Hydraulic Problems

[Kevin C]

Hi,
We have recently purchased a 1999 CC Intrigue with the 350hp Cummins engine.

The coach has about 84,000 miles on it.

Our problem started within a few days of taking it home.

We lost all the hydraulic fluid for the power steering and cooling fan. Of course all over our towed car and trailer....

What was found was a chafed high pressure hose that goes to the fan motor. It was replaced on the road, with what was available. After getting a new hose made up at Napa, and continuing to drive a 1000 miles or so without problems, we parked the unit for about a month.

Once starting it up again, we now have a bigger leak somewhere above the cooling fan, I haven't been able to see exactly where it is yet.

Has anyone else had similar problems? And any suggestions?


Thanks

Kevin

[pumper9x9]

Kevin you coach is 17 years old and has probably been through several different owners who probably did not keep up on routine or preventive maintenance. You might want to start by looking up any recall notices for that year and model coach and deal with them. I would recommend that you take your coach to the closest Cummins factory service center have them take care of the following.
Replace all hydraulic lines, heating hoses, cooling hoses, belts, fuel lines to engine generator, and heater. Have them pull the radiators apart and give them a good cleaning especially after your leak. Have them replace all fluids, filters, and air drier (recommend synthetic transmission fluid). Note you will probably find that big hose coming out of the bottom of your hydraulic reservoir is leaking too. Have them do all the recommended service based on mileage and time. Do all the same things to your generator. Check the manufacture dates on your tires if they are older than 5-7 yrs replace them, you probably need to replace the shocks too, have the brakes and wheel seals checked along with all lights and marker lights. Once you get done with the truck part of your coach take it to a trusted RV shop and have them go through and do a complete check of your propane supply system and all propane appliances, heater, AC/heat pump. When you've had all the work done make sure you go over every item that they did and see that it was done to your satisfaction. I have found that's it's best just to bite the bullet up front rather than when you're on the road.
Good Luck you've purchased a coach with strong bones that should give you years of use if you take care of all the above and faithfully do your preventive maintenance.

[Smitty77]

Originally Posted by pumper9x9

Kevin you coach is 17 years old and has probably been through several different owners who probably did not keep up on routine or preventive maintenance. You might want to start by looking up any recall notices for that year and model coach and deal with them. I would recommend that you take your coach to the closest Cummins factory service center have them take care of the following.
Replace all hydraulic lines, heating hoses, cooling hoses, belts, fuel lines to engine generator, and heater. Have them pull the radiators apart and give them a good cleaning especially after your leak. Have them replace all fluids, filters, and air drier (recommend synthetic transmission fluid). Note you will probably find that big hose coming out of the bottom of your hydraulic reservoir is leaking too. Have them do all the recommended service based on mileage and time. Do all the same things to your generator. Check the manufacture dates on your tires if they are older than 5-7 yrs replace them, you probably need to replace the shocks too, have the brakes and wheel seals checked along with all lights and marker lights. Once you get done with the truck part of your coach take it to a trusted RV shop and have them go through and do a complete check of your propane supply system and all propane appliances, heater, AC/heat pump. When you've had all the work done make sure you go over every item that they did and see that it was done to your satisfaction. I have found that's it's best just to bite the bullet up front rather than when you're on the road.
Good Luck you've purchased a coach with strong bones that should give you years of use if you take care of all the above and faithfully do your preventive maintenance.

We are for sure not in the same volume of coach ownership of many veterans of this board! We're only on our second coach, both of them were used.

I feel the same way on this, as besides myself crawling over/under/thru as many parts of the coach as I could, with a flashlight and safety glasses. I also then read all available recalls, and all of the maintenance records. (I was lucky, as the 1st owner had the coach fully serviced where he bought it at Holland Motor Homes. He allowed them to print out all of the maintenance and give it to me.)

Before purchase, I had Cummins Cal Pacific do a full chassis inspection, dyno tested the engine and pull fluid samples - all on my dime.

This allowed me to negotiate better, and then also come up with a prioritized list of items I wanted to go thru and get caught up on maintenance. I consider this to be a 'baseline' maintenance point to go forward from.

Over the next 3-4 months, I had all of this taken care of, or did myself. On the chaffing loss of your hydraulic line. I include the inspection of all of my lines in regular crawl under the coach inspections. I've added rubber hose leaving to a few areas, and used zip ties to get a few lines moved away from rubbing points. (A former CC owner lost their Allure, when one ruptured and the fluid hit exhaust pipes which caused a fire. So I took this very seriously. (And not just a CC thing...))

For sure enjoy your coach, and take your time to get to know it and determine what you want to do to establish a 'baseline' maintenance point. My view, if the previous work was not documented via receipts, it did not happen...

Best,
Smitty

[TQ60]

Locate a hose and fittings store as they sell Parker brand or locate a bobcat dealer as their prices are also good and materials good.

They can custom build just about anything if you bring in the bad one.

Take photos before yiu remove so they may have a better hose or suggestions.

Manufacturer may use suitable hose but there may be much better designed for rough duty hose that would hold up better or a different fitting with elbow that could direct hose differently.

Before doing that buy the fittings and hose and do test fit before crimping to be sure .

[waternut]

Also anywhere that the hose touches or rubs I like to cover with a regular hose clamped around it. Heater hose works great for this. Just split the heater hose and put it around the hydraulic hose. Use screw clamps to keep it in place.

[TQ60]

If you are aware of those issues ahead of time mark the location on the old hose with tape.

Wrap tape in hose at each end of the area that needs protection.

While at the place making the hose ask if they have any rejects or cutoffs that would fit.

While doing bobcat work we needed a short length of large hose with an odd fitting and observed a chunk of needed hose with correct fitting in the "oops pile" and since it was too short for practical use the price was free saving us 30 bucks.

There may be a chunk of hose that fits for a song price and if not then buy some heater hose or other such thing and slip it on before connectors crimped on.

Use a dab of rtv to hold hose in place but glue in after install by just sliding it about an inch and applying the rtv then slide it back over the rtv.

[Kevin C]

Thanks to all the replies for my post on the hydraulics.

I have replaced all the hydraulic lines, and changed filters, oil etc...

As well as adding extra protection around any of the hoses that are close to metal edges and such...

And I found the leak, the charge air cooler/hydraulic oil cooler was leaking, this along with very poor condition radiator and air cond condenser,were replaced. $$$$

No problems since.....

[pumper9x9]

Don't forget the fuel lines to the engine, generator, and heater if you have one. Also have a close look at all your cooling/heating hoses.