Power step

[Teded]

2019 29mv class C
Power step just quit working.
Any ideas?

[Grumpy]

The magnetic switch on the door frame could be stuck, give it a tap. Could also be a blown fuse.

[Teded]

Checked the fuses, there ok. Tapped the door switch, nothing.

[pconroy]

Welcome to the dead steps club. It's a club that you'll frequent over the coming years.


Motor, controller, power, ground, switches. There's a dozen great debugging videos on Youtube, including one from Lippert. Dead/dead as in no-sound, no-clicking sounds like a power/ground issue to start with. The Lippert video shows you where to plug in your voltmeter to check.

[201822j]

I've had 2 scenarios play out that made my step not work.

First was our 1st trip and when getting ready to come home, steps stuck in down position. Even the ignition override did not retract them
This was because one half of the magnet switch fell off the door. Without that the steps just sit where they are

Second time they would not extend during Winter lay up. Turns out the Motor battery went dead and the steps run off that battery.

[Teded]

Just went and open and closed the door, it worked once. Then not again.

[Stavman]

Check the magnet

[Berjr]

Ours also quit a month or so ago. (2018 29MV) We replaced the controller and all is well now . It was an easy DYI project

[Teded]

Originally Posted by Stavman

Check the magnet

How do you check the magnet

[Teded]

Put a magnet against the door switch. It clicks, the light goes off. Step doesn’t go in or out.

[Stavman]

Originally Posted by Teded

How do you check the magnet

To be sure it's there...or stuck together on the frame or the screen door
Happened to me a few times then ued them to each part

[craigav]

One thing to check I don't see mentioned, is that you may need to lubricate all of the moving parts. Spray silicone is what I most often use. ~CA

[201822j]

Originally Posted by craigav

One thing to check I don't see mentioned, is that you may need to lubricate all of the moving parts. Spray silicone is what I most often use. ~CA

Thank you. This just reminded me of the 3rd time for me and it was because of the pivot points needing spray lubrication. Once it soaked in the steps worked again. For me they sort of worked and then wouldn't

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by Teded

Put a magnet against the door switch. It clicks, the light goes off. Step doesn’t go in or out.

When the motor died on mine, twice, it was accompanied by a large grinding noise.


These two helped me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2t1yKQ_vw

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AzkvylZH7Y

[JimD]

Just had mine fail a week ago. Being an electronic tech the first thing I did was print out a schematic and got ready to troubleshoot. Before crawling underneath (not something I enjoy doing) I thought I would check the power source which is the engine battery. The battery is over 5 years old and I keep it on a constant trickle charger but hoped it was bad. It was reading good voltage.

I opened and closed the door many times and the steps refused to extend. I had already banged on the magnet without success. I decided to start the engine to verify the battery was good. Engine started fine.

I don't know why but I decided to try the steps one more time while the engine was running. They extended! Opening and closing the door caused the steps to operate normally. I shut down the engine and the steps continued to operate normally but had a groan and a squeak to the operation.

My best guess is that the higher battery voltage while the engine was running was just enough to break free a bind in the steps. I had previously lubed the easy to get at joints with white lithium grease which looked like it was gumming things up. I had never lubed the actual motor linkage because it was harder to access (not that hard actually, I was just lazy).

I cleaned the white grease off and then proceeded to lube ALL pivot points with motorcycle chain lube which I had. I researched lube for the steps but did not want to pay the high price for the manufacturer's lube. The chain lube was recommended as a good alternative.

After lubing I have exercised the steps many times. They operate quietly now with no groans or squeaks. I am still testing every few days but feel good that they appear to be working normally. Happy days!

From now on lubing the steps will be done on a regular basis. I can't imagine what would have happened had I been camping with a step failure. Imagine opening the door and stepping out expecting the steps to be there and they are not.

[Retired mountain folk]

Originally Posted by Teded

2019 29mv class C
Power step just quit working.
Any ideas?

Oh yeah, Ours did too. Dealer wanted to replace entire unit, at a cost of well over
$ 600.00. We took it down to our son, after checking the leads, motor, etc. he started to laugh. The dealer would have made boo-coo bucks on us. He took the dry Teflon spray, lubed all the spots that moved, and, waalah, a moving step. The dust and dirt from the road had just blinded the easy movement of the steps, and the motor had to work to hard to move it. First time it stopped working was when we were picking it up. It needed a new fuse. Also check contacts on door to frame. We lube it every year now……. Good luck..

[don_kleinschnitz]

I have had multiple random failures as well. The last of which the dealer replaced the motor and controller.

I have an unproven theory. If you step up on the step before it is fully out, which is a pretty natural tendency, the gearbox in the unit is eventually damaged. As it gets more and more wear in this fashion it eventually binds up and is intermittent or just fails.

The motor in this step normally draws a large initial current so I suspect that as it binds the current gets quite large. Marginal battery, wiring, grounding, and the auto-reset fuse (20a) may cause intermittent failure.

Now we turn the automatic step function off. That way the step will still retract when you start the engine and the first time you open the door with the engine off it will extend. We leave it deployed while camping. The see-saw mode seems useless and annoying to us now.


Here is some information I created that may help in troubleshooting. It includes a step tester I never built.

[gymracer]

Mine stopped working in the closed position, somewhere I had read to tap on motor for the steps. Did and went to working. Libed all points and worked much better. But to be on safe side I soon replaced motor. Not had any other problems.

[Johnynorthland]

I’ve had 3 failures.

1.Motor went bad, (my first RV)


2.My magnet popped off from my fat ass sitting on the step while working on my rig. (Factory just double stick tapes them, you should Screw it down with new double tape)


3.The pin holding my linkage together worked it self out because the cotter pin was not set in correctly!

[Wally22j]

After much troubleshooting and disassembly, I found the inline fuse on ours was defective. One of the spade connectors on the fuse was broken and intermittently making contact. The fuse filament looked fine until I pulled the fuse from the holder and the broken spade remained in the socket. Replaced the fuse with a new one and it worked fine.