We have a 2014 3100RL Montana with six-point stabilizing jacks. The other day because we had trouble hooking up, we raised and lowered the front of the 5th wheel a number of times. After a while the stabilizing jacks stop working. The relay leading to the hydraulic pump was operating correctly with 12 V on the correct terminals for the up/down terminal as appropriate. After about 10 minutes everything worked okay.
It appeared the hydraulic pump had overheated. Is this normal? Is there a manual override?
Trace the fat red 4 Gauge wire from your hydraulic system reversible solenoid to the red circuit breakers on the wall behind your batteries (1 & 2). If this is what you have, these are 50A and 30A self resetting circuit breakers. Lippert put out a TSB a few years ago to put the hydraulic system on its own 80A circuit breaker as in the picture.
Do a search on the forum. Many threads.
By relay, I assume you mean the reversing contactor that reverses polarity to the pump motor. If you had 12 volts there, then the auto reset circuit breaker is apparently good.
I don't remember anyone ever saying they had a problem with the motor overheating. But motors can, and do, overheat. Especially high current motors operated repeatedly in a short time frame. The pump motor is most likely sized for the normal intermittent operation. Even my shop overhead door manual says not to operate it more than a certain number of times per day. Did the motor feel hot when it would not work?
The motor could be getting weak. Or it may be fine. If you operate it "normally" and have no further problems, then it is probably ok. But if you begin to have the same issue on occasion it may be time to consider a new motor. Or have that one rebuilt.
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Bill & Patricia
Riley, our Golden
2007 3075RL (recently sold, currently without)
You will find a 12 volt breaker on the wall behind the batteries, usually covered with a red plastic insulator. Keystone is famous for having used 50 amp breakers instead of the 80 amp ones recommended by Lippert. The photo shows one with the red insulator on the right and an 80 amp breaker that replaced the small one that feeds the pump motor and also the power that goes to the inside panel. This works because you don't use power inside at the same time as you are leveling the rig. The other photos are of an 80 amp breaker and the 50 amp breaker.
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Bob & Becky
2012 3402RL
2012 Chevy 2500HD D/A CC 4WD
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MikenDebbie Aggie ‘77 in the sticks near Austin TX
2019 Chevy 3500 High Country DRW
2018 Montana 3921FB
Aussie Gus + Texas Heeler Jimmy
The motor should be thermally protected so it will shut down when it overheats to protect the motor. Running up/down multiple times without letting it cool down could cause an overheating issue and trip out. Once the motor cools, it should reset if that's the case.
Actually some motors do have internal thermal protection. Don't know about these particular motors. If the nameplate on the motor contains something like TP211 it does have internal thermal protection. The TP can be followed by 1##. 2##. or 3## depending on the type protection.
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Bill & Patricia
Riley, our Golden
2007 3075RL (recently sold, currently without)
No thermal protection. Armature, stator, brushes, and bearings are all there is in these motors. Had ours rebuilt a few years ago when it failed. Nothing complicated about the electric motor system on these rigs, the motor, trombetta polarity reversing solenoid, and the protective breaker on the wall behind the batteries. These are photos of the motor and the solenoid.
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Bob & Becky
2012 3402RL
2012 Chevy 2500HD D/A CC 4WD
SOLVED: the problem was the batteries were weak. The battery voltage was 12.3 volts before we started running the hydraulic motor. However, there was not enough reserve power to operate the slides and the stabilizers. After running in the slides and while the stabilizers were retracting the voltage would drop to 11.3 V. This is not enough to run the hydraulic motor. After 10 or 15 minutes the batteries would build up enough surface charge to allow the hydraulic motor to start running again. We have replaced the batteries and now all works well.
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