Jayco slide out re syncing

The Caravan Slide out

Our Jayco caravan comes with a bedroom slide out. This increases our internal space quite a lot by being able to extend the side of the caravan outwards when parked up. But what happens when it doesn’t want to play nicely and gets out of sync ? Luckily or unluckily, depending how you look at it, we have experienced this issue.

caravan cupboards makeover after before and after caravan RV makeover

Photo: Our Bed Slide Out

While miles away from a Jayco dealer we ended up having to deal with it ourselves.

Once I got my head around how the slide out operates and what components make up the slide out, It’s really not that scary and makes me less nervous now about operating it.

So below is an outline of what I came across during our recent issue.

The Jayco slide out:

Photo: The Slide Out On Our jayco Starcraft Caravan

To save you a fair bit of googling. The mechanism used by Jayco and a lot of other RV dealers is a system called the “Schwintek in wall slide out”.

This system is created by Lippert Components in the USA. It comprises of surprisingly very little considering the work it does.

Two small motors,
2 x aluminium rails
a couple of gearboxes
and a synchronizing electronic controller.

Photo: Slide Out Rail

Important Operational Note:

It’s recommended from the manufacturer that :

You should continue to push the in or out button for 3 to 5 seconds after the motors have stopped making noise.

This recommendation is important to help reduce the chance of motors going out of sync in the first place.

You can’t cause the slide out to end up on the ground if you hold your finger on the button for too long. The electronics will take care of shutting the system down once the slide out is in the desired position.

The trick is, once you’ve started to operate the slide out DO NOT take you finger off the button unless the slide out is either fully extended and the motors have stopped by themselves or completely retracted.

If you happen to start moving the slide out then stop operating it mid operation this is how you will likely cause the motors to get “out of sync”.

If this happens, you will find the slideout doesn’t close up or extend evenly. This is what happened to us although in our case it wasn’t due to stopping in mid operation, it just happened for what ever reason.

How To Re Sync Your Slide Out

There is no adjustment of a cable to play with. You don’t have to remove the gears and put them a couple of notches further down the track.

If you’re striking the same issue with syncing the motors here’s how to fix it.

Fully extend the slide-out. Once the slide out stops moving continue to hold your finger on the button for up to 5 seconds.
Retract slide-out roughly 1 inch. Take your finger off the button despite previously being told never to do that 🙂
Repeat steps 1 and step 2 at least 3 times

By completing these above three steps your slide out should re sync itself.

So now fully retract the slide out to test the operation and see if it’s come right. Remember to hold your finger on the button until after the motors have stopped!

Are you stuck in the outback and it just won’t do anything ?

Don’t panic, there’s a couple of things you can do to bring your slide out back in if it’s not budging at all.

Enable the manual over ride on the control unit. ( ours is under the bed) see this link on how to do it
Disconnect the motors which is easily done. See this video here
Trouble shooting guide LCI video
Download the slideout manual

Photo: Slide Our Motor

If all’s good , time to pour a drink and relax. If not you’re going to have to get in touch with a dealer and have them look into it.

Happy travels

Larry

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11 thoughts on “Jayco slide out re syncing”

Karl
February 27, 2018

There is a bit more to slide out problems in the Schwintek slide out than the above article mentions, the most common problem occurs when the controller settings are lost. This causes the slide out to slide out or retract unevenly and can cause major mechanical problems. This condition is often caused by low battery voltage. The fix is quite simple but the first time that you do it it makes you nervous as you are operating the motors on maximum power which can overdrive the mechanism if you hold the button too long after the slide out reaches one of the extremities. What has happened? The controller is programmed to provide just enough current to move the slide out to keep both motors moving at the same rate. When it reached the extremity of travel the motors can’t continue to spin and as a result they try to spin by drawing more current. The controller senses the extra current demand and this signals that the slide out is either fully out or fully in. The controller then shuts off the current to the motors and engages the locking mechanism. The reprogramming sequence provides maximum voltage to the motors so it can sense how much current is needed to move the slide out evenly on each side. If you continue to hold the in/out button after the slide out reaches an extremity it may be possible to strip a gear so it is essential that you either release the button a little short of the extremity or as soon as it reaches an extremity.
This reprogramming sequence is in the manual that is online and it goes as follows.
Electronic Manual Override (Controllers C-1 and C-2 Only)
NOTE: See (Fig. 5) for locations of the mode button and LEDs.
1. Press the mode button on the controller six times and hold on the seventh for five seconds to enter electronic manual override mode.
2. Use the extend/retract switch to move both motors in or out.
NOTE: Over-current and short circuit detection are disabled. Electronic manual override provides 12V directly to both motors.
3. To exit the mode, push and hold the mode button until the LEDs begin to blink simultaneously. Exiting the override mode resets the motor positions.
The manual can be found at: https://liferebooted.net/2018-phaeton-40ih/Schwintek-Slide-Owners-Manual.pdf
Or many other web addresses.
1. Laz
  March 22, 2018
  
  Thanks for the extra Info Karl

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