Front Jack Dropping

[Mick Meilicke]

My 2011 32TKE3 is in for some service and the agency called today saying that the front jacks have been dropping (lowering). They have raised them up but they continue to drop. The only "abnormal" thing I have done while the 5th wheel was at their agency was to extend the door slide out half way and then closed it. Any suggestion as to what the cause of the problem might be and what the fix would be? This is the first time this has happened.

[RickandJanice]

Sounds like air in the system. Try running th slides in and out in the recommended order for two to three cycles and see if that fixes the problem. It is recommended on the 3 slide units to extend in the sequence, bedroom, kitchen, living room. Then retract in exact revers order, retracting the bedroom last. This will drive any air bubbles back into the pump reservoir where it can escape.

[The View 5046]

Good answer Rick. Sounds like air in the system to me. Its very important to put the bedroom slide out completely and pull the bedroom slide in last... I was told never to put the bedroom out unless you push it all the way out...

[missourijan]

It could be a bad seal in the jack. They are under warranty with Lippert for 5 years. We had to have both ours replaced, there are others on this forum that replaced them also. Have them call Lippert, my contact was Von Haning.

[Motor31]

That was the same situation we had about 3 years ago. One of the front jacks developed a slow leak internally. That allowed the nose to drop and one time went all the way down to the ground when we were away for the day. The solution was to replace the bad jack. Lippert does NOT rebuild them since they are cheap chinese hydraulics. In order to replace the front jacks you have to raise the nose of the rig very high and have a means to hold it there.

[BlueSkyRanch]

Most situations are not the same but this issue has been a frequent problem posted in the forum. Some have resolved the issue by bleeding the air out while other have had parts replaced or in my case, part of the system had to be redesigned and a "check valve" was installed as back up. It took Lippert several times to get it fixed but they did it. Sometimes you have to start with one solution and keep working at it until you get it fixed. I considered it to be a safety issue since the landing gear was dropping while driving and when parked. I am pleased with the repair.

[wanderingwingers]

We just left Lippert in Goshen Indiana after having the two front legs replaced. We have had them drop since last October off and on. It sucked because we never could tell if we could leave the campground on time.

We would spend hours sometimes getting them to stay up by extending them up and down a bunch of times, extending slides....etc...
Last march we could not get them to stay up at all. Luckily the engineer that designed the system was in houston at the time we were and lippert sent him to us. First he tried a bypass kit that would equalize the pressure on both sides. That did not work but did slow the rate of decent a little.

He told us to hit the down button real quick after getting them raised. That worked some of the time. He wanted us to get a larger fluid tank as well. Since we were going to Indiana in May he wanted us to come to their repair center and they would replace the tank and do more testing.
So we limped along and lived with it until we made it to Indiana.

We were there last week and he tried several things and replaced the holding tank. He then wanted to replace both front legs. They did it this morning and they stayed up the first time when we picked it up.
Hopefully it is fixed for real this time. From what I can tell we had multiple issues causing the same symptom. We will know for sure when we start moving again.

I would suspect you will need to have the front legs replaced as well.

[USA in a Chevrolet]

We just left Lippert in Goshen Indiana after having the two front legs replaced. We have had them drop since last October off and on. It sucked because we never could tell if we could leave the campground on time.

We would spend hours sometimes getting them to stay up by extending them up and down a bunch of times, extending slides....etc...
Last march we could not get them to stay up at all. Luckily the engineer that designed the system was in houston at the time we were and lippert sent him to us. First he tried a bypass kit that would equalize the pressure on both sides. That did not work but did slow the rate of decent a little.

He told us to hit the down button real quick after getting them raised. That worked some of the time. He wanted us to get a larger fluid tank as well. Since we were going to Indiana in May he wanted us to come to their repair center and they would replace the tank and do more testing.
So we limped along and lived with it until we made it to Indiana.

We were there last week and he tried several things and replaced the holding tank. He then wanted to replace both front legs. They did it this morning and they stayed up the first time when we picked it up.
Hopefully it is fixed for real this time. From what I can tell we had multiple issues causing the same symptom. We will know for sure when we start moving again.

I would suspect you will need to have the front legs replaced as well.

Hi Dave,

We met you & your wife at DRV last week when we were having repairs made to our Select. I'm glad you hopefully got your landing gear fixed!

Ray

[lottabs]

My 2011 32TKE3 is in for some service and the agency called today saying that the front jacks have been dropping (lowering). They have raised them up but they continue to drop. The only "abnormal" thing I have done while the 5th wheel was at their agency was to extend the door slide out half way and then closed it. Any suggestion as to what the cause of the problem might be and what the fix would be? This is the first time this has happened.I had the same problem with the landing gear on my 36 ft Mobile Suite it was the valve on the return side. the return side of the landing gear on mine is the black hose. the valve was replaced no more problems[/quote]

[Mick Meilicke]

The problem with the jacks has been fixed. Lippert has come out with a check value which prevents fluid from moving in the wrong direction. This value has been installed and all appears to be well.