HWH front jacks

Gjac, Thanks for your response it is certainly worth a try! I'm a retired farmer and we have shops around that repair hydraulic cylinders so if I have to, I will probably have them rebuilt. On MOST farm cylinders it is not a big deal to reseal them. I don't know if these jack cylinders use standard type seals or not. That could be a problem. Another problem is that I won't know if they are fixed until we take it out on the road for long enough to get things hot. They are working perfectly right now but they are cold. Actually, had I not tried to retract them shortly after having parked, I would never have known there was a problem!

dougrainer wrote:

olfarmer wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
I guess I am confused. You state you have been traveling all day and the chassis system is hot and when you try to retract the jacks they fail to retract. WHY WOULD THE JACKS BE EXTENDED IF YOU ARE TRAVELING??????????????? I would think you mean they fail to extend. The Joystick control is a manual valve activated by the Joystick. Do you mean that after traveling, your front jacks have extended a little? Please clarify. Doug

The jacks are retracted while traveling, all the way up. A couple of times I have pulled into a camp site and attempted to level the coach, the jacks raised the coach fine but I was not quite happy with the level job. I went to raise the jacks to move a little or put a pad under them and they let the front down but were still in contact with the ground. Once I waited awhile and then they would come up on their own, the other time I waited until morning and they came right up.

If you have the 2001 still, and IF the weight of the RV helps retract the jacks and once the weight of the RV is OFF and they fail to retract, then your internal seals are bad and the heat just makes them worse. rebuild or replace. Doug

You can replace them as Doug said or try cleaning the outer seal with Q tips and spraying the shafts with silicone first to see if that helps. When mine would not retract they would stay extended about 4 ins and just stay there. Pry bars would not move them,I had to twist the foot pad back and forth to retract them. They are 20 years old and I am not about to replace them at this point. I spray the silicone on them once or twice a year(usually when I change the oil) and they all retract within 30 secs. I think Doug or Pete may have posted before that these older seals were not as tight as the newer ones and responded better to lubrication.

OK, thanks dougrainer.

olfarmer wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
I guess I am confused. You state you have been traveling all day and the chassis system is hot and when you try to retract the jacks they fail to retract. WHY WOULD THE JACKS BE EXTENDED IF YOU ARE TRAVELING??????????????? I would think you mean they fail to extend. The Joystick control is a manual valve activated by the Joystick. Do you mean that after traveling, your front jacks have extended a little? Please clarify. Doug

The jacks are retracted while traveling, all the way up. A couple of times I have pulled into a camp site and attempted to level the coach, the jacks raised the coach fine but I was not quite happy with the level job. I went to raise the jacks to move a little or put a pad under them and they let the front down but were still in contact with the ground. Once I waited awhile and then they would come up on their own, the other time I waited until morning and they came right up.

If you have the 2001 still, and IF the weight of the RV helps retract the jacks and once the weight of the RV is OFF and they fail to retract, then your internal seals are bad and the heat just makes them worse. rebuild or replace. Doug

dougrainer wrote:
I guess I am confused. You state you have been traveling all day and the chassis system is hot and when you try to retract the jacks they fail to retract. WHY WOULD THE JACKS BE EXTENDED IF YOU ARE TRAVELING??????????????? I would think you mean they fail to extend. The Joystick control is a manual valve activated by the Joystick. Do you mean that after traveling, your front jacks have extended a little? Please clarify. Doug

The jacks are retracted while traveling, all the way up. A couple of times I have pulled into a camp site and attempted to level the coach, the jacks raised the coach fine but I was not quite happy with the level job. I went to raise the jacks to move a little or put a pad under them and they let the front down but were still in contact with the ground. Once I waited awhile and then they would come up on their own, the other time I waited until morning and they came right up.

olfarmer wrote:
Gjac,
If the front of the motorhome is raised up, they will let it down but once the weight is off they remain on the ground. I tried to pry one up with a jack handle and got it up a couple inches so I could get a 2x6 under it but it was difficult to pry it up. I am not sure if they have heat shields or not but if not maybe I could make some.

If the jacks retract from the weight of the motorhome, but then need a pry bar to keep going, those internal jacks seals are bad and the jacks need rebuilt or replaced. Doug

Gjac,
If the front of the motorhome is raised up, they will let it down but once the weight is off they remain on the ground. I tried to pry one up with a jack handle and got it up a couple inches so I could get a 2x6 under it but it was difficult to pry it up. I am not sure if they have heat shields or not but if not maybe I could make some.

I guess I am confused. You state you have been traveling all day and the chassis system is hot and when you try to retract the jacks they fail to retract. WHY WOULD THE JACKS BE EXTENDED IF YOU ARE TRAVELING??????????????? I would think you mean they fail to extend. The Joystick control is a manual valve activated by the Joystick. Do you mean that after traveling, your front jacks have extended a little? Please clarify. Doug

I am guessing that if you have the joy stick you probably have the 200 series jack which is what I have. I am guessing that the inner seal seal expands from the heat and does not allow the piston to retract. I have heat shields on mine that isolate the jacks from the exhaust. I would fully extend the jacks then spray silicone on the shafts and see if they will retract then. Will the jacks retract half way then stop about 4 ins from the foot? of not retract at all?

Doug, I wish I could run each jack individually but I have a joystick control and not sure I could do that.