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November 7, 2009, a Saturday
Elephant Butte Lake State Park (South Monticello), New Mexico, USA
— Fixed the slide! Nice sunset too.
Had my normal breakfast, and thought about what might be wrong with the slide system. Our Bigfoot 29SL has a slide on the driver's side for the kitchen and livingroom, and the electrical system that extends and retracts it had stopped working on September 20, 2009. We used hand cranks to extend the slide when we arrived at Elephant Butte. I did some diagnostic work on the slide yesterday and couldn't find anything wrong. The diagnostic work wasn't exhaustive, and I was wondering what else I could do to find the problem. I did some computer work, then J and I left at 10:15 to ...
Walk to the boat ramp and back.
We returned to the RV at 11:00. I went outside at 11:15 to do more diagnostic work on the slide system. I opened up the center access panel, then unplugged the motor power connectors one at a time and had J try to operate the system to see if the error code would change — it didn't. Then I made a jumper so I could measure the voltage across the power leads to the slide controller. When J tried to operate the system, the voltage dropped from the normal 13-some-odd VDC to 5-some-odd VDC! I discovered that there was a bad ground connection, and if I jumped the ground to the chassis, the slide worked! The ground wire for the slide controller exited the slide mechanism compartment and traveled across the bottom of the RV in a corrugated wire conduit, and quickly got intertwined with two other corrugated wire conduits. It would be difficult to trace the ground wire for the slide controller, so I changed gears and cleaned up the wiring in the battery compartment. Some of the wires I routed there when I installed the solar-electric system and inverter were dangling down onto the metal battery hold-down strap, so I tied those up. I also discovered that a ground wire from the original RV wiring was touching the back of the battery hold-down strap, and another section was tied to an un-insulated hot terminal, so rerouted that wire and tied it up properly. Somewhere along the way, I fixed the ground problem, and the slide worked great with the normal ground wire connected to the slide controller. :)
I came back inside the RV at 12:20 and had my normal lunch.
I went back outside at 1:00 and tied up some more wires in the battery compartment. It was looking much better when I finished, and the slide was still working too. :) I cleaned off all of the silicone caulk that was around the three slide access panels that wasn't providing a good seal, then put on some fresh non-silicone caulk/adhesive.
I came back inside at 2:25, and the slide still worked! :) I showered, then worked up a blog entry. J had started making a blueberry pie, and she forgot to take the bag of tortillas out of the oven when she lit it, so as the oven was pre-heating, the tortillas got toasted and covered in melted stinky plastic. :( It was quite exciting when J realized what had happened. Somewhere around here, our Class A neighbors came home from a day on the lake on their pontoon boat. One of the guys was sloshed — the other guy had to help him off the boat, which was on a trailer next to their Class A, and into the RV. J went outside to take some pictures of the sunset. There were some nice clouds, and the color was starting to build. I finished up some computer work, then went out too.
By the time I went outside, J was talking with our other neighbors, the ones with the barking dog. We chatted with A and E for a while and I petted their nice two-year-old German shepherd — we met "the enemy," and they were nice folks. :) The color was getting really nice, so we excused ourselves and did some photography (left).
After the color started to fade, I packed up, downloaded the images I took, and did a quick edit in iView. Then I set up and started the grill to get ready for dinner.
I grilled some cheeseburgers and J prepared the fixin's. The burgers were delicious with the lettuce and tomato! I had chips and salsa, and J had Lay's potato chips. I also had a green salad. Then we each had a slice of fresh blueberry pie with ice cream, and it was awesome!
After doing the dishes, I processed some images in Capture One (C1).
Walk to the boat ramp and back.
We returned to the RV at 11:00. I went outside at 11:15 to do more diagnostic work on the slide system. I opened up the center access panel, then unplugged the motor power connectors one at a time and had J try to operate the system to see if the error code would change — it didn't. Then I made a jumper so I could measure the voltage across the power leads to the slide controller. When J tried to operate the system, the voltage dropped from the normal 13-some-odd VDC to 5-some-odd VDC! I discovered that there was a bad ground connection, and if I jumped the ground to the chassis, the slide worked! The ground wire for the slide controller exited the slide mechanism compartment and traveled across the bottom of the RV in a corrugated wire conduit, and quickly got intertwined with two other corrugated wire conduits. It would be difficult to trace the ground wire for the slide controller, so I changed gears and cleaned up the wiring in the battery compartment. Some of the wires I routed there when I installed the solar-electric system and inverter were dangling down onto the metal battery hold-down strap, so I tied those up. I also discovered that a ground wire from the original RV wiring was touching the back of the battery hold-down strap, and another section was tied to an un-insulated hot terminal, so rerouted that wire and tied it up properly. Somewhere along the way, I fixed the ground problem, and the slide worked great with the normal ground wire connected to the slide controller. :)
I came back inside the RV at 12:20 and had my normal lunch.
I went back outside at 1:00 and tied up some more wires in the battery compartment. It was looking much better when I finished, and the slide was still working too. :) I cleaned off all of the silicone caulk that was around the three slide access panels that wasn't providing a good seal, then put on some fresh non-silicone caulk/adhesive.
I came back inside at 2:25, and the slide still worked! :) I showered, then worked up a blog entry. J had started making a blueberry pie, and she forgot to take the bag of tortillas out of the oven when she lit it, so as the oven was pre-heating, the tortillas got toasted and covered in melted stinky plastic. :( It was quite exciting when J realized what had happened. Somewhere around here, our Class A neighbors came home from a day on the lake on their pontoon boat. One of the guys was sloshed — the other guy had to help him off the boat, which was on a trailer next to their Class A, and into the RV. J went outside to take some pictures of the sunset. There were some nice clouds, and the color was starting to build. I finished up some computer work, then went out too.
Sunset Cloud
Elephant Butte Lake State Park,
New Mexico, USA
New Mexico, USA
Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, 100-400 (at 100mm),
1/15 sec, f11, ISO 100
1/15 sec, f11, ISO 100
After the color started to fade, I packed up, downloaded the images I took, and did a quick edit in iView. Then I set up and started the grill to get ready for dinner.
I grilled some cheeseburgers and J prepared the fixin's. The burgers were delicious with the lettuce and tomato! I had chips and salsa, and J had Lay's potato chips. I also had a green salad. Then we each had a slice of fresh blueberry pie with ice cream, and it was awesome!
After doing the dishes, I processed some images in Capture One (C1).