More Hydraulic Fun - Bedroom Slide Again

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
D

DBarton02

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Posts
58
Location
Chicago, IL
I seem to be having a ball in this forum posting more and more questions - though I am going to post this real quick as it appears I am going to be having another issue. Currently doing a quick one hour from home trip for the kids to visit the grandparents. My 02 Adventurer (35u) was all set up. Ran the jacks down level, the rear bedroom slide, then the living room slide.

Went to break everything down to get it road ready since my in laws talked us into staying with them and the kids for the night. So my wife and I went to get it road ready for tomorrow. I brought the BR Slide in, then the Living Room, and started letting the jacks up. I stopped as I remembered I had a step support under my entry step, so I raised the Passenger jacks up a bit to get it out, then put them all back to store.

As I was doing a final walk around, I noticed the dreaded red fluid in a slow drip under the same spot of my rear bedroom slide. I had that cylinder removed by a mobile tech, rebuilt by a hydraulic company, and re-installed.

Everything is buttoned up and in at this point, and the leak is nowhere near the gush it was before - though I'm hesitant to try anything until I get it home as I fear I am going to blow it out again when I extend it, and won't be able to get it back in.

I've seen cylinder problems posted in the forums before - and am looking for recommendations on any places in or around Chicago (I know I may have to drive a bit) that I could take it to have a new cylinder and lines put in, as my guess something blew out again. I submitted an owners service request through HWH on their website, so I'll see what they come back with tomorrow, but Iowa wouldn't be awful to drive out to.

The joys of ownership... for sure. Suggestions and/or encouraging words are welcome!

Oy.
 
I would not mess with it till I got home so I don’t get stranded away from home. It may be just a loose hose connection and if you can get to it, 15 seconds and you’re done
 
Rene T said:
I would not mess with it till I got home so I don’t get stranded away from home. It may be just a loose hose connection and if you can get to it, 15 seconds and you’re done
Click to expand...
I contacted HWH in IA as well as an HWH Certified outfit in Peoria, which would be the closest to me.

Hoping it's something stupid like a hose fitting, and they can get at it and repair. Would rather they disassemble the bedframe than me do it and break something.

Really don't want to go through that same thing again.
 
I've got a couple contact requests in to some places near me and I'm going to see where that takes it. Given how the supply was last year, there was no way I was going to be able to get a cylinder located in a reasonable amount of time (was 6+ months out quoted from HWH) so I had the unit rebuilt and we re-installed it. Has been working fine until just now, though I'm wondering if it's a hose/connector issue since it's not a full on gush and the room went in with no issue.

Won't mess with it 'till I hear back from them since I can move it around if need be.

With the 'repair guy' that did it last time - being a Newbie, I hired a mobile tech that was close to me, and it turned out to be a semi-retired guy in a pickup truck that liked to work on stuff. He had NO clue what he was doing, so I paid a somewhat premium price at the time, but had no other real alternative since the slide was out, in front my house, and I couldn't move it.

I don't think I'd ever call that guy back, no matter how desperate I am - would rather do it myself (and I am tempted to if I knew it was just the hoses/fittings being the issue) seeing as how I have a plethora of hydraulic repair guys at my disposal to make something new in the field. My fear is it's the cylinder again in which case, when it's out, its stuck where it is till I get a new one in.

If I can get it in, I'm going to bite the bullet if they can get a new cylinder from HWH and just tell them to replace all the lines and everything to that cylinder. If the rebuilt one is still good, I'll keep it as a 'spare'.

I'm at least 'relieved' that I know exactly where the problem lies, so there shouldn't be any crazy diagnosis time, but we'll see where it goes.
 
Rene T said:
Can you see exactly where the oil is coming from?
Click to expand...

I can see the drips flush with the slide - dead center after I retracted the slide. My best guess is it's either leaking from the rod end of the hook up or the cylinder itself. It leaked on retraction, so the cap end would've been 'inactive' (I believe)

It was a slow drip, just a small little puddle on the ground when all was said and done - so I'd like to believe as it was being pulled in, the fluid was spraying out some.
When that seal busted on the cylinder, it effing dumped everywhere, and I couldn't retract anymore. This is a bit different.
 
Made it back from Michigan City with no issue (since everything was already folded up).
I DID notice that both slides had drifted about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the body in transit (which I remember happening the last time I had this issue) and I'll attribute that to the loss in fluid / potential air in the lines not holding everything snug.
LR Slide snugged up with no issue when I held IN down for a few seconds - and surprisingly, so did the BR slide which is the one that has the leak.
Last time this happened, and I went to retract the slide, the whole thing seized up and caused everything to burst out everywhere.

I'm more hopeful at this point that it's a fitting issue and not a cylinder issue, but still will be an MF'er to fix given where that cylinder is.
Still waiting for HWH to get back to me, though I was referred to Charger RV in Elkhart as a possible alternative (and I know Stuart is in Elkhart too).

Having a trip planned for this coming Wednesday for 5 days with the family, we're not going to cancel it, and instead modify how we're set-up inside and just not shoot that back slide out (since we really just sleep in there anyway). Figure I'm a week or two at least out on availability at these places, so I'll worry about it when I have a bigger gap in between trips.
 
Back in the day, Winnebago had problems with slides drifting out which is why our former Horizon came with a strap for the large driver's side slide - the strap went from the bottom front of the slide to the floor. It was a $2 'fix' that was completely impractical. I think we forgot to remove the strap within about two months of owning the coach - pow, out it pulled from the floor. Never put it back.
 
John Canfield said:
Back in the day, Winnebago had problems with slides drifting out which is why our former Horizon came with a strap for the large driver's side slide - the strap went from the bottom front of the slide to the floor. It was a $2 'fix' that was completely impractical. I think we forgot to remove the strap within about two months of owning the coach - pow, out it pulled from the floor. Never put it back.
Click to expand...
I still have the straps for our large slide stored in one of the overhead compartments in the driver area. Never put them on, and really don't have a plan to anytime soon (or every).

Just hesitant to shoot the back slide out at the moment. Should nobody from HWH return my call in the next week, I'll pull my notes and pictures from last year, and pull it all out myself again to inspect. Hopefully it's just a fitting.
If it's the cylinder, I believe I had the place that rebuilt it give me a 1yr warranty on it, so it may get re-done again since HWH doesn't seem to have the need to stock many parts for all the systems they've put into RVs over the years :confused:
 
Ray-IN said:
Much closer to you is Stewarts Services in Elkhart, IN. They are 2nd to the HWH factory in service and spare parts.
Click to expand...

Talked to Stewart's. He recommended going direct to HWH.
Have an appointment next Wednesday to get it fixed.
For now, time for a beer and relaxation sans one slide 😁
 

Attachments

  • 20220713_162044.jpg
    20220713_162044.jpg
    203.8 KB · Views: 5
What should hopefully be the 'final' chapter in this saga...

Drove out to HWH early yesterday morning - techs pulled the cylinder out, found the seal had blown out and the lines bubbled, so they completely rebuilt it with all new HWH parts on site and re-installed. Spent just about the day there, but they had about 3 hours of actual billable work into removing, rebuilding and replacing everything, and I was out of there for less than $700 by 3:30 - and they didn't even take apart the whole bedroom, or need to tip the slide all the way out to get the job done.

(and a bonus was getting to talk to a couple other RV'ers in the service waiting area - swapping goofy and outrageous stories of things breaking, falling apart, or whatever in the middle of travel or at a site. I definitely enjoy the perspective conversations - makes the experience that much more enjoyable overall when you realize we all deal with the same stuff!)

Those people know their stuff, for sure - and I won't hesitate to go back there should issues arise anywhere else on my coach with the hydraulics.

Absolute 5 stars - Stuart's Service made the right call with the referral as well.

Now I'll enjoy the rest of the summer with full functionality and wait for something else to break!
 
Thanks for the update!

We had a similar satisfactory repair experience there many years ago. Those were the days when HWH treated customers to lunch at a nearby restaurant which sadly closed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,623 (members: 31, guests: 1,592)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,977
Posts
1,388,572
Members
137,726
Latest member
CampMike2270
Back
Top Bottom