Hydraulic slide out issues while traveling
After buying a used 5th wheel, prepping it, and setting out on our cross country journey, we thought we had all of our ducks in a row, but our hydraulic slide out mechanism stopped functioning at our ...
Forum Discussion
arglebargle, hydraulic rams or cylinders are pretty durn simple. Only 2 things can happen =inside= the cylinder. 1) the rubber piston seals fail, allowing oil to pass from one side to the other. 2) the cylinder wall can become worn or galled, which usually chews up the piston seals, though the wear on the cylinder walls can be so bad that the rubber seals just won't seal. If this happens, you gradually lose pressure on one side and the ram "relaxes" and either extends or retracts (depending on the direction of the external pressure on it). If the rod seal fails, you have a messy leak.
The other major source of internal leaks are the actuator valves. Here, the solenoids can fail or wear to the point where they don't completely move to open/close the valve. Other thing that happens is the valve seats can either wear or get trash in them, again causing a failure to seal. It doesn't take much of a leak, given that these systems run under a =lot= of pressure, to cause a cylinder to move. Bad (cheap) metal can even =erode= from the high pressures and cr@ppy castings can crack, again from the pressure. Had all that happen while on the farm, which is a much more extreme environment that RVing, for sure.
Lyle
The other major source of internal leaks are the actuator valves. Here, the solenoids can fail or wear to the point where they don't completely move to open/close the valve. Other thing that happens is the valve seats can either wear or get trash in them, again causing a failure to seal. It doesn't take much of a leak, given that these systems run under a =lot= of pressure, to cause a cylinder to move. Bad (cheap) metal can even =erode= from the high pressures and cr@ppy castings can crack, again from the pressure. Had all that happen while on the farm, which is a much more extreme environment that RVing, for sure.
Lyle
