Bottom of slide creeping out while travelling

[mjammersc]

The bottom of the ODS main slide (hydraulic) is creeping out ~2" while I drive. It operates smoothly and no noticeable hydraulic leaks. I cycled the on/off valve switches in the level up panel to ensure they are closed well to no avail. I only found one similar issue in searching without any good solutions slated?

Any thoughts/suggestions?

We are going to bring it up to Keystone during our Tech Visit at the MOC rally but if I can resolve it before then, all the better.

[dieselguy]

There are several topics on slide creep from previous years if you do a search for them. You either have a cylinder piston seal leaking or the check valve in the pump isn't seating correctly. Both fixes are expensive if out of warranty. There is a procedure on the Lippert Tech website on how to go about checking your slide cylinders for leaking piston seals. I currently don't know of any readily available seal kits for these cylinders ... they are just replaced.
PS A piston seal is internal, so there will be no outward signs of leakage.

[jcurtis934]

And does it still creep out if you leave the shutoff valves closed when you tow down the road? John

[waynemoore]

I had the same problem with my 2010 bedroom slide. One of your MOCs told me it may be low on oil. Yep that was it. Simple fix so check that first.

[dieselguy]

If the piston seals are bad the shutoff valve won't make any difference as the oil leaks past the seals inside the cylinder barrel. All the shutoff valve does is close off the line going to the extend side of the cylinder.

[mjammersc]

Thanks for the suggestions. The fluid I believe is OK but will check again and put a marker on the tank where the level is currently to watch for leaks. I found the Lippert notice for how to check the seals for leaking - more than I want to dive into at the moment. I also talked to a tech at my dealers service center and he gave me a couple ideas to check as well. Of course the 1 year warranty expired ~2 weeks ago but I do have an extended service contract so if worse comes to worse, back to the shop.

[dieselguy]

Just for grins once you retract your slides ... blip the extend side of the rocker switch very briefly. When you close your slides and continue to lay on the switch after the slides are in ... pressure builds up on the retract side of each cylinder. If you do have a piston seal leak ... that pressure bleeds to the extend side slightly pushing it out till the pressure equalizes. Very momentarily pressing the extend just enough to equalize the pressures may get you by till you find out what your exact problem is.

[mjammersc]

Thanks. I'll try that on the next trip - to the rally ironically.

[twindman]

Are you going to the Rally in Goshen? I had same issue 2 years ago. Took it to Tiara and after 4 hours, they inform me they don't have the very high pressure gauges. Why didn't they say so when I scheduled. Anyway, they called Lippert and got me in the next morning. Lippert didn't even check anything - they said it is usually the pistons on the 2 large slides. They replaced them in about 5 hours under warranty. No problems since. However, I did have a different slide creep out a bit on the way home. My dealer just ran the slides in and out abunch of times and all is well. MAybe since you are only a couple of weeks over warranty, they would fix it.

[Phil P]

Hi

I have been trying to get my hands on one of the bad cylinders for several years now. I am sure I can repair them for a lot less cost than replacing with new.

Phil P

[mjammersc]

Yep, I am going to the rally at Goshen. I plan on discussing it with the Keystone tech rep during my 15 minute tech appt. I will also seek out a rep from Lippert at their talk. I am also only a little over an hour from Lippert so if I need to go there, that is an easy trip. I need it all resolved before a trip to Florida in October as stopping every hour to bring it back in will make for a long trip.

[mainer]

We had that happen to us on one of our trips. Jim would notice it and we would stop and he would go in the camper to retract the slides again. It did happen again, stopped and this time we opened all of the slides and closed them again. Never happened again...

Maybe air was in the lines, not sure, but glad that took care of our problem..

[mjammersc]

Our dealer's service rep said their experience is it is often an air bubble working its way through the system, at least on newer units. He suggested cycling the slides multiple times to see if it works its way through the system. I need to get to our storage facility to do that and check a couple other items but silly work is getting in the way at the moment