Level Up won't retract

[Titan Guy]

Leveling would extend but not retract. To get going, on the solenoid, swap yellow & green wire on spade jacks. Green wire is retract. Turn on keypad and push front, should retract.

LCI sent me a new solenoid but nothing changed. Checked power to the green wire (retract) on the 9 pin connector on the controller located at the top of the battery compartment. (To get power, retract button must be pushed while checking green wire for power.) No power to the green wire so the controller was bad. You can check the yellow wire (extend) for power as well.

Replaced controller and all works perfectly again.

Anyone that has this problem, check the power to the green and yellow wire before replacing the solenoid.

[atom ant]

Interesting -

So in reality, if the controller just went to heck, you could theoretically retract the jacks just by jumping the red large lug to one of the other black lugs to operate the pump motor? Or is it more complicated than that.

I not totally familiar with these shared pump systems between slides and landing gear, as I'm sure there are valves that direct the pressure one way or the other.

Anyway, just me thinking - Glad you got it working and a quick find to the problem.

[Oriana]

The other option is to operate the system manually, using an electric drill with hex bit and allen key to operate the valves.

[atom ant]

Thanks Andy, that clears up a mystery - there are valves that would need to be operated to divert pressure to the landing gear and they can me operated manually with a allen key. So if the motor still functioned, you could jump the motor at the reversing solenoid and open the valves manually to overcome a bad controller that went completely dead.

[AlanN]

Great report, thanks! Is anyone writing "The Complete Guide to Redwood Ownership" yet? If we collected all these known problems and fixes, we'd have an important book for our Kindles.

[Oriana]

Originally Posted by atom ant

Thanks Andy, that clears up a mystery - there are valves that would need to be operated to divert pressure to the landing gear and they can me operated manually with a allen key. So if the motor still functioned, you could jump the motor at the reversing solenoid and open the valves manually to overcome a bad controller that went completely dead.

Brad - when we prepared to leave for California in January I couldn't get the front landing gear up, so reverted to the manual operation, as outlined in the Lippert documentation.

You require a hex bit, sorry can't remember the size, in the drill. In the battery compartment, remove the plastic seal above the motor, invert the drill and insert above the motor. Note - access isn't easy.

Then manually open the correct valve with the Allen key, again sorry can't remember the size. Turn until fully open. Then operate the drill. Note - the valves for the landing gear are on top of one of the 2 cylinders. The other 3 valves are located on the oil distribution box above the batteries.

Can't remember which forum I made this report, but I believe John posted a photograph of the landing gear valve location. This would have been mid January.

Again, due to our current location I don't have the bandwidth to search.

[atom ant]

Thanks Andy! I'll have to open a barley pop and snoop around in there after I plant the Redwood somewhere next week. I can be resourceful in a pinch, but wouldn't hurt to explore some of it now.

More tornados and hail today - jee-zoots!

Got all the toys in garages and had to hide the truck in a parking garage for rapid transit today at noon because I got the wrong toys in the wrong garage and couldn't get the truck in!

[j1251b]

Originally Posted by Titan Guy

Leveling would extend but not retract. To get going, on the solenoid, swap yellow & green wire on spade jacks. Green wire is retract. Turn on keypad and push front, should retract.

LCI sent me a new solenoid but nothing changed. Checked power to the green wire (retract) on the 9 pin connector on the controller located at the top of the battery compartment. (To get power, retract button must be pushed while checking green wire for power.) No power to the green wire so the controller was bad. You can check the yellow wire (extend) for power as well.

Replaced controller and all works perfectly again.

Anyone that has this problem, check the power to the green and yellow wire before replacing the solenoid.

I see in your picture that the small red wire is going to the middle post on your solenoid. This wire needs to be on its own 30 amp circut breaker. Lippert told me this has to be done because there is no protection on that wire. I have had the same problem with the leveling system will not retract. I have gone thru 3 controllers over the past 2 years.

[Titan Guy]

j1521b, I know there is a 15a & 30a in line re-settable fuse in the compartment but not sure if they are connected in any way to the red wire. Will check.

[eltlenny]

We had to move the small red wire and place it directly to the battery. Lippert confirmed the wiring was done incorrectly from the factory. We burned through 2 controllers before getting it completely resolved.

[Titan Guy]

Looks like all are 2012 RW that have had this problem. Wondering on 2013 where the red wire is going?

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by j1251b

I see in your picture that the small red wire is going to the middle post on your solenoid. This wire needs to be on its own 30 amp circut breaker. Lippert told me this has to be done because there is no protection on that wire.

Originally Posted by eltlenny

We had to move the small red wire and place it directly to the battery. Lippert confirmed the wiring was done incorrectly from the factory.

So two completely opposite recommendations from Lippert. Fuse the red wire and don't fuse the red wire .

If it is this red wire, it is too small of a gauge wire to put on 30A. The wire would fail long before the fuse or breaker would let go.

[Dave&Ginny]

My trailer was built March 26th 2012 and when it was in the service center in 2013, they rewired some of that stuff. I can't remember what they said they fixed but I thought they said that they had removed the troubled in-line fuse.

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by atom ant

So two completely opposite recommendations from Lippert. Fuse the red wire and don't fuse the red wire .

If it is this red wire, it is too small of a gauge wire to put on 30A. The wire would fail long before the fuse or breaker would let go.

I would guess it's the thicker red wire running up to the center lug. It looks like it's the supply line.

[atom ant]

I would agree - the heavy gauge wire actually powers the motor and is closer to 30A. This one comes from the battery, but I need to look at mine to see if it actually has a resettable breaker. It should, but I've heard Lippert say bypass it or even install parallel 30A fuses on a block, which is really weird to me.

[Titan Guy]

The small red wire goes from the center terminal on the solenoid to the controller. This is the power wire. The attached link has a wiring diagram showing a 10a in line fuse between the solenoid & the controller. I do not have this in line fuse. I see no potential downside to adding it so I will.

http://www.lci1.com/images/support/m...c-leveling.pdf

[atom ant]

Titan,

I wonder if it would be worth adding the 10A fuse AND moving that one to be fed from the bus bar down by the battery to bypass the resettable breaker on the main motor.

It would make sense that as the pump is running to operate jacks or slides, and it slightly overloads the 30A breaker causing it to open under full load, the surge may be enough the mess with the controller. It would probably be better to have the controller power source on a more clean source.

[lakewappalo]

Rf jack wont retract or raise. Tried the manual but it wont move, maybe 1/4 inch play both directions but that's it. This happened before, tech fixed. (without jack replacement.) Any ideas?

[travelin' texans]

Unplug the control panel for a few seconds then reconnect, that procedure worked for me & a neighbor.

[lakewappalo]

I will give it a shot.