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Glendinning Power Cord Reel Saga
A few weeks ago, when we got back to the coach, the power cord was pulled very tight from the power outlet to the cord inlet. We always leave plenty of slack. No idea how it could do that by itself. There are two ways to operate the electric power reel. One, via rocker switch in water bay, the other, with a remote control also stored in water bay. The coach is in a locked building.
Here is what we found. When using the switch to pull in or pay out the cord, the motor would barely move. The reel would sound terrible (grinding) and then turn off in 10 seconds. Finally figured out that the automatic 15A breaker in battery compartment would trip and then reset a minute later. The actual draw was over 30A measured with a DC ammeter. Well there is your problem.
A bit of online research indicated that the spur gears in the Glendinning reel transmission could go bad and cause the motor to load up. Also, there was a possibility that the electric motor had a partial short in its windings from being overheated. I ordered both the motor and new gears from Glendinning.
The fun part of the repair is the total lack of access. On our Marathon, the reel is behind some panels in the driver side water bay. Removing the panels, one could see the reel but it was several feet behind the pipe that contains the generator exhaust going to the roof and between the gray and fuel tanks. Even with long arms no way to fix in place. To extract the unit I had to send my wife from the other side of the coach between water heaters and fuel tank. After removing some access panels, there are about 12 inches of space where the cord normally stores. Working from both sides we managed to remove the reel. Doing so I learned a few new words from my wife.
Turns out the gears in the transmission were just fine. The culprit was the motor. The windings were black and partially shorted. The new motor fit after some modifications. Reassembling the reel, it is important to not over-torque the cover as it establishes the end play for the bearings. You snug the bolts until under no load conditions the motor draws about 2.5 amps. Just a nudge more and the motor would load up the 8 amps which would cause it to overload when pulling the cord. After a few attempts we got that done. Putting the reel back into the coach took us another day. Surprisingly, we are still married.
Happy to report everything works great again. As to what happened to cause the cord to retract by itself? Hard to say, maybe a malfunction of the remote which was hanging in the same compartment. Anyway, I have made it a habit to fully turn off the reel mechanism when not actively in use.
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2 Replies
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How do you turn off the reel when not in use ?
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There is an on/off switch disconnecting power from the breaker next to the in/out rocker switch in the water bay. I used to just leave that switch always on.
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