Isssues with Front Hydraulic Landing gear

Hi all,...

I went to hook up the 5'ver today, and the front left hydraulic (As you are looking at the coach from the front) does not go up or down. It it locked up. Fluid level is where it should be.

Thoughts?

Does the other one move?

Hi Phatkd,

If you have auto-leveling, each landing jack may have its own valve that opens and closes to allow fluid to extend or retract the leg. You may have a problem with the valve on the stuck leg, or perhaps it's not getting power.

You may be able to operate the valve manually with an allen wrench until you can get it repaired. If you're not sure where the valves are, or how to operate it manually, you can probably get help by calling Lippert and having them walk you through the manual operation.

TedS said:

Does the other one move?

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The left side operates fine, And the entire system worked 2 months ago when I put it back in storage.

I don't have the auto levelling system. Just front hydraulic landing gear, and electric rear stabilizers.

What I find odd is that the whole system worked just fine 2 months ago when I brought it home from having warranty work done to it.

Both landing legs worked when you unhitched at home. Is the non-working leg fully retracted or extended as you left it when you unhitched?

TedS said:

Both landing legs worked when you unhitched at home. Is the non-working leg fully retracted or extended as you left it when you unhitched?

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both landing gear legs worked fine when I unhooked at home 2 months ago. And now te leg that doesn't work is extended and will not budge up or down.

It may be time to jack it up, literally. Jack up the front to take the load off the legs and see the unmoving leg works. Thinking it may be in a bind. Use jack supports or some means to support the trailer as there is the possibility of the trailer dropping unsupported. Just to be safe.

TedS said:

It may be time to jack it up, literally. Jack up the front to take the load off the legs and see the unmoving leg works. Thinking it may be in a bind. Use jack supports or some means to support the trailer as there is the possibility of the trailer dropping unsupported. Just to be safe.

Click to expand...

I am able to rotate the leg that is bound when the coach is jacked up, But the leg will not move up or down.

That is different from mine. My trailer legs are square tubes moved by the hydraulic cylinders. The feet on mine do not rotate.

I'm thinking now that a hose to that cylinder is pinched or crimped blocking cylinder flow. Both leg cylinders are plumbed in parallel so the problem is isolated to the non-moving leg. Can you see the hoses to inspect them?

With the recent damage ours took from a drop in the bed of a truck, the front landing gear stopped working. What was interesting (though I'm not sure it would be the same on your unit) is when it was taken apart to fix it at a dealership service department, there were two lines, one for each leg, wired into the 'up/down' switch. It had to be rewired the same way for both legs to work at the same time. You could probably pull the sheath back to see if there is a line that is disconnected to the switch box. I've heard this can happen just from weather alone without any movement so it wouldn't be too baffling they worked just fine when you put it into storage and one isn't working now.
Oh, also check for any rodent chew marks on all the lines that run the legs...not always easy to spot but they may have chewed part of your line not allowing that leg to extend or retract properly.
Hope you track it soon and are able to fix it easy enough.

Problem fixed, but not solved.

I called the dealership first thing this morning. The Service Manager and shop foreman tried to walk me through a couple things they wanted checked. When the usual suspects (low hydro fluid, leaking seals) were not found, the shop foreman sent out a tech to my place which they don't normally do. We ended up jacking up the fifth wheel and attempting to jack up the stuck levelling jack but that wouldn't work. He bled the lines to test for air bubbles, but that wasn't the issue either. We ended up removing the stuck jack off the 5'ver and plugged the hydro lines. Then we raised the coach up with jack stands that he had brought with him and hook it up to my truck. I towed it into the dealership. They had a spare one on hand, and 3 techs and the shop foreman switched out the whole assembly, added more hydro fluid and bled the lines for testing.

I now have a working system again, but they couldn't figure out what happened. They said they would send the faulty unit to Lippert to let them have a look.

5 star service from the dealership!!!

Glad your problem is resolved.

Your right "5 Stars" to the dealership. You don't normally hear of stories like that. I'd write and mail them a "Thank You", maybe they will post it on the wall of the dealership for others to see.