Hydraulic fubar on a 2015 Big Horn

[BigGuy82]

I always liked the original Ground Control. I really liked the remote to adjust pin height from the truck. With the LevelUp, I too have found a leg that did not fully retract with the Auto feature.

I have never used the "auto" feature. Why bother? Is there some sort of huge time savings?It's kind of like the new "driverless" cars that keep crashing into things. If the car crashes and the driver is in it, whose to blame? The driver, the manufacturer or "the car"? Here's my opinion - the driver.If you use "auto" to raise your jacks, whose fault is it if one is down and you didn't check it? In my opinion ...

 

[pegmikef]

No kidding, not 30 minutes after I replied here, I auto-retracted my gear, did my walk-around and found 1 jack still about half-way down. We may never learn the root cause for the fella mentioned by Carl but there's no doubt - the walk-around should always be done. I also look up to ensure I have put all antennas down. Forgot that a couple of times over the years but found it on the walk-around.

Jim, You might ask the factory why there is no longer a warning sticker by the level-up controls. My 2014 BH had a nice printed warning close to the control panel that warned that on occasion, that one or more of the jacks may not fully retract when using auto retract, especially in cold weather and to verify that all jacks were fully retracted. If not fully retracted, then use the manual mode to retract the offending jacks.

The only reason I mention it is because I wanted to show one of my fellow Oshkosh owners complained that not all his jacks retracted 100 percent of the time so I tried to show him the label on one of the rigs at the Ron Hoover meet and greet. Apparently the label is no longer being affixed near the control panel (I had not noticed on mine as I already knew of the problem). I would be curious as to why it is no longer being displayed as the problem still exists.

 

[BigGuy82]

Jim, You might ask the factory why there is no longer a warning sticker by the level-up controls. My 2014 BH had a nice printed warning close to the control panel that warned that on occasion, that one or more of the jacks may not fully retract when using auto retract, especially in cold weather and to verify that all jacks were fully retracted. If not fully retracted, then use the manual mode to retract the offending jacks.

The only reason I mention it is because I wanted to show one of my fellow Oshkosh owners complained that not all his jacks retracted 100 percent of the time so I tried to show him the label on one of the rigs at the Ron Hoover meet and greet. Apparently the label is no longer being affixed near the control panel (I had not noticed on mine as I already knew of the problem). I would be curious as to why it is no longer being displayed as the problem still exists.

So, essentially they are selling a product feature that could be potentially dangerous, they know about it and rather than fix it or remove the feature, the solution is to paste a sticker on the door? Brilliant ...

 

[pegmikef]

So, essentially they are selling a product feature that could be potentially dangerous, they know about it and rather than fix it or remove the feature, the solution is to paste a sticker on the door? Brilliant ...

I don't know about that, I do recall in pretty cold weather some of the hydraulics on some of our equipment worked slowly initially and better after operating for a few minutes. I appreciated the warning. In 46,000 miles it happened to me twice, both times it was in the low twenties. Both times it was one of the rear jacks (farthest from the pump/manifold). The walk around was ingrained in me many years ago and is automatic whenever I operate any vehicle or other machinery.

 

[BigGuy82]

I don't know about that, I do recall in pretty cold weather some of the hydraulics on some of our equipment worked slowly initially and better after operating for a few minutes. I appreciated the warning. In 46,000 miles it happened to me twice, both times it was in the low twenties. Both times it was one of the rear jacks (farthest from the pump/manifold). The walk around was ingrained in me many years ago and is automatic whenever I operate any vehicle or other machinery.

I understand about slow hydraulics in cold weather. Cold or not, manual retraction would likely result in no problem. That said, why would anyone offer a feature that could so easily endanger people and/or the rig? Simply disable the automatic feature (in my opinion it isn't all that reliable or accurate anyway). I think when manually retracting the jacks, checking them is pretty obvious to the operator - automatic usage obviously can lead to the assumption the "machine did the job correctly" - a dangerous assumption.

Anyway, just my two cents.

 

[CDN]

Hello, I use manual and pull back jacks up then after hitching up use the front button to raise the front gear. DW checks the back right side when I am getting ready to hitch.

 

[danemayer]

I retract manually. Rear jacks are retracted prior to hitching up. After hitching, I check the lockout on the hitch and retract the front gear enough to do a pull test, then the front jacks are retracted fully. Then I look at all of the jacks to make sure they're fully retracted.

When we're ready to go, I do another walk around and look at the jacks again before getting in the drivers seat. I also double check the lockout on the hitch again on the final walk around. Also the sewer cap and the TV antenna and rooftop dish.

The extra walk around takes less than a minute. It's just too easy to miss something.

I never use the auto retract feature. And I take a lot of care when cycling modes on the control panel to ensure I don't stop in auto retract mode by mistake. Auto retract seems to me to be an operator mistake waiting to happen, so I make a point of avoiding it altogether.

 

[kowAlski631]

We auto retract, but we both also do a walk around before we depart - no matter if it's pouring rain, hot as blazes or snowing. That's our routines and 4 eyes are better than 2. Our experience has shown that sometimes the jacks don't retract fully consistently - and never have. During our walk around, we also do our light and brake check as well as insuring that we leave nothing behind.

If you're not doing a final walk around, you absolutely should in our opinions.

Martha