropping off who had come 800+ miles from Louisiana to get their rig squared away.

My hat's off to Orvan and his crew -- they are my go-to shop now, despite the distance. Would that every RV dealer had a repair operation as competent and thorough as Amish RV.

Rich Phillips

[jd4010]

Originally Posted by GoonF250

Travelling home this week(Friday) from the South , pulled into cg and started to set up for the quick over nighter. Unhooked from truck, hit the auto level, all good . Told the better half to go ahead and open the slides. No go, and of course in the pouring rain. The hydraulic pump would start if the button was pushed to retract but nothing if pushed to extend, tried the switch at the pump with same results. Recalled hearing about the resets in the front compartment, unpacked the front and found the resets, all three were good. Wife got a hold of the Lipperet factory service , there was a waste of time! Did I say it was raining,lol. Tried switching the wires on the switch , no go. Wife said I’ll call Orvan (Amish Rv), Late Friday afternoon not a chance he will answer the phone! Well folks he called us back and I explained the situation and he replied it must be the trombetta relay! I said I didn’t know what the was! He told me to switch a couple of wires on it and I got the slides out, switch wires back slides go in! I can not say enough good about this guy. If you need work done on your CC and can make it to Indiana he’s your guy. Now I know what a “trombetta relayis!

Any chance you could take pics and perhaps do a short write up? I think this may help people who experience something similar and Orvan or anyone else is not available.

[Bama Rambler]

I'm not Goon, but I'll post this and see if this is what Orvan told them to do.
Here's what the relay looks like and the install instructions are below. Since the relay was pulling in one way but not the other, switching the wires on terminals B & D would allow you to operate the motor in the direction you need it to go.




Trombetta Reverse Polarity Relay Install

[R time soon]

While Trombetta is the brand name, this is a power reversing solenoid. Lippert will sell you one for $75 to $90. I purchased an equivalent spare online. These are used frequently for snow plow blade operation and such on trucks and ATV's also. $20 or lower if memory serves me correctly. Cheap enough to carry as a spare. The hydraulic pump motor, now that is a different story. Lippert has them for approximately $780.

[JimEisley]

Our Cedar Creek group (CCRVOC) have been going to Orvin for years, I will not take my unit anywhere else.

[GoonF250]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

I'm not Goon, but I'll post this and see if this is what Orvan told them to do.
Here's what the relay looks like and the install instructions are below. Since the relay was pulling in one way but not the other, switching the wires on terminals B & D would allow you to operate the motor in the direction you need it to go.




Trombetta Reverse Polarity Relay Install

Hey Bama ....this happened on our way home from Gulf Shores State Park. You r exactly right and thanks for saving me from the write up. On the positive side I now have another tool in my tool box when needed to troubleshoot problems. Ovan is sending me a replacement and I will change out. Thxs again

[SilhouettePenny]

Thanks for the info Bama Rambler, you da man !

[mshenygo]

We also had our rig at Orvans in December after having Orvan and his crew work on our rig it is worth the 8 hour trip out to him!

[LittleBill]

I have been mainly having an opposite problem where the slides won't always stay in. They ease out and I end up having to run them in and out several times before they will stay locked in. One time, I thought they were in and they shot out about 10-12 inches when I hit the 'hitch height' to raise the rear jacks using on my auto-leveler.

I have talked to Orvan a number of times about my slide problem and other issues I have had, and he is always willing to talk you through any problem you may be having.

Story here though is I was scheduled to take my 5th over to him in a week on Tues Mar 31st, but unfortunately I am cancelling it due to the Stay at Home order here in Illinois till April 7th (I suspect it will last longer than that). Don't need to take the chance on contaminating Orvan or any of his workers. He is too much of an asset to all of CCers.

Orvan always ends with 'God Bless You', I say 'God Bless You Orvan' for the work you do for this group of RVers.

[SageCrispin]

This relay has caused me fits throughout my RV years. I worked my way through two of the stupidly expensive Damon/Lippert/Trombetta replacements for my jacks before I realized that my safety spare (the $15 Chinese crap knockoff from Amazon) had never failed. I carry two spares (two-at less than 1/3 the price of the official one) and have not touched them in two years, though admittedly the one in there has seen relatively light use (only 3, week long trips each year). The biggest problem has been that it goes just long enough between failures that I don't really remember how to deal with it efficiently. We're always packed up and ready to go and then discover that the darn jacks won't go up, leaving me feel suddenly marooned. I'm pretty good at Google, but for some reason, a thread like this never seems to show up. They must be out there somewhere, but darned if I can find them. To wit, here is some more help if anyone finds this:

The biggest issue for me is that at first I didn't realize this is a permanent magnet motor-there is no field coil. That means both poles must be hooked up for it to run. I always think that the case is grounded, so only one connection should be necessary-one side for up, one for down. NOPE. You reverse the leads, + and - to get the thing to run in each direction. Like a child's battery operated car motor. Really obvious, but I just didn't get it for quite awhile. You can use jumper cables to check the motor, but be aware you'll get one heck of a spark as that motor pulls a lot of current. I wouldn't try to run it that way at all, Just a quick hit to be certain that it runs in the desired direction.

As for that blasted relay, yes, reverse the left and rightmost poles to run the pump opposite its intended manner. You can reverse the spade connectors in front and the relay will appear to run as intended, so you can use your control panel as normal and are not trying to remember that up is down. I have a bicycle wrench, as well as a ground down open end to use as backup nut holders when pulling the cables. It doesn't take much to break that case, or much of a turn of that pole to ruin the relay. Hold the pole stationary with the nut that is against the case, then remove the cable nut with another wrench. The back up wrench needs to be thinner than normal to get in there between the case and the cable end, hence the bicycle wrench.

You can jumper 12 volts from the middle pole to either of the front spade lugs to run the motor manually, but you'll need to open the appropriate valves manually first. If you don't, nothing will move of course, and you run the risk of cooking the relay. I don't think the over pressure sensor will help as I think that works with the control panel. I'm not sure how useful that would be in any case, especially since you're doing this because the relay isn't working on (hopefully) one side. I just thought I would mention it as a possible way to get moving, and not have to get out the power drill. This technique would be needed if it were the control panel that was at fault, and not the relay.

Please add on additional information/experiences you may have. Also note that my experience is with the Lippert Jacks, not the slide outs as was the case with the OP. Perhaps this can become the "missing thread" that I have been looking for, and thank you Goon for starting it. Also, if anything here needs correcting or clarifying, please chime in, even though it all must be correct since its "on the internet"!

[Splashes3]

After reading this post, I now have a spare in my toolbox. Thanks for the post.

[MikeRP]

Can someone take a pic of where this relay is located and a part number for a spare?

[4garylee]

Dido here on Solenoid problem and yes Orvin was to the rescue. based on my location of the part 37rth if you open the front basemet door pull back the black plastic shroud up on the top right near the hydrallic pump you will see that part..i will take a pic later today for you...

[MikeRP]

Thank you!

[4garylee]

https://www.amazon.com/Trombetta-214.../dp/B007W2NBTQ

[BandJCarm]

Originally Posted by LittleBill

I have been mainly having an opposite problem where the slides won't always stay in. They ease out and I end up having to run them in and out several times before they will stay locked in. One time, I thought they were in and they shot out about 10-12 inches when I hit the 'hitch height' to raise the rear jacks using on my auto-leveler.

I have talked to Orvan a number of times about my slide problem and other issues I have had, and he is always willing to talk you through any problem you may be having.

Story here though is I was scheduled to take my 5th over to him in a week on Tues Mar 31st, but unfortunately I am cancelling it due to the Stay at Home order here in Illinois till April 7th (I suspect it will last longer than that). Don't need to take the chance on contaminating Orvan or any of his workers. He is too much of an asset to all of CCers.

Orvan always ends with 'God Bless You', I say 'God Bless You Orvan' for the work you do for this group of RVers.

When/if you get to Orvan, tell him about THIS "Bill", me...........and he'll know what to do. He chased my similar problem for 2 years. He replaced pump twice, valves once, 2 rams twice each.....until he finally found it. The ram under the bed was slightly leaking. However, when he found it, he checked the other two that he replaced less than a year before, and one of them was leaking AGAIN.


Leaking rams was the issue. Just couldn't hold pressure. Now all is good, thanks to his persistence. The last time he fixed it, it was just he and Carl, laying on the floor under my unit, at 8 p.m. (way past BOTH of our bedtimes!), replacing rams. But that's what it took. Mine literally fell out driving down the road.


FWIW, the leaks in the rams was not easy to see, and not pouring out. Hard to find. But they were the culprits. I asked Orvan why new rams would leak AGAIN, and he laughed and said "Chinese Crap".

Sort of the same thing we're all having now, huh?

[4garylee]

we had ram issues and then had totally pump failure and solenoid failure but we have also have had alot of electrical issues from the very beginning. like maybe our trailer was struck by lighting or dealer messed something up during walk thru and i should of known something was up when my light above the stove was flickering and they stated just low voltage issue as just the single 12v battery...

I will never ever deal with a dealership every again and will do my best to buy direct from factory and or buy thru Orvin if that is ever possible.