HWH jacks not returning.

[free2wander]

This is kinda late for a reply but hopefully will help someone. On my "99 UF i had the jacks (all four) refuse to retract. Then after going through the manual retract procedure, the drivers font was still down. finally after a $200 road service call from a (really shoddy- no reccomendations there just stay away from them )company called Truck Zone in Lake Charles, LA(for 20 minutes labor), we were on our way. They told me I would have to change out the jack assembly, that it was gone. I took the vehicle in to the Conroe, Tx HWH service dealer, Peach Forest Mobile RV (really great folks) and found out after all that it was a defective sensor located in the ceiling of one of the bays. It seems we had pushed a bicycle handle against it and caused the failure. The part is less than $50 and it took two hours. One for diagnosis and one for the installation. The old sensor was a mercury switch and the new is electronic. Please get a second opinion.

[OldChief7155]

I've replaced springs on all my jacks and they were still slow, likew 20 minutres to come up. I left home on 11/12 and the temp was about 40 degrees. I wiped them down with ATF the day before leaving home. They came up in about 15 seconds!!!

[Greg Lepage]

Originally Posted by davmarmax

If your HWH system uses springs to retract jacks and you haven't replaced them yet, I'd suggest doing that. Springs for my system were not that expensive. I have a 2004 Adventurer and have replaced the springs twice, successfully.

Do you remember who you purchased the springs from? Mine are old but still work. I see a day they will either break or lose all strength. Thanks!

[DAN L]

Originally Posted by Greg Lepage

Do you remember who you purchased the springs from? Mine are old but still work. I see a day they will either break or lose all strength. Thanks!

i got my jack springs from frank @ hwh @ 563.724.3396. check my previous posts for an easy and quick way to replace them.

[bachler]

I have been reading the posts.. Interesting, We Have had HWH jacks on 3 Motorhomes; Sometimes they were a bit slow. When snowmobing have had the pad freeze in the ice, Have had the pad come off, It was A bit of A problem getting it back on. But That kind of thing happens in the world we live in.. My Opion and the supervisor on hydraulic Cylinders. Which we had a lot of on our Equipment was Never Never spray Anything On the ram . Unless it was stored In the Out position. We never had any problems with any cylinders;; Just my experiance.. Life is good.

[CJ7ole]

Originally Posted by bachler

Never Never spray Anything On the ram . Unless it was stored In the Out position.

Had a beautiful Beaver DP on the lot next to us last year. The jack cylinders were covered with rust, don't know how they functioned. I presumed they were stored for long periods in the extended position with no protective coating.

[Greg Lepage]

Originally Posted by DAN L

i got my jack springs from frank @ hwh @ 563.724.3396. check my previous posts for an easy and quick way to replace them.

THANK you for the info. It is good to see you can buy parts from the company. I have been trying to get rafter parts for my Patty O'Room and Dometic can only give me part numbers. I have emailed and surfed so many sites with no luck....Dometic needs to sell parts! Glad to see hwh can supply them. Thanks again for your reply!

[DAN L]

Originally Posted by Greg Lepage

THANK you for the info. It is good to see you can buy parts from the company. I have been trying to get rafter parts for my Patty O'Room and Dometic can only give me part numbers. I have emailed and surfed so many sites with no luck....Dometic needs to sell parts! Glad to see hwh can supply them. Thanks again for your reply!

you're welcome. hwh may put you on a ''call back list'' initially. frank will call you back.

[OldChief7155]

I agree with not spraying anything on the rams (pistons) but I soaked a rag in ATF and rubbed them down, then wiped off access. ATF is the fluid in the system. Wiping down the pistons on the landing gear was good enough for multi million dollar USAF airplanes it's good enough for my M/H.


The best part is it works wonders.

[smlranger]

My RR jack has always been slower to retract than the others (all the other jacks retract quickly...2 minutes or less). New springs earlier this year did not help that jack. I sprayed it with WD40 and it did get better for one or two cycles. Now it retracts about 3/4 of the way then stops. Until today, I could push the jack closed with my hand. Today, I tried a 2" x 4" and could not get it closed. I opened the T handle on that jack's solenoid and it still would not budge.

I will try the ATF tomorrow and call HWH if no luck.

[OldChief7155]

The ATF should make a difference. WD-40 does not lubricate for any time period. It is a water displacement fluid.

[CJ7ole]

Originally Posted by smlranger

My RR jack has always been slower to retract than the others (all the other jacks retract quickly...2 minutes or less). New springs earlier this year did not help that jack. I sprayed it with WD40 and it did get better for one or two cycles. Now it retracts about 3/4 of the way then stops. Until today, I could push the jack closed with my hand. Today, I tried a 2" x 4" and could not get it closed. I opened the T handle on that jack's solenoid and it still would not budge.

I will try the ATF tomorrow and call HWH if no luck.

Currently HWH recommends WD-40, but it has been a moving target with silicone, then ATF.

If your jack is stuck, you probably have a rolled seal and the jack needs to be rebuilt. Exact same thing happened to mine this summer. In the end, I couldn't even get it to go back with a floor jack. I replaced my rear jacks for about 1/3 of what the dealer wanted for new jacks installed. You could wait up to 8 weeks for new jacks, but HWH rebuilds them in about 3, go figure, as you don't get yours back anyway.

Tips on removing your jacks:

• A Packard style waterproof electrical connector for the jack-up sensor easily unplugs
• The hydraulic fitting on top of the cylinder is hard to access, you almost need to loosen it by feel, if I did it again, I would get a 5/8" crowfoot socket. I used a shorty open end wrench and even then it was too long at times. I do have a tiny 6" pipe wrench that helped. Once you break the nut free, it easily loosens by hand.
• You need a 9/16" socket to remove the 8 nuts holding each jack. Have a jack ready to support the weight of the cylinder at the proper height to access the fitting on the hose.
• When you replace the jack, make sure the inaccessible carriage bolts are in position before you insert the cylinder and hook up the hose.
• Don't worry about the fluid running out of the hose, you will only get a few drops.

[Bob and Vicki]

We have a 2006 Meridian. Two of our jacks were retracting very slowly and ususally needed help. Today I tried WD-40 and sprayed all around the seal of each jack washing a lot of dirt away. Pushed the button to retract and va, va, voom they went up faster than when they were new. Thanks for posting this quick fix.

[smlranger]

I took a look at some of the technical manuals online at HWH last evening. This afternoon I disconnected the hydraulic line from the RR jack at the manifold and some fluid squirted out the hose as the jack quickly closed. According to HWH's manual/s, that would indicate the jack is fine and the problem is either the velocity valve or the solenoid. I think it is the solenoid since opening the T valve would not allow the jack to raise.

Let a message with HWH tech support to call me and confirm my diagnosis and order reman solenoid and/or velocity valve.

[pkmesser]

Originally Posted by smlranger

I took a look at some of the technical manuals online at HWH last evening. This afternoon I disconnected the hydraulic line from the RR jack at the manifold and some fluid squirted out the hose as the jack quickly closed. According to HWH's manual/s, that would indicate the jack is fine and the problem is either the velocity valve or the solenoid. I think it is the solenoid since opening the T valve would not allow the jack to raise.

Let a message with HWH tech support to call me and confirm my diagnosis and order reman solenoid and/or velocity valve.

Last year my solenoid failed, OPENING THE T VALVE DID ALLOW THE JACK TO RETRACT. (essentially the T valve bypasses the solenoid) I was told to do this by HWH support. I then replaced the solenoid, and all was well. I do not know if the velocity valve is bad if opening the T valve would allow retraction.

PKM

[CJ7ole]

Originally Posted by CJ7ole

If your jack is stuck, you probably have a rolled seal and the jack needs to be rebuilt. Exact same thing happened to mine this summer. In the end, I couldn't even get it to go back with a floor jack.

As a follow up, I had disconnected the hose at the manifold and the jack would still not go up, verifying a bad cylinder.

SMLRanger, you did good. Now to find a solenoid in a timely manner...

As a related matter, all of my tee valves were almost frozen, it would be a good idea to exercise them yearly and lube the stem.

[smlranger]

OK, update with what I have learned.

Talked to Frank at HWH. He was not convinced I had a solenoid problem since the jack would partially retract. He said when a solenoid fails, it usually will not allow the jack to retract at all.

So....he had me remove the velocity valve, remove the guts and try again. I did and the jack still only retracts about 3/4 of the way then stops. However, I could push it closed with my hand. So Frank decides I need new springs....wrong!! I tell him I replaced all the springs this year and have the new tapered springs. We then decide I have a bad jack. I have one on order ($354 minus $110 core refund if I send the old jack back) but they are 8 weeks out on most parts.

Not done yet....I tell Frank that I've noticed that on this jack only, one of the springs seems stronger than the other. My jack foot is always cocked sideways since one of the new springs seems tighter than the other. He tells me to count the coils (should be 55 on this spring). There are 55 on both springs so I'm thinking one is just weaker. So, we decide to leave the new jack on order and I am to swap a spring from the other rear jack to see if that is the problem (if so, he will cancel the jack order and send me a new spring).

Still not done. I decide to try the WD-40 thing previously recommended in this thread (I already tried wiping with ATF and that did not help). I sprayed the ram well with WD-40 paying attention to the area where the ram enters the cylinder. The dang jack retracts fully . It is still the last jack to fully retract but stores within 3 - 4 minutes.

At this point I am sold on the idea that I have one weak spring and that a periodic treatment with WD-40 will resolve the problem...at least for now. Will cancel the jack order tomorrow and get Frank to send me a new spring.

I will say the call backs from HWH were very timely. I never waited more than an hour for a call back.

[Bob and Vicki]

The WD-40 was like a magic fix. I wonder if using some compressed air along with the WD-40 would help or be over kill.

[Jackm]

We had chronic problems with our jacks (not retracting) until we replaced all the solenoid valves with the newer version (HWH part no. RAP90729) that has the screen sleeve on the piston. Apparently, the original valves were prone to contamination. As for the screens, I'll put new ones on when the old ones break or no longer function.

Jack