Leveling Jacks Making Noise

This is a very common problem with Lippert hydraulic jack systems.

You need to remove a quart of the hydraulic fluid and add a quart of CAT Anti stiction fluid. I forget the exact name but it will fix the popping, it did for me. I will try and find the name.

Catepillar 1U-9891

JAC1982 wrote:

garyemunson wrote:
Take your issue straight to Keystone and Lippert and raise Hell. I got new jacks. Like I said, if I had to, I'd pay for them myself. The noise from faulty jacks is intolerable on cooler nights.

Again, both Keystone and Lippert said it wasn't something they were going to fix. The weather makes no difference in our situation, and it's not raising/lowering the trailer at all, it's just an annoying sound. I think a Class A setup and a toyhauler setup are quite different.

Mine does drop the front a bit. I re-leveled after a few days of popping.

garyemunson wrote:
Take your issue straight to Keystone and Lippert and raise Hell. I got new jacks. Like I said, if I had to, I'd pay for them myself. The noise from faulty jacks is intolerable on cooler nights.

Again, both Keystone and Lippert said it wasn't something they were going to fix. The weather makes no difference in our situation, and it's not raising/lowering the trailer at all, it's just an annoying sound. I think a Class A setup and a toyhauler setup are quite different.

Mine does it too. 2015 Fuzion. I bought the additive but haven’t done it yet.

The trailer is a 2018 Momentum. I guess the first thing to try is taking it back to the dealer I bought it from. It is pretty annoying.

Take your issue straight to Keystone and Lippert and raise Hell. I got new jacks. Like I said, if I had to, I'd pay for them myself. The noise from faulty jacks is intolerable on cooler nights.

Don't get me started on this haha! We have this same problem. We took it to the dealer while still within our warranty period, they stated that it's a known problem, but neither Lippert nor Keystone will fix it. We paid out of pocket to have the hydraulic fluid changed (as that was what was suggested in our research online) but they still make the noise sometimes, just not as bad as before. They do do it during the day and in various weather conditions, but it's harder to notice it since we're not laying right above them during the day like at night. So basically, we're SOL and just have to deal with it.

ETA: forgot to add we also added some dry lubricant to them, but that didn't seem to help.

I should add there are different size jacks. The jack capacity is stamped into the top plate of the jack cylinder. Difficult to see without reaching up, wiping the top clean and using a mirror and flashlight to read the stamping. Our Winne had 8K jacks on the front and 14K on the rear. Interestingly enough, Lippert sent 4 14Ks as replacements. The diameter was slightly bigger but there is nothing in the way to impede installing the bigger jack at all and there was no noticeable difference in operation. The mounts are identical across all jack sizes. I'm sure the fronts now extend a little slower but that is not significant. I would think twice about just having a hydraulic shop replace the seal on the possibility part of the problem might be a bad finish on the inside of the cylinder. I KNOW replacing the jacks with new ones makes the problem go away.

They are no doubt Lippert hydraulics. Our 2015 Winnebago Vista Class A jacks made those noises (snapping and popping) mostly at night as the temperature cooled and the hydraulic fluid contracted from the day we got it new. You could feel the coach drop a little each time, too. Also, when I'd retract the jacks, the first movement made the coach feel like it fell a little as the pressure released and the jacks began to retract. I complained regularly to Winnebago and Lippert and spent money buying the Caterpillar oil additive and the motorcycle fork oil they recommended. The term for what is happening is "Stiction" of the seal (not the outside seal that keeps the oil from leaking down the shiny jack but the inner seal on the piston dividing top and bottom of the cylinder). Each time the symptoms would abate for a while then return after a few months. Hoping "the squeaky wheel would get the grease" I continued to complain and eventually, about a year after the warranty expired, Winnebago had Lippert send me four new jacks. They said they would allow 4 hours of labor to change them..just send them the receipt but none of the RV shops around here would do it for that. I found that changing them was quite easy since the coach is high enough not to require jacking up so I just did it myself. Problem instantly ceased and has never done it again. Don't believe anything they say.. IT IS THE JACKS. What really got me hollering at the end is one of our friends bought a new Forest River coach with the exact same jacks and theirs would be silent all night while even they could hear ours popping! Apparently the internal seal is to blame and there was a bad run around 2014/15. You did not have your rig info in your profile but I am assuming it falls in that time frame, probably too long for warranty help now. You may want to try contacting Lippert to see if they will give you any discount on a new set of jacks. The difference in "enjoyability" would make me not think twice about paying for a set now that I know that it is a "for-sure" cure.

Electric? Hydraulic? What brand? More info, please