Dear Dave,
Our Schwintek slideout monitor blinks red 9 times, goes green and repeats. The code says it is “Hall Pwr Short to Gnd.” The slide works fine. Does this problem need immediate correction? And exactly what is the problem? —Robert, 2019 Rockwood 2608 BS
Dear Robert,
According to the Schwintek slideout service manual, the 9 blinks does indicate it is Hall Power Short To Ground. This typically means that power to the controller has been shorted or is touching a ground point somewhere. It is very possible it occurred intermittently and is now OK, since the slide is working. But once an error code is established, the encoder needs to be reset. The procedure should be listed in the owner’s manual or on the controller.
The controller for the slideout mechanism is typically located in a lower storage compartment. This is a photo of the Thor Challenger we have been working on the past week. It is on the ceiling of the exterior compartment along with the inverter.
Hall PWR wire location
It’s hard to see, but the Hall PWR wire for both motors is a brown wire going into the left side connection in each motor plug. This wire is part of a harness that you can see goes into an automotive sleeve and then goes to the motors. Here is the rat’s nest in our unit.
Here is a cleaner version of the slide controller from the service manual. The red arrows identify the Hall Power connections.
So, at some time, one of the brown Hall Power wires touched a ground source either at the motor or along the route to the controller. Here is a diagram of the wiring at the motors.
If resetting the controller does not stop the blinking, it’s most likely a pinch somewhere that keeps reoccurring but doesn’t last long enough to affect the operation. It is a light-gauge wire (18 gauge, I believe). It is routed down along the H channel and through some areas that are moving in and out. So it’s vulnerable to getting pinched and touching a grounded metal component. These are what I call “gremlins,” as they don’t happen all the time and are very hard to trace.
If the problem continues, you can try to check the continuity of the brown/ground wire from the motor to the controller. Or run a new ground wire with a more protected path. This is not an easy job in most cases. However, it is a quick troubleshooting procedure in a stationary setting to run the new wire to see if it fixes the issue.
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook” as well as the Managing Editor of the RV Repair Club.
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SIL had one of these slides on his Imagine trailer that would work perfect in manual mode but in auto it would fault on the left motor and tilt the slide out of alignment. We spent the better part of 2 weeks between talking with engineering and trying their on phone diagnostics. Buying a new motor, didn’t work, finally got to talk to an engineer who wasn’t guessing and found it was a pinched wire in the harness where the fresh water tank was installed. A new harness and an hour installation and it worked as advertised, then he traded it off 3 weeks later. Now has one with rack and pinion slide.
If Dave says it is a real PIA to re run it must be. His idea of running a temporary line exposed to find where the fault is is a good one. We do it all the time in the Plumbing & Heating profession. Good luck.
Moral of the story, don’t buy an RV with the Schwintek slide.
Great article, thank you!
One thought is to put some protective sleeving over the cable.
In our trailer, a loop of the cable is pinched between a wall and an inner wall of the under-bed compartment. Time to loosen a few screws and get it un-pinched.