use hydraulic lifts down or up in winter for storeing

We Cant Wait wrote:
I have my jacks up. But what I do is put wood cribbing snug under the jack pads while the suspension is still aired up, then I dump the air bags. This way I keep the jacks retracted and not exposing the cylinder shafts, but I still take some of the weight off the tires.

X2

Read your manual...jacks down while in storage.

Two Jayhawks wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
There is NO GOOD reason to extend leveing jacks while in storage. I will give a GOOD reason to leave them retracted while in storage.
IF the system fails while in storage, and you cannot get them retracted. WHAT DO YOU DO???? Kind of hard to drive to the RV shop to fix them:B
Same with Slide rooms. Leave them retracted in storage. Doug

Doug I don't want to engage in a battle of RV know how as I have been around here long enough to know your an expert. How come people certainly camp with slides out and jacks down- maybe even for long periods knowing a failure keeps them from driving to a repair site? How is that not the same as actually storing it that way?

See my response above about exercising systems regardless of storing or camping. Doug

rgatijnet1 wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
There is NO GOOD reason to extend leveing jacks while in storage. I will give a GOOD reason to leave them retracted while in storage.
IF the system fails while in storage, and you cannot get them retracted. WHAT DO YOU DO???? Kind of hard to drive to the RV shop to fix them:B
Same with Slide rooms. Leave them retracted in storage. Doug

I guess I could have total spring failure where the springs would have lost it's ability to retract from it's stretched position. Since I have two springs on each jack I guess I would have to have both springs fail at the same time. Not sure how a spring fails but I guess it is possible.
Basically, all I have to do with a hydraulic failure is open the valve and let the springs pull the cylinder up, but you already should know this. :B
If my jacks did fail, I would rather find out about it while in storage than on the road.

Not ALL jacks can retract with no power. Some are power down and power up. Some are Electric and if you have any part of the electric system fail, they are extremely difficult to get them up. I get calls all the time from fulltimers and from people that stored jacks down and they have not operated the jacks in months. Unlike some on these forums, they have NO CLUE how to do a manual retract and some have no idea after reading the manual and having me attempt to explain it. Jacks as well as slide rooms need to be exercised at least twice a month, whether you are using the RV or have it stored. LOT ROT HAPPENS. Just because you think you would rather find it in storage, which means you are still stuck if your override does not work. As to what I know already, you have no idea of ALL the different Jack systems as I outlined above. You fall into the catagory a LOT on these forums fall into--- you assume ALL RV systems are exactly like yours. My answers and opinions take into account ALL various systems that a RV might have on a particular topic. Most on these forums are novices and that is why they ask questions and opinions from others.Doug

I am just not getting the taking the weight off the wheels thing. I mean your rig and chassis as well as tires were designed not only to bear the weight but do it while in motion and be subjected to some pretty rigorous forces. I can't see how just sitting there would do anything at all. Never heard of suspension springs arbitrarily breaking while in storage and if they did, count yourself lucky it didn't happen under driving conditions. I fail to see how storing it with jacks down will prevent this. There is obviously some other issue causing that type of problem. I simply can't see an up-side. On the contrary it seems like exposed jacks for long periods of time, not to mention winter conditions where salt may be applied to adjacent surfaces could promote an issue. Not saying it will but weighing in on both risks, I'll take my chances with sitting on the tires. Lots of miles on my chassis and suspension. Can't see how sitting a few months could be any worse than the abuse it's received in some of the places I've driven. At the end of the day it really seems a matter of preference. No great harm to either method that I can tell. This topic sure had me all "jacked" up though. :B

mtrumpet wrote:
BTW, the rods on the hydraulic levelers are chrome plated not bare steel. They will not rust when exposed to the elements. (Think of the hydraulic cylinders on all the mobile equipment out there.)

Cylinders WILL rust over time. The oil coating will protect them for quite a while, but the chrome coating is amazingly porous. While in college, I worked nights in a factory that manufactured hyd cylinders. I ground the shafts to size, then polished them after they were chromed. If they weren't wiped down well from the coolant after polishing them, they would begin rusting before my shift was over.

Sure, adsorbed oil from retracting the shaft will protect them for a period of time. Usually they don't sit long enough for that protection to become a factor. If they do, they rust. You can get most of it off with steel wool though, and continue to march as though nothing happened.

I used to "take some of the weight off" with my jacks. The last time I did that, I found a retraction spring broken when I went to retract the jacks. Not quite sure how, or why that happened, but I quit doing it.

dougrainer wrote:
There is NO GOOD reason to extend leveing jacks while in storage. I will give a GOOD reason to leave them retracted while in storage.
IF the system fails while in storage, and you cannot get them retracted. WHAT DO YOU DO???? Kind of hard to drive to the RV shop to fix them:B
Same with Slide rooms. Leave them retracted in storage. Doug

I guess I could have total spring failure where the springs would have lost it's ability to retract from it's stretched position. Since I have two springs on each jack I guess I would have to have both springs fail at the same time. Not sure how a spring fails but I guess it is possible.
Basically, all I have to do with a hydraulic failure is open the valve and let the springs pull the cylinder up, but you already should know this. :B
If my jacks did fail, I would rather find out about it while in storage than on the road.

dougrainer wrote:
There is NO GOOD reason to extend leveing jacks while in storage. I will give a GOOD reason to leave them retracted while in storage.
IF the system fails while in storage, and you cannot get them retracted. WHAT DO YOU DO???? Kind of hard to drive to the RV shop to fix them:B
Same with Slide rooms. Leave them retracted in storage. Doug

Doug I don't want to engage in a battle of RV know how as I have been around here long enough to know your an expert. How come people certainly camp with slides out and jacks down- maybe even for long periods knowing a failure keeps them from driving to a repair site? How is that not the same as actually storing it that way?

There is NO GOOD reason to extend leveing jacks while in storage. I will give a GOOD reason to leave them retracted while in storage.
IF the system fails while in storage, and you cannot get them retracted. WHAT DO YOU DO???? Kind of hard to drive to the RV shop to fix them:B
Same with Slide rooms. Leave them retracted in storage. Doug

No offense taken. Why lighten up, I said that you had a vast amount of experience?
I would guess that I had my first RV before you were even born and right now my coach is sitting over in Lexington Park, MD at my Son's house. I think of an RV the same as a fully loaded truck. Even when in storage, it is only a few thousand pounds lighter than the maximum gross weight of the chassis, tires, and suspension. Common sense would dictate that anything that could be used to ease the strain on the tires and suspension components would NOT be a bad thing. To that end, I have the jacks so why not use them? I've been using my jacks since leveling jacks first came out in the 70's and have never had to replace any springs that have sagged, or jacks that were damaged from being extended. Maybe I have been lucky, but I have read on this forum where many owners have had to replace their springs to correct their ride height. Using my jacks costs nothing. Replacing sagged springs is expensive.
My large pieces of construction equipment were always placed on blocks when in storage, which was standard procedure for the very expensive equipment with expensive tires. My money so my choice based on my experience.