HWH overextended......oil in jack pad now

On Saturday, daughter was leveling my rig in the street at her home to ck out the fridge before she takes off for an outing in the foothills this coming weekend.  Turns out the slope is excessive, but just about the time she got the front-to-back bubble in the middle of a carpenter's level (on the coach floor) I heard a sound like a relief valve so i told her to stop and that would have to  be good enough (front tires well off the deck.)  Well, this morning there was about a 1/4 cup oil spill (maybe a little less) in the foot of the front passenger- side jack....and on the asphalt pavement.  I am surprised that the system's relief valve wouldn't bypass long before a jack seal would leak ...... but then the system is, in fact, 10 years old.  It has worked flawlessly since day one as far as I know.

1.  Today I stored all jacks and then raised the front a few inches and then re-stored; all seems normal.

2.  The only area that appears to have any oil on it is where the rod exits the jack body ....... and there is a very thin film in this area (around the jack body circumference) that appears to have been there a long time.  No oil up above or on the Ford's frame  members at all.

3.  I will clean the jack foot with a strong detergent mix in a garden sprayer and then dry it tomorrow ...... then exercise the system and see if I dodged a bullet or not.

Finally, my question:  I have no idea where the pump is or where the HWH hyd fluid reservoir typically is on a Class C.  Any clues?  (Maybe there "ain't no typical" ?)  Most folks say calls to HWH tech support are answered in a couple of weeks..............or more.  Ouch!

TIA...............  Ed S in Denver

Sound may be your friend!! With two people, one to operate the jacks and one to go outside and walk around listening, you may get lucky and spot the pump/reservoir quickly. No need to run the pump continuously but.... On some class C models, the pump/reservoir were mounted in the very front out by the radiator, in others, under the house stairs, but YMMV. I gleaned this location info from other posters but you may get better info from Winni's customer service line....541-234-2167 Have your coach serial number handy...

Check the fluid level in the reservoir with all the jacks fully retracted.

Chances are, you are probably going to continue to have a leak on that one piston assembly. There is probably an O-Ring seal inside the cylinder which has probably failed. If you take a good look at the top of the cylinder, you may see a small strip of rubber going around the piston rod. This is a wiper strip. It wipes the dirt of the piston rod while it's being retracted. If there's no wiper strip that you can see, possibly some dirt has gotten in there and has reached the O Ring seal creating the leak.
It may also be that this is the first time that piston has been extended fully and the area of the piston rod where it's in the O-Ring area, may be scratched, may have corrosion or dirt. It may work fine as long as you don't fully extend it. 

Thanks Alfa38User and Rene-

I hung my head out (and down)  the driver's side door whilst hanging onto the steering wheel and I could tell the pump was just behind the front edge of the coach on the driver's side.  Also found a very large plastic (rectangular) reservoir tank there with almost no clearance to remove the filler cap (which appears to double as a vent).  The reservoir is, I believe a bit low.  It appears that perhaps a PO had attempted to get hyd oil in there but IMHO it will definitely need a pump with a vinyl/bendable hose.........just no room, vertically.  The plastic filler cap had only one or two threads engaged and there is a lot more oil and grime there than one would expect (may have been overfilled at some point).  I don't know that I can get my 85-yr-old body under there  to pump a bit of hyd oil into the reservoir without at least some clearance for the ol' bod via raising the coach by the front jacks a bit so I will just be careful to allow ample ullage space for the retuning oil when the front jacks are stored.  Right now the huge tank is less than 1/4 full with the two front jacks about 3/4 extended.

Re the Rt Front jack itself:  I extended the front pair until the front tires were about 1" off the ground and then cleaned the area [mainly the ram(s)] with many paper towels until there was essentially no oil on any of the surfaces.  I left it raised for about two hours and there was no sign of a leak at all.  So, as Rene stated, I may have dodged a bullet ....  as long as I don't extend them to the max in the future.  I did see the lip/wiper seal Rene mentioned and it looked intact and not damaged ........ externally at least.

I do plan to contact HWH for some discussion re all of this and see what they say.  As you know, there is about a 2 to 3 week "return call gestation period" involved, but I will get back after I talk to them.

Thanks again.................... Ed S in Denver

youracman said:

  So, as Rene stated, I may have dodged a bullet ....  as long as I don't extend them to the max in the future.  I did see the lip/wiper seal Rene mentioned and it looked intact and not damaged ........ externally at least.

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If the wiper looked good on the outside, than it's not damaged. It has nothing to do with maintaining pressure. The seal would be just below the wiper inside the cylinder.

  I doubt the ram was "overextended" there are internal stops to prevent that from happening..>>>Dan

utahclaimjumper said:

  I doubt the ram was "overextended" there are internal stops to prevent that from happening..>>>Dan

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I agree that you can't overextend them but I'm just thinking that maybe when it's extended to the max, that there may be a slight scratch or a large pit in the area of the seal causing the leak.

It's a possibility but the upper portion of the ram is usually protected by being inside the jack and emerst in oil.>>>Dan (If he has the spring return type its probably just a poor seal,, I've seen several lately that have had to have the seals replaced under warranty)

utahclaimjumper said:

  I doubt the ram was "overextended" there are internal stops to prevent that from happening..>>>Dan

Click to expand...

Agreed, Dan.  Poor choice of words ...... I was just thinking of the front end getting higher and higher ..... cuz  the front pair were probably extended further than they maybe should have been ...... like wheels 5 or 6 inches off the ground!  (But then the "Excessive Slope" light didn't come on.)

Anyway, the leaker Rt Front jack is still dry after exercising it a few times so I hope I lucked out.

I checked the rig today, and the reservoir looks very low to me.  Perhaps that could have come into play ...... AKA sucking air.  Almost no vertical clearance to even get the cap off the reservoir, but somehow I am going to get some more hydraulic oil in there.

Waiting for a reply/assessment from HWH technical folks.

The wheels off the ground really have nothing to do with the jack rams and the rams don't care where the wheels are. I had to remove my front mounted generator and using blocking , and the front jack,, raised the front end 42 inches off the ground to roll the generator out from under the coach with a pallet jack.. Then reverse the procedure to reinstall.. My point is the jacks don't care, they only see the load..(DISCLAIMER my jacks are the three point type and are rated at 16000 pounds each..) By used "jack pads"
you can limit the length of ram exposed when deployed.. I agree ,,the engineers sometimes make you scratch your head in wonder, but every thing is a compromise and space can be limited..>>>Dan

Just checking back to let folks know what HWH had to say.  I  got a fairly quick response via email from HWH Tech Support.  The guy said the noise I heard was likely the coach moving a bit as the jack neared full extension.  That can cause a loss of some fluid past a seal.  He said "You could replace that jack, but in the same situation it would likely happen again" and he suggested just keeping an eye on it in the event the leak re-occurs.  So that's what I will do.  Also, if I intend to raise the front that high with  the right front jack foot there at the concrete curb/pavement interface, I will use some 3/4-inch plywood squares so that particular jack does not approach full extension.

Thanks for all the replies ................