Hydraulic leak - from a cracked line

marcapie

Member
I've been having to add hydraulic fluid into the reservoir for a year so I knew that there was a leak but there was no evidence of where: added a little at first but had to add 0.5+ quart after the 2013-14 winter storage. The slide-outs are performing great. The first of Sept'14 when my Big Horn 3070RL was in the driveway, I finally saw a few drops on the concrete. Confirmation! But it was coming from the underbelly between the bedroom slide-out and kitchen -- not under a slide-out. I remembered a problem that my father had with a water leak in his attic: there was a leak but no near a source (water was running alone a pipe about 25 ft before dropping! LOL). So I was figuring that it was a slide-out issue and the leakage was just showing up somewhere else. Hence, more $$ for slide-out repair. The dealer called me today: it's leaking from a cracked line in the underbelly, nothing to do with a slide-out. But to replace and run a whole new line is difficult, etc. They are going to try to a get hydraulic subcontractor to fix the current line with a splice/repair. I'm calling Heartland customer service tomorrow. Of course, I'm 1.5 years out of warranty.

Any similar problems out there?
 

olcoon

Well-known member
Don't know if the hose & or fittings are unique, but if everything is standard hydraulic lines & fittings, you should be able to get one made locally instead of going through Heartland or an RV dealer. I've had several hydraulic lines go bad on my tractor, and take the bad line off, and take to to an auto parts store, NAPA, or O'Reilly are the ones I've gone to in the past. If it was me, I'd replace the whole line, if it cracked once, it'll probably crack again or burst, then you've wasted your money & time repairing a bad line. We don't have hydraulics on our rig, but I'd think this would be a relatively easy fix, just kind of a hassle taking the old line off & putting the new line in.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Last spring someone coming to a Texas rally blew a tire, damaging a hydraulic line. It was easily repaired by a mobile service tech.
 

pegmikef

Well-known member
Last spring someone coming to a Texas rally blew a tire, damaging a hydraulic line. It was easily repaired by a mobile service tech.

. . . the service tech was actually a hydraulic mechanic who specialized in hydraulic systems repair. I think Paul told me that the lines had to be custom made because of the pressure and fittings (and probably the location we were in).
 
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