HWH slide leaking hydraulic fluid; any way to retract?!

[Dejus]

I have a 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP. This morning when bringing in the front slides, the front driver-side one started to come in skewed. So we're stuck!

Long story short, we traced it to what looks like a leaking or blown gasket on the back of the frontmost hydraulic ram. A tech wasn't sure how to fix that, so we're going to call Tiffin tomorrow, and hope they can help.

So, a couple of questions: how feasible is it to fix a hydraulic leak at the back of the ram?

And is there any way to manually retract a HWH slide when the hydraulic system isn't working, so we can drive it to a shop?

If anyone has any experience with this, please let me know!

[dons2346]

Read your owners manual. There should be instructions on how to retract and secure the slide

[36PFT]

Hi, if the ram(hydraulic cylinder)is leaking, it cannot be fixed in place. Some cylinders can be rebuilt, some have to be replaced. Stan

[BRodgers]

On my rig there are levers at the pump that will relieve the pressure allowing the slide to be pushed in. It takes some effort.

[shepardmike]

I had a leaking ram as well. Tiffin advised total replacement. Which I did. Now I am going to find a local shop to replace the seal and have a spare.

[David 70]

If you look at the outside end of the track, is there what appears to be a 3/4-inch wrenc nut? This is a long-threaded rod that you can turn to get the slide in. There will be a thumb screw next to it that you need to take out in order to turn it. You will also need to open the correct valves on the pump manifold in order to let the oil back to the reservoir. My instructions say to turn each screw alternately as you go in and don't force it.

[Dejus]

Originally Posted by BRodgers

On my rig there are levers at the pump that will relieve the pressure allowing the slide to be pushed in. It takes some effort.

A hydraulic tech at Tiffin said that the rams may need to be disconnected from the slides to manually push it in. Do you think it could be done without disconnecting, with the pressure relieved? Since it's leaking, there isn't any pressure in the system anyway.

[Dejus]

Originally Posted by David 70

If you look at the outside end of the track, is there what appears to be a 3/4-inch wrenc nut? This is a long-threaded rod that you can turn to get the slide in. There will be a thumb screw next to it that you need to take out in order to turn it. You will also need to open the correct valves on the pump manifold in order to let the oil back to the reservoir. My instructions say to turn each screw alternately as you go in and don't force it.

We wondered about that, since we know it's a thing on other coaches, but a Tiffin tech said that is just for adjustment, not for manual retraction, unfortunately.

[Dejus]

Thanks to a very helpful tech (Brian Villa of Villa Mobile RV Tech), some advice from a Tiffin tech and people on irv2 and the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners Group on Facebook, and some helpful maintenance staff at our campground, we were able to get the slides in.

We tried various things, but the successful approach was to disconnect and cap off the hydraulic hoses for the affected slide, so we were able to retract the other slide normally, then we disconnected the slide ram from the slide arm, jacked up the slide a bit to let it get over the lip, then used muscle (six guys) to push it in, rocking back and forth to gain some motion. Really satisfying when it got past the initial bit and just rolled in! Then we added 2x4s with bracing above the slide to hold it in.

We will take it to a shop to get the ram replaced; we might just travel for a bit like this until we can get to our preferred shop (one of the NIRVC branches or Tiffin in Red Bay); to be determined.

Thanks everyone who responded. I'll do a blog post with a bunch more details and pictures in due course.

[garykk]

Why would you disconnect and cap off the hoses on the bad side to retract a slide on the opposite slide. Aren’t these slides operated by separate solenoids?

[shepardmike]

What did you use to cap off the hoses? I might want to get some JIC this happens to me.

[Dejus]

Originally Posted by garykk

Why would you disconnect and cap off the hoses on the bad side to retract a slide on the opposite slide. Aren’t these slides operated by separate solenoids?

We first tried to just toggle the solenoids to bypass the bad slide, but the good slide didn't work that way. Tiffin said the solenoids all had to be in their usual state. So we had to cap the bad hoses, otherwise as soon as we added fluid it leaked out.

[Dejus]

Originally Posted by shepardmike

What did you use to cap off the hoses? I might want to get some JIC this happens to me.

Sorry, I don't know the size. The tech got the set of caps.

[azpete]

if its leaking at the back of the ram, i would check the fittings, and hose connections.
there are no moving parts on the back of the ram. just hose connections.