2005 Itasca Horizon slide out cylinder access

[marv h]

My Meridian 04,36g , c7 cat had leaking hydraulic fluid at back slide. I could reach the double acting cylinder with my long arms. A hose was leaking so I pulled it out and had it duplicated at a hydraulic hose company. (About 6' long) . 3Later another leak was in same area but was hose back to hydraulic unit. So I found a field Tec that had a sweadging (spelling) tool for the small line to come out and fresh head a new fitting.

[rgvtexan]

Tom

A hint, line up the hyd. shop before you start. Talk with the tech, to R&R the o'rings while you wait. It is a short job. Go to HWH web site and get the part # for the o'rings. Maybe get in touch with AZPETE. 602-549-3638. paul maddox.

Good Luck and wash your hands!

[FIRE UP]

Originally Posted by luckydog1949

The prospect of having to remove the house batteries actually seems to be the most labor intensive part of accessing the ram. I'm not as strong as I used to be. Thank you, FIRE UP for the added advice to cut out some flooring for better access. I may make a cover, with a thumb hole in it, to cover the hole back up, though.


Being fulltimers means that I'll have to remount the electric service panels, cover the hole behind the batteries, and reinstall the batteries while the ram is re-sealed. The joys of RVing...


Thanks to everyone for your input. I have to evaluate myself, now, to decide if I can handle it.


Tom

Tom,
Not exactly sure what you mean by "remount the electric service panels". IF you are referring to the 12VDC and 120VAC circuit breaker/Breaker panels at the foot of the bed, no, you don't have to do anything to those other than, you may have to simply remove the screws that retain the 120VAC panel and just basically, tilt it or, swing it backwards and out of the way as much as possible, to gain *movement" (for your hands and arms, tools etc.) to work. Oh, I almost forgot to mention in both my other answers.

That is, there may be, if your coach is *plumbed* the way ours is, there maybe some *Winterization* plumbing back there too, along with the spiderweb of electrical wiring/circuitry. That's another little addition to the OBSTACLE course that the ram must past through, both while removing it and re-installing it, on its way out past where the house batteries normally reside.

Now, one more thing. All of what I've described, in relation to the removal and re-install of that ram, is dependent upon a CONFIRMATION that, the actual leak, IS THE SEALS FOR THE RAM PISTION!!! What this means is, is it possible for the leak to NOT be the piston 0-rings and maybe it's an actual fitting? Of course it's possible. And, here's what I did to confirm that mine was in fact, the ram seal and not any fittings.

I have an *inspection* camera or, some call it a *bore scope* type thing. That is, it's a kit, originally sold by Costco, that contains a small video screen, a camera that's shaped like a pistol grip, and a lens, that's bendable and is about 3' long. You can bend that lens in any shape you like to place it in any cotorsion you might need to gain access to what you want to video/take pictures of, whatever.

Well, as stated way earlier, the master ram is located INSIDE the support structure/square tube that moves with the slide. And, as stated, the end of that ram is attached to a bracket that's welded inside that tube. You can see that tip of that ram, through a large hole in the bottom side of that square tube, if you kneel down and look up at the bottom of the extended slide. But, you can also insert that inspection camera lens, into that hole to fish it back towards the point where the ram exits and retracts, into the bore of the cylinder.

What I did was this. that square tube on mine was actually dripping hydraulic oil on all my stuff inside that compartment, just below the slide. So, I got a piece of coat hanger or welding rod and, attached a small piece of rag to it that could not come off. I then soaked that rag with carburetor cleaner. Now, I'd run that rag into that hole I talked about and basically *mop* that square tube out, SEVERAL TIMES. Each time, I'd pull out an oil soaked rag. I'd rinse it out, put more carb cleaner and repeat the process.

That lead to a completely clean, interior portion of that square tube. NOW, when I send that camera lens in there, it sees a completely clean environment. I would run that slide back in, and out a few times and then, I'd run that camera lens into that hole and inspect the area which, had fresh oil in and around the area. THEN is when I could actually see that my leak was NOT any of the fittings but, in fact, was emanating from the seal around the piston.

I did that same procedure, three times (cleaned and wiped/mopped) and re-inspected. Each time, it was the seal around the ram. So, I now had it confirmed that, THE RAM HAD TO BE REMOVED, and it was not as simple as tightening a fitting. By the way, as stated earlier too, there are THREE hydraulic fittings in association with that ram. There are the two that are accessible right at the foot of the ram. Then, there's the hard line fitting that's attached to the tip of the ram that is used for pressurizing the ram for retraction of the slide. IF that fitting was the cause of the leak due to it being loose, guess what, the ram STILL NEEDS TO BE AT LEAST REMOVED TO A POINT, you can get wrenches on that fitting.

So, again, me knowing just exactly what's involved, it's just not that big-a-deal to me. But, for someone new to this, yeah, it could be a bit of a headache.
Scott

[luckydog1949]

By "remount the electric service panels", I just meant to securely put them back in place; so, we can lower the bed and sleep on it. Just in case the cylinder does need new seals, and it takes a while.



The winterization plumbing in our coach is at the back of the water heater, which is under the washer/dryer. As a side note, we had one of those valves actually puke out the ball and handle, once, pouring out water under pressure. That could've gotten exciting, real quick! Luckily, we were home, at the time. I replaced both valves.


Thank you, very much, for sharing what all you did to be sure where the leak was coming from. I have an "endoscope" that connects to my phone/laptop. It's a cheapo; and, it has to be taped to a dowel to be able to aim it. But, it's better than nothing.


BTW, I had left a voicemail at Winnebago; but, had given up on a reply, because of the current pandemic situation. A tech, named Chris, called me, yesterday. He said that I shouldn't have to remove the batteries in our coach. I'll give it a try, to see how that works. It seems that batteries have gotten a lot heavier, over the years...



Tom

[FIRE UP]

Hey Tom,
You're welcome on the info. As for your batteries not having to have to be removed, well, that cylinder w/ram, foot and all, is fairly long. I'd be surprised if it could clear everything in that little area and make the upwards turn to be removed from it's mounting area. But, I guess it would be worth a try. Keep me informed will ya? I don't wish this repair/replacement on anyone but, it does happen every once in a while. It probably happens more but, we just don't read about it on here.
Scott

[luckydog1949]

Scott, I'm going to try to do it without removing the batteries; because my health isn't the best, right now. But, of course, if it ends up that I can't complete the job without removing them, out they will come...


I really do appreciate the time you've taken to share your experiences with this. Since we're fulltimers, we were looking at making a trip to either HWH or the Winnebago factory in IA, to get this taken care of in a relatively short time. Now, I feel that I have what I need to take care of it, myself.


Tom

[FIRE UP]

Originally Posted by luckydog1949

Scott, I'm going to try to do it without removing the batteries; because my health isn't the best, right now. But, of course, if it ends up that I can't complete the job without removing them, out they will come...


I really do appreciate the time you've taken to share your experiences with this. Since we're fulltimers, we were looking at making a trip to either HWH or the Winnebago factory in IA, to get this taken care of in a relatively short time. Now, I feel that I have what I need to take care of it, myself.


Tom

Tom,
Roger that Sir. If and when you start to pre-plan for the attack on this project, I'd lift the bed, remove the panel cover over the 12VDC and 120VAC circuitry/wiring and, take a real good look at the flooring section to the extreme right that you basically have to reach under to start and do the wrench work at the foot of that ram. As stated earlier, I did that job the first time by reaching waaaaaaaay under that flooring.

But, the second time, I did cut the flooring out in that area and it really gave me seriously better access to the important part of the work. I think I used a saber saw for most of it but, I might have had to hand cut some due to accessibility to finish cutting by the saber saw.
Scott