HWH Jacks Retract After Leveling

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what happened with your jacks. Good information to have if/when something goes wrong again.

olddogs wrote:
I was having the same problem. Called my repair guy and had the him look at the jacks. He raised them manually doing the back ones first and then the front. He raised them to max height and then checked the hydraulic fluid level. The tank was near empty. He explained that when the tank gets low that it will suck in air and that will cause the rear jacks to settle back down. Kept it in the up position for at least an hour, drove to local auto parts store and bought two quarts of transmission fluid. Then I added a half quart of transmission fluid and then raised and lowered the jacks on auto several times. Works fine now (24 hours later they are working). When I bought the motorhome a bad jack was found and it was "repaired" but they may have forgotten to refill the fluid tank. The repair guy said that when the jacks are auto leveled they do the front first which led to the problem of the rear jacks sucking air.

1. Fluid is ALWAYS added with jacks retracted.
2. Auto level is dependant on which side/corner is lowest. If the rear is lowest at auto level start, then the REAR jacks extend first. If one SIDE is lowest those 2 side jacks deploy first. If the FRONT is lowest, then the front jacks extend first and then the other jacks then extend.
3. Once the Reservoir is too low, it only takes 1 jack to suck air. But, yes, if the rear jacks deploy last and the reservoir is too low, then once those rear jacks extend and you run out of fluid they will suck air. But if you extended the REAR first, then your problem would have happened on the front jacks when extending.
4. If you have either HWH and the reservoir is filled to correct level, you will have at least 3 to 4 qts of remaining fluid even when all 4 are fully extended
5. If you have Powergear Jacks, the same, BUT, if fluid level is low, the dash down jack will alarm and show jacks down. Doug

I was having the same problem. Called my repair guy and had the him look at the jacks. He raised them manually doing the back ones first and then the front. He raised them to max height and then checked the hydraulic fluid level. The tank was near empty. He explained that when the tank gets low that it will suck in air and that will cause the rear jacks to settle back down. Kept it in the up position for at least an hour, drove to local auto parts store and bought two quarts of transmission fluid. Then I added a half quart of transmission fluid and then raised and lowered the jacks on auto several times. Works fine now (24 hours later they are working). When I bought the motorhome a bad jack was found and it was "repaired" but they may have forgotten to refill the fluid tank. The repair guy said that when the jacks are auto leveled they do the front first which led to the problem of the rear jacks sucking air.

Update: Techs here in Red Bay did in fact find a small leak in one of the rear jacks and replaced it. Hopefully this will resolve the problem.

pusherpilot wrote:
Had a similar experience with the RVA jacks on our coach. Parked in a spot we'd been in many times before. When I got up in the a/m I noticed the rt rear jack was retracted. I retracted the jacks and releveled. It was OK after that. Now I bump each jack from the keypad to be sure they are all on the ground before shutting down the system. I think what's happening is the system, is sensing that a jack dosn't need to be extended more but it isn't actually on the ground. Since my make model coach has a tendency to break windshields if improperly leveled I keep an eagle eye on it after it's set up.
Ron

RVA jack systems are totally different from the HWH system we are talking about. The HWH system we are talking about has a pressure switch that determines and verifies that each jack has indeed hit the ground. Unless you have a special 4 jack RVA system, you should have only 1 front jack and because of that RVA does not have windshield type problems. Doug

Had a similar experience with the RVA jacks on our coach. Parked in a spot we'd been in many times before. When I got up in the a/m I noticed the rt rear jack was retracted. I retracted the jacks and releveled. It was OK after that. Now I bump each jack from the keypad to be sure they are all on the ground before shutting down the system. I think what's happening is the system, is sensing that a jack dosn't need to be extended more but it isn't actually on the ground. Since my make model coach has a tendency to break windshields if improperly leveled I keep an eagle eye on it after it's set up.
Ron

1. There is a solenoid for EACH jack even on the 725 system. IF there is no external fluid leakage, and a jack retracts, then THAT solenoid is defective. YES, I have had 2 solenoids fail on a new system before. What the OP needs to do is simple. Extend all 4 jacks and take EACH solenoid manual release spring lever and open it to allow each jack to retract a few inches. this will allow any debris in the solenoid to possibly be flushed out. IF that does NOT work, each jack solenoid that continues to leak back will need replaced. LOW fluid will NOT be a concern on a HWH system.
2. Thundermountain--- IF no external leakage the Jack solenoid for THAT jack needs replaced. But, on your solenoid, do the same thing as above. YOU have to release the solenoid with a 1/4 inch nut driver. Open and close the offending jack solenoid to flush the solenoid. IF that does not work replace the solenoid. Doug

Try leveling manually and see if the same thing happens.

Barb

I have one or two come up once an a while with my slides out. This year they all came up a few inches while we were home for Christmas when the slides were in.

Thanks for the replies.

Sounds similar to what happens with ours. It is a 2014 coach. We will make sure the fluid level is okay, but have not seen any sign of leakage.

Our setup routine is to get into the site, turn off the ignition, put down the Hoss pads and then turn the key to accessory and press the autolevel button, which dumps the air from the bags before leveling.

This last time we waited about five minutes before putting out the rear slides, and the jacks stayed down. When we did put out the rear slides, we thought we heard the jacks coming back up a few minutes later. We went out and looked and they were off the ground several inches.

The weird thing is, we brought the slides back in, did the autolevel again and put the slides back out and the jacks have stayed down since then (5 days so far).