Slideouts come out while autolevel in operation?

[Rangerman40]

After 10 months of flawless operation of my 6pt autolevel system last weekend when I was packing up the camper to head back home I raised the rear jacks and when the front was coming back up to hitch height all 3 of my hydraulic slides started coming out. I went a head and hitched up and when I retracted the front legs all the way and the slides retracted as well. When I got home and parked it I de used to try the autolevel again on a site that was already level and they started to come out again.... fluid level is fine. You would almost think it's a valve or something that separates the two sides but I really have no idea how it works. It's scheduled to go in to the shop in two weeks to get looked at.

[NC_Hauler]

From experience of rams dropping and slide drifting out.. Lippert had a Service Tech work on mine while in TX.. If you have a high pressure seal leaking, this "weird" stuff can and did happen. I have the 3.0 Lippert six leveling jacks and two of my 4 slides are hydraulic. I first took it to a dealer in TX, they replaced the front ram that kept failing... still didn't fix the problem, they replaced ram in slide that drifted out, still didn't fix it, replaced the pump, still didn't fix it.. 5er sit in the bed of my truck almost a month. Then Lippert got involved. Ron McCoy, a Service Tech with a great reputation said the front rams were a bad design for a heavy pinweight 5er. He spoke of cheap high pressure Chinese made seals that were failing. He removed both front rams and put in different rams. , both 14K each aluminum Rams.. That was 3 months ago and I've towed from TX to WVa with stopovers and everything has worked perfectly.
A bad high pressure seal can cause flow through the system, which can cause rams to drop and slides to come slightly open. The system was filled to the correct level, all solonoids and internal poppets were good.. The fork oil addition will reseat a possible bad seal, or one the has repositioned wrong during extend or retract. Most of DRV's level up issues have been because of bad high pressure seals in rams that should have been more robust in the first place. Fron rams were replaced with more robust rams and problem solved.

Jim

[WackAway]

This happened to me once on my first use of my 5'r. I had just put all 5 sliders in and went to retract the levelers. The sliders started creeping out every time I hit the retract button. The hydraulic pump sounded really weak at the same time. I had run the batteries way down overnight so I hooked up the generator and tried again after 30 minutes. This time the pump sounded stronger and everything worked correctly.

I don't know if this makes sense, but it worked for me so I assumed the weak batteries caused the observed issue.

[laknox]

Rangerman40 wrote:
You know how when your dog gets confused and they turn their head sideways and are like WTF?? That's kinda how I felt when it happened.

Did your ears perk up, too? :B

Seriously, a by-pass or valve leak are the only ways for this to happen. We had stuff like this happen several times on some of our more complex hydro systems while farming.

Lyle

[csg11]

I had the same thing happen with my Level Up system. While lowing the front jacks to hitch up, I heard the slides move. WTH? Calls to Redwood and to my dealer ended with recommendation to bring it in and replace some valves that must have gotten debris in them. Service writer at the dealer said what I was experiencing was impossible! Lippert acknowledged the slides and jacks are all connected and it was possible.

They told me how to shut off the slides while using the jacks until I could get it in for service. I did that for a month. During that time I drained and replaced the fluid. I also added some fork oil to increase the stiction.

The problem went away after the fluid drain. I never took it in and it never was a problem again.

It may be worth the effort. Not a lot to lose.

Good Luck and let us know how it worked out.

Gary

[Rangerman40]

You know how when your dog gets confused and they turn their head sideways and are like WTF?? That's kinda how I felt when it happened.

[mr__ed]

WOW! Never heard of that happening. Pretty strange. If that happened to me I'd think I was seeing things. That would be difficult to figure out, but I guess the other respondents nailed it. My fiver didn't have auto leveling so no hydraulics were involved. Additionally, my slides were electrically operated, so I probably would never have had your experience.

[Rangerman40]

Thanks for the input. It's not DRV heavy but it's a little over 15k so it's not light. Hopefully they can fix it quickly.

[NC_Hauler]

It may be a bad high pressure seal in a front jack. I experienced the exact same situation with my DRV.. thought it was haunted. Lippert changed out BOTH front rams, (their recommendation), and unit has been perfect since. Cheap Chinese high pressure seals are causing some fis.. especially with heavier 5er.. hope this helped

Jim