slide out question

[chopshop]

I have a quick question for some of you out there:

Can I operate the slides in my trailer with it plugged into shore power and without a battery installed?

Thanks.

[Seann45]

Yes... BUT NEVER EVER TOW WITHOUT THE BATTERY INSTALLED

[chopshop]

My slides will not operate without the battery plugged in, could there be a problem somewhere?


What happens when you tow with the battery uninstalled?

[Grumpy]

Your converter will not generate enough power for the slides, you need the battery hooked up. Check your owners manual for the slides and it should say you need a fully charged battery for them to function properly.


When you begin to troubleshoot the system, make sure the battery is
fully charged, there are no visible signs of external damage to the
actuator or motor and that the motor is wired correctly and all
connections are secure.

[chipper]

Originally Posted by chopshop

What happens when you tow with the battery uninstalled?

If the trailer becomes disconnected from the tow vehicle, the emergency trailer brakes will not work and the trailer will continue to roll, wherever it pleases.

[krackeer]

On my last tt, the slide would not work without the battery. Since my tt was stored, it became an issue. I would show up and not be able to put the slide out and would end up doing one of 2 things. Buy another battery or (in my case) hook a set of jumper cables to the truck, and connect it to the slide mechanism which was located under the fridge and it would go right out.(finally started bringing battery home charging it and bringing it back with me) When I purchased my Jayco last July, the dealer told me I didn't need a charged battery to bring the slides (3) out. On the way home from our first camping trip, I realized that I had left the bunk house light on and the battery connected. Since I have a front electric jack, it worried me that when I returned in a couple of weeks, that the cg where it is stored would be unable to raise and lower it to bring it to my site. Not to mention the slides wouldn't work either. When I returned several weeks later, the tt was on site. I connected the shore power and every thing, slides, and front jacks all operated. I just read my owners manual and returned to edit this post. It DOES state that the battery must be fully charged to operate the slides. Not sure why it worked for me last summer, but it did!

[chopshop]

The main resaon why I asked the question was the fact that I was having trouble with the converter, or at least I thought I was. I wasn't able to to operate any of the lights inside the trailer w/o the battery plugged in and for the life of me, I'm not sure how long it's been that way since all last summer we were boondocking at a seasonal site (with no shore power other than a small genny).

To make a long story short, after doing some searching on this site and another RV site I realized one of two things were wrong; 1) my converter is fried or 2) the fuses on the converter had shorted. Well, neither of the above two problems were present......... After removing the "face plate" for the converter, I noticed the ground wire from the converter to the "face plate" was disconnected. I reconnected the ground wire to the face plate and shazam, everything worked as it's supposed to.

Thanks you all for the help in this matter, I appreciate the good people on this forum!

I'm going to try and operate the slide w/o battery plugged in today, I will post the results.

[krackeer]

Originally Posted by chopshop

I'm going to try and operate the slide w/o battery plugged in today, I will post the results.

Please do post the results...now I am curious!

[chopshop]

OK, here it goes........ Just got inside from messing with the trailer. With the shore power plugged into the house and the battery negative cable disconnected from the battery, I entered the trailer and moved the slide in approx. 6" and back out to the open position until the motor clicked....... there you have it folks, my trailer slides will operate without battery installed, although not recommended by the manufacturer.

[krackeer]

I feel better now!