Quote:
Originally Posted by Robertjacobs
Getting ready to leave an RV site, cleared the holding tanks - no problem. Go to retract the hose and half way through the process it stops retracting. Thinking that there was an obstruction I pulled out about 3 feet of hose and tried again. Checked the fuses and all seems fine.
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It's easy for the hose to get jammed up. You have to manually guide it back onto the reel.
It usually works best if you unreel the entire hose every time you use it even if the sewer connection is only a few feet away. That also ensures that you don't leave water trapped in the coils on the reel.
Then, when you retract the hose, hold the hose with your left hand, and work the switch with your right. Pull
slightly on the hose as it's winding back in to keep it tight, and make sure to work the hose left to right, then right to left— or is it the other way around? Check with the hose pulled all the way out to see if it's to the left or to the right of the slot— anyway, work it slowly from side to side as it reels back in to make sure it coils up evenly all the way across the reel.
It should take about two full coils all the way across and a bit of a third on one side. If you don't guide the hose back in properly, you can end up with the hose wrapped four or five coils deep on one side and nothing on the other, and the hose will jam.
Also, it sometimes helps to retract the hose a few feet, stop, and then retract a few more feet, toggling the switch as necessary until you're done. Until you get used to it, it can be easier to guide the hose back on the reel that way.
In four years of using my Interstate, I
still sometimes jam up the hose if something distracts me from what I'm doing. When that happens, I always pull out the whole hose and start over.
Side note: If the motor doesn't run at all, even after you've unreeled the whole hose to start over, check the fuses again. Someone else on another thread recently noticed that on his Interstate, the macerator pump and hose reel fuses were reversed from what the fuse diagram said. So check both the pump and reel fuses, just to be sure. Pull the fuse to check it, and shine a flashlight (not
too bright since you'll be looking right at it) though the fuse from behind to see if it's blown. The filament is easier to see if it's back-lit.