Sorry to be "the spectre at the feast" but I've got problems with my P/T mover AGAIN.
As some of you may remember I bought my P/T mover, with electric actuators, and had it fitted by P/T in March 2010 - so it's still not a year old.
This is the story, in brief, so far:
(1) An incorrectly placed electronic control box, it was installed behind the heater and had to be moved to a bed box - March 2010
(2) A failed electronic control box which had to be replaced, I missed the 'van's service appointment because of this - June 2010
(3) The offside motor bearing was clicking and had to be replaced - just in time for our 5 week Continental hols - July 2010
(4) The nearside roller would not retract in France - August 2010 - but worked the next day!
(5) The nearside roller would not retract as I was preparing to go away for our October Half Term hols. A new actuator motor was fitted October 2010.
The 'van has been stored on our drive over the winter
Today it was a lovely sunny morning, and having no work, I thought I would do some preparatory jobs to get the 'van ready for going away this Friday - our first trip of 2011.
Having become rather wary of the P/T mover I thought I would check that it was working okay. Tried rollers off the tyre, turning okay. Moved the rollers onto the wheel, okay. Tried to retract the rollers off the wheel. OHHHH NOOOO - offside roller would not retract off the tyre!!!
Contacted P/T support - polite and helpful as always. Suggested I try turning the shaft of the actuator by hand to see if that would free up the actuator. No joy - shaft very stiff. I, also, tried turning the shaft using a 9mm spanner as suggested on the P/T website - still very stiff.
P/T promised that an engineer would contact me this evening I confirmed my mobile and home phone numbers. As it's now 21.05 and no one has rung I don't think it's going to happen now!! No messages either although ansaphone on both phones.
This evening after work I took the cover off the 'van, removed the Alko lock, lifted the steadies and tried moving the 'van up and down the drive to see if that would free up the actuator - NO, still the offside roller will not come off the tyre. So another waste of time as then, in the cold and dark, I had to resecure the Alko lock, steadies, etc for security's sake.
Yes I would agree with others that P/T's warranty service is very good. They do send someone out as quickly as possible and they do fix the problems free of charge.
HOWEVER, the reason that I shelled out nearly £1000 was so that I could EASILY and RELIABLY move my 'van on and off my drive and on site WHEN I WANT to NOT after waiting for P/T to send someone to fix it, again.
The 110 amp 'van battery, by the way is, fully charged - I tested it with my multimeter and put it back in the 'van yesterday having kept it on charge in the garage.
Good luck with it, Tim. Such a shame you've had so much trouble with yours.
I believe they're generally very reliable and *touch wood* ours has been faultless in 3 years of use. We also had ours fitted by a Powrtouch fitter and the only problem we had was getting him out of the warm and cosy caravan and into the rain to fit it!!
We don't have the powered actuators so have to engage / disengage by hand but we've never been unable to do so.
Keep us posted!
------------- Best Wishes and Happy Travels,
Feecamp
Hi Tim, Had same trouble with my Reich mover over winter last year, had a look at it, turned out to be full of road dirt and small grit, that had gotten onto the roller screw,and when load of van on wheel it would not turn, I sprayed WD40 on screws full lenth and tested it, WD40 had do its job all ok, them used spray grease on the screws, opperated mover a few times to get grease into all the threads, every thing ok since, may not be any thing to do with your problem, but them again?.
------------- If everything runs smoothly then I must have done something wrong
If in Doubt Check it Out.
Hi Tim, Just a thought, if both motors engaged, and only one retracted, and you have a connecting bar between both motor winders, it is posibile that the bolt or pin going through the connecting bar and motor winder is damaged or broken, or bar is jamed,or bent, or broken at the gear of the small winding motor. If one motor is jamed on the other should not move as connected via the bar. I would look for three things 1, the leaver mechanisim on the jamed motor. 2, the connecting bar where it connects to winders. 3, I would disconnect the bar from the jamed motor retract manualy, make sure both motors are fully retracted, then reconnect connecting bar, re try.( could be when new one fitted that each motor leaver in different position, and when engaged the offside motor over run the screw ), unlikely but possable.
------------- If everything runs smoothly then I must have done something wrong
If in Doubt Check it Out.
After a further phone call to P/T this morning a P/T engineer called this morning. My wife was fortunately able to work at home and give him access to the 'van.
The problem was, as I suspected, a failed microswitch in the offside electronic actuator. Exactly the same type of part as the one that failed on the nearside actuator last October. The engineer replaced the failed actuator with a new one. At least now they're both done.
I suppose looking on the bright side:
(1) I'll soon have a completely new mover - fitted in stages.
(2) The 'van is all ready for going away on Friday.
I really hope that now we can have a trouble free life from our P/T mover.
Again 10/10 for service. ??? for reliability given our catalogue of problems on a mover which has been used about 40 times in the last 11 months.
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Topic: Problems with Powrtouch Mover AGAIN!!!!
