Leaking in Lippert 6 Point Leveling System

[mdmarmd]

I am having a hydraulic fluid leak in my Lippert 6 Point Leveling Sytem and need some advice. Called Paul Everts RV in Fresno, CA and was told they don't answer technical service questions by phone...you have to bring the RV in. I'm 600 miles away!

I have a Montana Montana 3720RL that I bought last August 2017. This Summer I notice that there seemed to be a fine layer of oily residue covering the front foot pads, and the aluminum Jacks, both the cylinders and piston rods. On the left front side there was also a small dark patch of dirt where fluid was dripping onto the ground.

I also began to notice that the front of the RV would slowly drift down. It was enough that if I did the automatic leveling routine it would have to correct the level every 3-4 days.

I wiped everything I could related to the hydraulic connections to see if I could see where fluid was leaking. I could not find any clear source of fluid on the right front jack. On the left front jack there seemed to be a bit of fluid around the coupling from the rear orange hydraulic line and around the electronic valve as it connects to the front of the top of the cylinder.

There is an area on the inside of the trailer bulkhead in front of the left front cylinder that looks like it got sprayed with fluid and then became discolored with dirt. The top of this patch seemed too high to come from the fittings around the top of the cylinder. But there are three hydraulic connections that are above this area. They are the connections to the “Hydraulic Room Control” panel that is situated below the Lippert Electronic Leveling Panel. These lines are connected to two rotary valves labeled DS and ODS. These connections definitely seemed to have fluid on their surfaces. The fluid running down the inside of this bulkhead seemed to be the likely source of the fluid that was staining the dirt as it dripped off the moulding.

I cleaned everything up and wrapped a pad of paper towel tightly around the three Room Control fittings.

I was gone for about two and a half weeks and returned to find the pistons on the front had lost almost 2 inches in height.

There was no sign of fluid on the right jack. There was a fine film of fluid over the rear side of the left cylinder. Notably, the paper towel around the Room Control fittings was stained pink and fairly saturated with fluid.

So there seems to be a clear source of leakage from the Room Control fittings. I tried to tighten the fittings but they seem as tight as they can be. I have now wrapped each fitting individually, separated with foil so that I can determine which fitting is leaking. I still don’t know where the film of fluid on the left cylinder is coming from.

I would appreciate any advice on how to proceed further at this point. Besides where the leaks are, I have some additional questions:

Why, initially did there seem to be a fine film of oil over the entire cylinder, piston and footpad on BOTH front jacks, when now there seems to be no sign of leakage on the right jack? Why does the leakage seem to cover the entire surface of the cylinder instead of just a downward track that one would expect a drip of fluid might take? Is this dispersal pattern a characteristic of transmission fluid?

Is the fluid for the Control Room (presumably the slide outs) in continuity with the jacks, so that fluid loss in that system will also draw down the fluid in the jacks?