Hydrolic landing gear issue?

[hantzum]

So I have noticed when I am extending my landing gear on my 16 heartland cyclone 4200 that there is 0 issues. Even when its cold cold outside. Maybe a little slow but thats it. Well when I retract the landing gear the hydraulic system will stop several times when its on auto retract. If I hit auto retract the system will start retracting the rear jacks first and during that process you can hear the system almost peak out. At this point it stops retracting for a few seconds then begins again. At some point during the process it will completely stop retracting and I will have to go into Manuel mode to do so. The jacks arnt all the way retraced either. Most of them are about half way up. Even when I just retract the front landing gear only its the same thing. The gear retracts then will stop and if I hit the retract button again all you hear is a click. You have to wait for a few seconds for it kick back in. The longer you wait the longer it will retract.
Ideas and thoughts??

 

[Power-Stroke]

Are you connected to shore power or retracting using battery?
Jay

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

Start by replacing the 50 amp auto reset breaker. While your there tighten up all battery connections, and all other connections from the batteries to the master switch and on to the row of breakers. Use a nut driver to tighten up all of the circuit breakers or a small ratchet.
Check all of your ground wire and the ground going to the frame.
With all of that is good shape and a fresh breaker you should be in good again.

Jerrod

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[danemayer]

Hi hantzum,

Is sounds like the 12V DC mini-circuit breaker near the battery is tripping. It takes a few seconds to reset.

The breaker trips if too many amps are required to operate the pump. I think the excess current heats the breaker, so it makes sense that letting it sit for longer would allow it to operate longer.

Causes of the breaker tripping:

- low voltage from the battery due to either not being on shore power, or dirty/corroded battery terminals, or loose connections.
- poor grounding
- binds in the mechanical parts
- weak breaker

If you don't find a problem with the voltage available to the pump, the next most likely cause is a weak breaker. These are available from Amazon or at most RV dealer parts departments, and at many marine and auto parts stores. It's a 50 amp, 12 Volt, Auto-Reset breaker. Make sure the replacement is the same form factor as the original.

The buss bar with mini circuit breakers looks something like this, but is probably covered by a red rubber boot. There will be two heavy cables on the output side. The one without a heavy cable on the input side goes to the hydraulic pump.

 

[BusManRG]

After reading this, and also a few other posts around the forum, I'm wondering if it makes sense to just have a couple extra circuit breakers in the toolbox for future use? Also Dan, looking at your photo, would it be possible in this scenario to just switch the unused breaker for the bad one? Rich and I were talking about it and neither one of us are very good with electrical stuff

Sandy

 

[alwaysbusy]

Mr Dan,
A question you can confirm. Lippert suggests increasing the amperage of this mini as a good resolution for future issues, and many have done so with an 80amp having no problem. I know with each new year there are advancements that are made; however, does Lippert recommend same for new units coming off the line like his. I'm thinking nothing precludes him from doing so, but just asking.

 

[jam20ster]

I too like many others have this problem. My question is which 80 amp breaker are they replacing it with. I have searched all over, but can not find the same like kind breaker in a 80 amp. I can find 50 amps all day long that look identical, but all the 80 amps i keep finding look much different.

 

[hantzum]

Are you connected to shore power or retracting using battery?
Jay

Shorepower!!

 

[danemayer]

After reading this, and also a few other posts around the forum, I'm wondering if it makes sense to just have a couple extra circuit breakers in the toolbox for future use? Also Dan, looking at your photo, would it be possible in this scenario to just switch the unused breaker for the bad one? Rich and I were talking about it and neither one of us are very good with electrical stuff

Sandy

It's probably an exception to have an unused breaker on the buss bar. Also, the breakers are not all 50 amp. Some may be 20 amp or 30 amp - depends what it's powering. It does make sense to carry spares; I carry a few spares. They're less than $10 - I've seen them as low as $5.

- - - Updated - - -

Mr Dan,
A question you can confirm. Lippert suggests increasing the amperage of this mini as a good resolution for future issues, and many have done so with an 80amp having no problem. I know with each new year there are advancements that are made; however, does Lippert recommend same for new units coming off the line like his. I'm thinking nothing precludes him from doing so, but just asking.

Lippert is a little winky about this in my opinion. As I understand it, they leave it up to the trailer manufacturer to decide on size of the breaker, and Heartland uses a 50 amp.

At one time Lippert had a Lip Sheet advising that the solution was to increase the breaker size to 80 amps, but that was withdrawn without explanation.

Since then, I've seen posts where people called Lippert and were told to upgrade to 80 amp.

My opinion is that moving to a larger breaker is a last resort after all other possibilities have been ruled out. If you've got low voltage or a poor ground, the larger breaker may mask the real problem.

 

[bdb2047]

I too like many others have this problem. My question is which 80 amp breaker are they replacing it with. I have searched all over, but can not find the same like kind breaker in a 80 amp. I can find 50 amps all day long that look identical, but all the 80 amps i keep finding look much different.

The 80a I have seen are different.They are manual reset and switchable.There is a red button you can push to open breaker.They are what Lippert installed when they worked on mine.

 

[Clentone]

The 80a I have seen are different.They are manual reset and switchable.There is a red button you can push to open breaker.They are what Lippert installed when they worked on mine.

I'm new to the RV world. I was told that there is a reset button on the breakers but have not been able to determine where the button is. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[danemayer]

I'm new to the RV world. I was told that there is a reset button on the breakers but have not been able to determine where the button is. Any help would be appreciated.

The factory installs auto-reset 12V DC breakers except for the one that connects the battery to the Power Converter/Fuse Box. If the breaker that powers the hydraulics is tripping and restoring after a few seconds, it's an auto reset.

If your battery is not getting charged, or if when you disconnect shore power all your interior lights go out, the manual-reset breaker may have tripped. There's a row of breakers near your battery, probably covered by a red rubber boot. See the picture I posted earlier in this thread.

The reset button is a teeny-tiny button that's very hard to see if you don't have perfect vision.

 

[LBR]

Our late 2017 CY doesn't have a manual-reset breaker as all of them are the auto-reset versions.

Also my 50A breaker for hydraulic pump kicks out several times...will be replacing it with another 50A to compare to. I have gone thru the entire 12V system in the front compartment tightening everything and cleaning up the factory wiring, but it still kicks out several times per leveling cycle.

 

[avvidclif]

It's not that hard to check to see if you have a wiring problem. It just takes 2 people. Got out your digital multimeter (voltmeter) and connect it to the power terminals on the pump motor. While watching the voltmeter have the DW push the Auto-Level button to start the sequence. If it drops much below 12v note the voltage and fix the wiring. To be sure cancel the Auto-Level and move the voltmeter to the battery terminals and repeat. The battery voltage at the battery shouldn't drop very much (less than .25v), if hooked to shore power, as the charger will be working to keep it up. If the ~same drop is at the battery terminals also then it's either the charger isn't working or the battery is bad. There are ways to isolate as to whether the voltage drop is in the positive side or negative side. You can even isolate the main source of the drop (battery terminals, breaker, reversing switch, ground connections).

 

[coltsdad]

We were having the same problems with the landing gear and the slides stopping most every time we used them. I checked all the connections and all was good. I replaced all the breakers on the buss bar and have had no problems after that.

 

[CoveredWagon]

Maybe a dumb question, but does anyone install a permanent digital volt meter on the battery/batteries? I can see myself installing at least one or maybe even two.

 

[sjandbj]

I too like many others have this problem. My question is which 80 amp breaker are they replacing it with. I have searched all over, but can not find the same like kind breaker in a 80 amp. I can find 50 amps all day long that look identical, but all the 80 amps i keep finding look much different.

When I first bought our Big Country every time it was cold outside the breaker would pop so I asked Lippert when I was at a show and they stated that it should be a 80 breaker. When I order the 80 amp breaker and started to rewire the system I found that there were many crimp connectors that were lose. I went ahead and fixed the lose connectors and also replaced the breaker. Since then I have had no trouble with the system. I understand why Heartland use the 50 amp breaker. It is only a few dollars for a 50 amp while the 80 amp breaker will cost 45-50 dollars.
I understand Dan's point being a last resort but I hate having to keep reworking a project to finally get it to work every time. To me the extra expense and time to do it the first time was worth it.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe a dumb question, but does anyone install a permanent digital volt meter on the battery/batteries? I can see myself installing at least one or maybe even two.

I have one down in the battery compartment and another one inside in the main switch panel.

 

[bdb2047]

80A manual reset breaker

 

[TedS]

Shop around for a best price on the 80-amp breaker.
https://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-BP-CB185-80-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B001PYL1VM

Changing to the higher amperage breaker was worth the price for the convenience of operation or not having to replace the 50-amp once or twice.

 

[RDsStudio59]

We had this problem from day one with our CY3110. The slides and landing gear worked perfectly when extending. Retracting was a very different thing. It sounded like the motor on the pump was working twice as hard to retract the landing gear even though it should be easier since the weight of the 5ver was pushing them in. The dealer replaced the 50 amp breaker on the day we picked it up but it didn't change a thing.
After a couple of trips putting up with the breaker resetting continually on retract I decided it was time to get to the bottom of it. Dealer diagnosed it with Lippert on the phone and they said bad battery. Replaced battery, same issue. Then dealer decided that they would replace the 50 amp breaker with the 80 amp and I rejected the repair. I contacted Heartland and they said that was not an authorized repair.
I agreed with them as the wiring installed was not heavy enough to carry the heavy load without overheating.
I got out the old trusty Fluke meter and amp clamp and did a little test of my own. The hydraulic pump motor was drawing 34 amps while extending the landing gear and lifting the weight of our fifth wheel. Well bellow the 50 amps the circuit is rated for.
But when I reversed the direction to retract the landing gear the draw went to 104 amps with no load on the gear. This was well above the 50 and 80 amp breakers so beware.
Luckily for me we live about 30 minutes from Heartland service center. I talked with them and they agreed to look at our unit along with some other issues. After many hours of searching and a few parts being replaced they found two hoses had been switched on the control valve causing the pump to work extra hard one way.
The day I loaded up to go to Heartland the breaker reset 11 times before the landing gear was fully retracted. What a pain.
We have used it many times since and it has worked flawlessly and sounds better than ever.
Thanks to the gang at Heartland Service Center.

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