Help Needed

[2 Free Spirits]

Hello all,

 

I am befuddled by a problem. I replaced the umbilical cord to my fifth wheel and somehow lost power to the landing legs. I have a 2003 Newmar Kountry Star fifth wheel.

 

I double checked the wiring from the umbilical to ensure all colours of the umbilical and RV match but cannot find where the power to the landing leg switch comes from. I also cannot find any information about what the fuse/circuit breaker is and where located.

 

I did run power from the battery to the motor, bypassing the switch as I thought the motor was at fault but it functions okay.

 

I sent an email to Newmar asking for technical assistance but received no response.

 

Any ideas anybody?

 

Thanks Rick

[Dennis M]

The umbilical cord should not have any effect at all on the landing gear, other than possibly providing power if the fiver batteries were down.

 

UNLESS the landing gear is getting it's power from the same area where the umbilical was connected and the wire for the landing gear power was accidentally removed and not reconnected. Look around and see if there is a stray wire dangling in the area.

 

Then forget about the umbilical cord project and start with basic diagnosis on the landing gear issue.

 

Use a volt meter to see if you have power at the switch; if it has power in, does it have power out? If not it's the switch. If no power at the switch there is an issue between there and the battery. Star tracing that wire back to find it's power source.

[Big Greg]

Check for a thermal breaker in your battery box area. There should be heavy wires from the battery to the breakers. Many have two thermal breakers, one for the slides and one for the legs. They are about 2" or 3" cube and can have a "flag" or small leg pop up if the breaker trips. Greg

[Jimalberta]

Check for a thermal breaker in your battery box area. There should be heavy wires from the battery to the breakers. Many have two thermal breakers, one for the slides and one for the legs. They are about 2" or 3" cube and can have a "flag" or small leg pop up if the breaker trips. Greg

i

 

 

 

 

I agree with this. The landing gear circuitry should come from a main bus near the batteries through a fuse or resettable breaker and then to your switch. On my Bighorn the breaker was a little square box no bigger than an inch with trminals on each end and a resettable little button in the middle. It had no indicator on it.

[2 Free Spirits]

Hello again, Thank you fir your responses. Dennis M.: No power to the switch. What is also confusing is the 2 wires feeding the switch Yellow and Red both come from the umbilical connection box.

 

I checked the circuit breakers near the batteries - all okay showing voltage to ground both sides of the breakers. The only thing I changed is the umbilical, no stray wires but I am wondering if there should be a jumper between the black (Battery Charge) and the yellow (Aux Back-up) as the switch for the landing legs is powered by a yellow from the umbilical connection box.

Thanks again,

Rick

[MT_flyfisher]

This probably isn't the solution to your issue, but a couple years ago when I couldn't get the levelers to work on my 2008 Kountry Aire I found that I had not connected one of the cables to my 12v batteries (there are about half a dozen different cables, none of which are labeled) and the one cable I neglected to connect was for the levelers.

 

John

[nana25k]

Check the actual motor for the jacks. Our just up and quite on day. Turns out the darn thing just plum wore out and died.

[GlennWest]

My cord got caught on the lower hitch and pulled it out of Teton. I added a socket and a plug on the cable and now remove it and throw it in storage when parked. Much neater. None of these wires went to anything else though. I believe you have a separate issue

[2 Free Spirits]

Hello again,

Thank you all for your help. Although no one answer solved my problem, together they did. Some changes made, I now have operating jacks again. For anyone interested here was the solution:

 

Remember I changed out a damaged umbilical for new. Pretty straight forward except when removing the damaged cord I overlooked a jumper going from Orange & Black to the 3 Yellow wires which ultimately fed power to the landing leg jacks. So now I have power at the switch but I removed the switch earlier to check its function. It was okay but I shorted a wire causing a bus on one leg of the switch to burn through. Fixed that, figured out what wires went where and bingo! Landing legs work.

 

Again, Thank you all for your help.

Best regards,

Rick

[Lou Schneider]

If you have two wires running from the switch to the power center, one is positive and the other is negative.

 

If you connect both of them to positive terminals you won't get any voltage across the motor - i.e. it won't run.

 

Which is which? If the switch works backwards, reverse them.

[2 Free Spirits]

Hi Lou,

I don't understand your question or statement although I am interested in clarifying the issue.

Thanks,

Rick