Lippert system breaker tripping , poor Heartland support

[Arnoldjol]

My 50 amp breaker keeps tripping and resetting while retracting leveling legs and slides.
Read a lot in the forums and after replacing the breaker and checking amps and oil level, the problem still remains.
I have contacted Heartland several times and am VERY DISAPPOINTED by the lack of support.
It is suggested on the forum to upgrade breaker to 80 amp and upgrade the wire to match amp Increase. I suggested that's what the breaker should be, especially after talking to lippert rep.
They will not acknowledge that it is their design problem and suggested that if I wanted to do this it was a modification and they will have part in it.
Granted my unit, a Big Country 3150RL is 3 years old but it does not take away the fact that is was under designed. BTW all new units are now 80 amp breakers.
I have ordered the new breaker and 4 awg wiring and hope that it will take care of the problem once and for all.
My experience with Heartland on this issue has left me with a poor feeling and will definitely effect my decision on my purchase of our next unit....

 

[danemayer]

Hi Arnoldjol,

I hope you've read our Hydraulic Slide Starts and Stops user guide which explains what's happening, what to check and how to fix it.

While many people like the 80 amp breaker solution, I'm guessing that on a 3 year old rig, the factory 50 amp setup worked correctly for a while. So something probably changed, leading to the problem you're having. The fact that it happens on both landing gear and slides argues against a mechanical issue. So it's more likely to be a low voltage issue. And once the breaker starts to trip, it's never quite the same, so even if you fix a battery problem, or loose/dirty connection problem, you'll also have to put in a new breaker.

And as explained in the Hydraulic Slide Starts and Stops user guide, there could be more than one 50 amp breaker in the electrical path. You may have to replace more than one breaker.

On a 3 year old rig, the first thing I'd check is the battery connections and get the battery load tested. The most likely cause of your problem is insufficient voltage at the hydraulic pump. Changing to an 80 amp breaker may help by masking the underlying problem, but it may not completely fix it.

 

[CDN]

Agree with Dan

This is no real big deal. My Bighorn did the same thing. By upgrading the battery to 12 Group 27 fixed it. The one that dealers put in are the cheapest UAP batteries available.

Ohms Law- Volts drops Current goes up which is why the the breaker pops. If the voltage doesn't go below 12 volts it won't blow at 50 amp reset-able breaker


With Heartland Landmark we bought in March I took dealer credit of $200 for 12 volt batteries and installed a pair of Trojan 6 V Batteries. No problem at all, even running the Fridge Inventor while leveling or slides operating.


Brian

 

[Piperflyer]

Once I bought two new batteries and upgraded my hydraulic system to an 80 Amp breaker I had no more problems with my jacks or slides opening and closing properly.

 

[carl.swoyer]

My 50 amp breaker keeps tripping and resetting while retracting leveling legs and slides.
Read a lot in the forums and after replacing the breaker and checking amps and oil level, the problem still remains.
I have contacted Heartland several times and am VERY DISAPPOINTED by the lack of support.
It is suggested on the forum to upgrade breaker to 80 amp and upgrade the wire to match amp Increase. I suggested that's what the breaker should be, especially after talking to lippert rep.
They will not acknowledge that it is their design problem and suggested that if I wanted to do this it was a modification and they will have part in it.
Granted my unit, a Big Country 3150RL is 3 years old but it does not take away the fact that is was under designed. BTW all new units are now 80 amp breakers.
I have ordered the new breaker and 4 awg wiring and hope that it will take care of the problem once and for all.
My experience with Heartland on this issue has left me with a poor feeling and will definitely effect my decision on my purchase of our next unit....

Arnoldjol,
I had the same problem.
I did consider changing it to an 80 amp breaker however when I spoke with the factory my current wiring gage in my Landmark would not support the amp current and they said it would be risky so I opted to replace the 50 amp autoreset breaker with a new one and I'm now carrying a couple of spare breaker.
It's been just over a year to include a 3 month RV trip 8500 miles.
No more problems.


Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[LBR]

What worked in my case was checking the hydraulic pump breaker and finding out it was only a 30A from the factory.... put in a quality 50A breaker and haven't had a kickout since.

 

[Arnoldjol]

Thanks for the tip of the 2nd 50 amp breaker....I replaced both and have 2 new 6 volt golf cart batteries now it's working fine without shorepower even.
Would have been nice if Heartland had advised me on it.
Thank God for Owners forum....thx again

 

[avvidclif]

After about 4 years of use my breaker has started tripping. Wait 10 seconds and go on. I carry a spare breaker, just haven't replaced it yet. Lazy. It did last 4 years so I'm happy.

 

[uncledon]

I too fell victim to this issue on my 2015 BH 3875FB. No problems for the first 8 mos. then both the big hydraulic slides and the 6 pt. leveling started to shutdown while retracting. Testing revealed that the 50A auto reset breaker in the cluster with the others was tripping out. I replaced it, but the problem still existed. Taking a current reading revealed that I was pulling over 60 amps during the retraction sequence. I had both 12 volt batteries load tested and they showed as being "good".

After reading all the posts (especially Dan and CDN) I have determined that I will change over to 6 volt batteries in the spring and see if that doesn't remedy things.

 

[danemayer]

I too fell victim to this issue on my 2015 BH 3875FB. No problems for the first 8 mos. then both the big hydraulic slides and the 6 pt. leveling started to shutdown while retracting. Testing revealed that the 50A auto reset breaker in the cluster with the others was tripping out. I replaced it, but the problem still existed. Taking a current reading revealed that I was pulling over 60 amps during the retraction sequence. I had both 12 volt batteries load tested and they showed as being "good".

After reading all the posts (especially Dan and CDN) I have determined that I will change over to 6 volt batteries in the spring and see if that doesn't remedy things.

Don, you'll also want to check for additional breakers in the path from batteries to buss bar. And if you've had tripping of the breaker since replacing it, when you change the batteries, put in a new breaker.

 

[uncledon]

Don, you'll also want to check for additional breakers in the path from batteries to buss bar. And if you've had tripping of the breaker since replacing it, when you change the batteries, put in a new breaker.

Thanks Dan. I already have two new 50A breakers I just purchased off Amazon. I had meter before the suspect 50A breaker and one after, along with an ammeter on the line. It showed the lead breaker in the supply from the battery held, but the one in the cluster did not. I'll replace them both and keep the ones I pull out as emergency spares.

 

[TedS]

Agree with Dan

This is no real big deal. My Bighorn did the same thing. By upgrading the battery to 12 Group 27 fixed it. The one that dealers put in are the cheapest UAP batteries available.

Ohms Law- Volts drops Current goes up which is why the the breaker pops. If the voltage doesn't go below 12 volts it won't blow at 50 amp reset-able breaker


With Heartland Landmark we bought in March I took dealer credit of $200 for 12 volt batteries and installed a pair of Trojan 6 V Batteries. No problem at all, even running the Fridge Inventor while leveling or slides operating.


Brian

Ohm's law says current is proportional to voltage. V=IxR
As voltage goes down, current goes down. Techs measured my current draw as high as 65 amps at 12+ volts. The 50 amp breaker is undersized. The DC motor on the hydraulic pump is rated to 1hp, 756watts. 756/12 = 63 amps.

 

[danemayer]

Ohm's law says current is proportional to voltage. V=IxR
As voltage goes down, current goes down. Techs measured my current draw as high as 65 amps at 12+ volts. The 50 amp breaker is undersized. The DC motor on the hydraulic pump is rated to 1hp, 756watts. 756/12 = 63 amps.

Ted,

I think the more relevant equation is the one involving the wattage required by the pump motor. With a fully charged battery at 12.6V and a pump motor at maximum load demanding 756 watts, the equation is 756/12.6 = 60.8 amps. If the battery is somewhat depleted at 12.0V, you'll draw 63.9 amps at full power. So with respect to a constant power demand (watts), as voltage drops, amps go up to deliver the same watts.

More importantly, the pump motor doesn't necessarily demand the full 1 HP or 756 watts. Considering the different size and weight of slides on various trailers, and the varying weight of trailers with hydraulic levelup, it seems unlikely to me that Lippert would design the hydraulic system to use a pump motor that has to operate at full power all the time.

So it might be more reasonable to assume the pump requires something like 600 watts in most cases. With a fully charged battery at 12.6V, that would require only 47.6 amps. With a somewhat depleted battery at 12.0V, you'd need 50 amps.

Even more important, holding the switch depressed after the slide is all the way in or out will cause the pump motor to lug. I'd say that's probably when it's demanding full power, and the most amps are flowing through the breaker. And if you hold that switch depressed for a few extra seconds to make sure the slide is all the way in or out, I'm pretty sure you're heating up the breaker and setting up future failures.

 

[TedS]

There is no constant power demand. Low voltage will not push sufficient current. DC motor speed varies directly with voltage. The lower the voltage, the lower the motor speed resulting in lower hydraulic flow. That would result in lower hydraulic power demand.
Maximum current will be the locked rotor current, much like the startup inrush current when the motor starts. The system design should handle that.