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Old 07-22-2017, 02:35 PM   #41
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Brand: DRV
Model: 38 RSSA
State: Florida
Posts: 43
THOR #2055
Update on Front Ram replacement

Had front rams replaced on July 13. Lippert told me it might take 2 days. Dropped unit off at 7am. I came back at about 2:45 pm and the techs worked till 5:30 pm and finished unit even though they closed at 4pm. Very happy with the work and the extra time spent. Be advised if you have issues it will not get better only worst. On my trip to Goshen mine kept falling had to stop about every 30 miles and raise gear. Talk to Josh Nathan if you have problems he may be able to help. I had issue before my first year was up and had a case number issued. Problem went away and only lately started up with a vengeance. Lippert replaced our gear out of good will. Otherwise I was quoted a $3000.00 price tag.

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Old 08-05-2017, 04:11 PM   #42
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Brand: Heartland
State: Florida
Posts: 3
THOR #8652
Hydraulic lines on MS and ES

Are the lines heavy duty PSI and has anyone of you had any problems with your lines being crimped incorrectly at the factory?

I have had to replace all of the jacks and slides hoses both outgoing and return because the hoses were capable of handling around 3000 LBS. I replaced them with 6000 lbs. Heartland reimbursed me for the cost and labor.

Lippert provided me with extra circuit breakers due to their tripping as well.

I am looking to purchase either a MS or ES and I am very curious about their hydraulic line setup in the underbelly as well as electrical line routing and water supply lines.

Sure would appreciate any info from those who have had eyes on.

Busted up aviator
Heavy into my preflight inspection
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Old 09-20-2017, 07:43 PM   #43
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Brand: DRV
Model: ES 38RSSA
State: Montana
Posts: 137
THOR #5034
Unfortunately we're stranded in Southern UT with the dreaded landing gear failure. We were awaken abruptly @3:AM to a popping noise(s) and that sinking feeling as the nose of our trailer sank to the CG pad. We are waiting for a mobile service outfit to come and rescue us. Lippert has been cooperative so far. Suspecting ram seal failure(s) but we'll see.
Ah, Mamma said there'd be day(s) like this... day(s) like this!
Be well.
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Old 09-20-2017, 09:19 PM   #44
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Brand: DRV
Model: 38RSSA
State: Wisconsin
Posts: 341
THOR #3221
Mtntrek try this.... Get your truck under the trailer, hooked up. You DON"T need to bring in your slides, bring those front legs all the way up then run them down until they just touch the ground, do NOT put weight on them! Run them back up (all the way) and repeat this procedure three times. That will help re-seat those failing seals in the front rams. This worked for us for quite a while, be warned tho..... this will work for a while depending on how bad your seals are. For us we got away with a few weeks before the dreaded drooping started again.

I feel your pain man....... Been there, done that! Good Luck

Dan
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Old 09-21-2017, 12:18 AM   #45
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Model: ES 38RSSA
State: Montana
Posts: 137
THOR #5034
Dan, thanks for the well wishes. Yes it's definitely a feeling of helplessness. Unfortunately, there is no getting the truck under the trailer at this point. The front belly edge is only a couple inches off the ground with the hitch well below the open tailgate height. The trailer will require another form of lifting and cribbing to enable hooking up to a tow vehicle. The mobile service will no doubt have a plan.
The situation you describe happened the other evening in northern UT. We'd gone to dinner only to return to find the nose had sagged a couple inches from level. I tapped "level" and it corrected itself. Now all bets are off, the pump runs and the rear four will actuate in and out but the front rams are inoperative with the DS (curb) perhaps making a slight effort. The sinking of the Titanic (as it appears) is the spectacle of the park. We may have to play the movie sound track for passers. We're starting to get our sea legs under us. What a PIA. Fortunately the current park isn't sold out and we were able to get refunds from our next two ports of call.

Be well
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Old 09-21-2017, 01:04 AM   #46
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Brand: DRV
State: Texas
Posts: 678
THOR #3109
Well, guess my time is still to come--I've only had one front jack or the other drop while parked, still hitched up. Jack just drops to the ground, no pressure. Will retract easily.
Surely your mobile tech will have a plan, but in a previous time with my old Suites, I got in a position in Colter Bay that left my unit too low to hitch with the jacks fully extended. Thankfully, I had a bottle jack and boards that allowed me to raise each side with the bottle jack and place boards under the jack--repeatedly doing this, I got the front high enough to hitch up. If you had access to a couple bottle jacks, you could raise the front somewhat and work the jacks up/down. They might begin to work enough to get hitched.
As I said, can't wait til this happens to us.
Hope it get resolved quickly.
Joe
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Old 09-21-2017, 02:09 AM   #47
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Brand: DRV
Model: 38RSSA
State: Wisconsin
Posts: 341
THOR #3221
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Originally Posted by mtntrek View Post
Dan, thanks for the well wishes. Yes it's definitely a feeling of helplessness. Unfortunately, there is no getting the truck under the trailer at this point. The front belly edge is only a couple inches off the ground with the hitch well below the open tailgate height. The trailer will require another form of lifting and cribbing to enable hooking up to a tow vehicle. The mobile service will no doubt have a plan.
The situation you describe happened the other evening in northern UT. We'd gone to dinner only to return to find the nose had sagged a couple inches from level. I tapped "level" and it corrected itself. Now all bets are off, the pump runs and the rear four will actuate in and out but the front rams are inoperative with the DS (curb) perhaps making a slight effort. The sinking of the Titanic (as it appears) is the spectacle of the park. We may have to play the movie sound track for passers. We're starting to get our sea legs under us. What a PIA. Fortunately the current park isn't sold out and we were able to get refunds from our next two ports of call.

Be well
That's tough, our trailer never got to the point yours is in. Wow, no doubt you're the talk of the park. Hopefully your mobile tech will get to you soon and with good results. We were told "if" our trailer got that bad to get someone to raise it to where we can hook to it and then get to a service shop ASAP. I don't envy you sir...... I'm sorry to hear your trouble, you'll get beyond this, things will get better soon!

Joe, I hope you don't end up going through what Mtntrek is going through or what we went through. It takes the fun right out of RVing.

Dan
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Old 09-22-2017, 02:06 PM   #48
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Brand: DRV
Model: 36RSSB3
State: West Virginia
Posts: 67
THOR #4763
Our off door slide started drifting out at first.. cut a couple pieces of wood to keep it in.. that’s how ours started.. then passengers side jack started dropping. Before it was over, I blocked off door slide and tied up all three Rams on the door side of our DRV. just to tow. By then I’m talking to Greg Weldon at DRV while in TX, not knowing why, while towing, my offdoor slide would drift out about 4” Anyway, I’d hear creaking while staying at Grand Texas RV in New Caney. I kept having to hit auto level, front would drop an 1” or so everyday.. one Sunday morning at about 4:30 am, woke up to 5er dropping to the ground... bottomed out, But was several inches above the pad. I had NO CLUE what to do. I belong to Good Sam ERS, called them at daylight, told them the problem and in about 35 minutes we had one of those trucks come by where the bed will come out and drop down to pull a car onto. They positioned their truck, extended and dropped the bed to where it was under by pin. Then started raising the bed.. we had measured how high it had to come up for me to hitch to the 5er, and we blocked under the two front jacks till we got to the height we needed.. after about 45 minutes I was able to hitch to my truck, remove the blocks and my 5er sit in my truck bed for a little over a month and a half before it was fixed!!! That’s how ours was picked up and it worked well, hope that helped.. LCI Mobile tech, Ron McCoy removed two front rams, welded in bracketing and put new aluminum 14K each rams.. haven’t had an issue since Repair end of April.. hope this helped.... it’s recommended by LCI to replace BOTH front rams when you have this happens.. high pressure seals in front rams are cheap Chinese seals. ..

Jim
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Old 09-25-2017, 04:16 AM   #49
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Brand: DRV
Model: ES 38RSSA
State: Montana
Posts: 137
THOR #5034
Thanks for the chronology and input Jim!
As the saga continues.
Perhaps I’ll note that Lippert has been very cooperative and issued a claim/case number that they assure us that the repairs will be covered. The challenge might be more daunting finding the local expertise to perform the actual repairs with a minimum collateral damage. The only two authorized “Lippert” dealers, in southern Utah are an RV dealership and “Camping World” (enough said). This finds the RV dealer booked solid for 2 weeks. To their credit a tech did swing by the next day as he had a service call in the CG, just to make sure there wasn't something simple to cause the issue. We found another mobile service RV dealer that was able to schedule us for a drive-by the next afternoon.
With all due respect the mobile service company we secured and dispatched had little knowledge of hydraulics retrofit that could / should be performed to correct this systemic problem properly.. After several hrs. of trouble shooting he concluded that perhaps there could be merit to a cylinder inner seal being defective. He found the controller board (ceiling of basement ODS) and interchanged it with another, to no glory. He did multiple line removals / reversals capping and plugging dripping fluid. He was able to get some cylinder movement but not enough to raise the titanic. So, tomorrow they are going to send out a different tech. to confirm the findings and decide on what type of lifting device or equipment might be required to lift the pin-box high enough to do a cylinder(s) replacement. They may also submit the request to Lippert for repair parts to be shipped expedited. The company doesn’t know if they can get any techs to volunteer for weekend overtime or whether Lippert will approve such. So it looks like we’re here for a few more days?

Update: With further conversation with Lippert tech support it’s decided that the closest senior tech is to far away in Oregon to expedite a quality retrofit in the field. We all agree that the best solution might be for us to continue on to our CA destination. Fortunately, there is a qualified Lippert fabrication shop in CA on our route. So, getting our truck under the floundering trailer is the next task at hand.
The great people at RVZZ (Rick, Tyler, Pete) assembled the needed equipment on Sat. morning early. They arrived with a willing crew, a large industrial fork lift with a king pin adapter on it’s forks, cribbing materials, aux. hydraulic jacks and a get-er-done attitude. Thank-you Guys! In short order they had the trailer up, supported and our truck under the DRV. While still cribbed we insured that the jacks would stay retracted while the hydraulics room slides and rear jacks were actuated. Everything held fortunately. Although the landing gear would move at this point it had no actual force to exert. With pry bars they appeared to want to stay up. As a safety precaution we hit the local HW where I found some quick links, stranded steel cable, and cable clamps. After a rough measurement I was able to punch a hole through the expanded foam filler around the cylinder(s) Using the ram foot bolts then routing the cable up into the lower mounting holes in the basement area to another quick link.
The rams held retracted in through the next leg of our trip for the weekend in CA. We found a nice CG with level FHU pull-through where we are able to remain hooked up. Plenty around for us to be able to walk to. We’re about 30mi. from the Lippert fab. shop which we will contact Mon. morning to see when they can begin the retrofit work. We’re under the impression that there will be welding etc. similar to the other cylinder replacement(s) noted here.
More to follow...
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DRV Suites ES-38RSSA #9679
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Old 09-25-2017, 04:39 AM   #50
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Brand: DRV
Model: ES 38RSSA
State: Montana
Posts: 137
THOR #5034
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Originally Posted by dapperdan View Post
That's tough, our trailer never got to the point yours is in. Wow, no doubt you're the talk of the park. Hopefully your mobile tech will get to you soon and with good results. We were told "if" our trailer got that bad to get someone to raise it to where we can hook to it and then get to a service shop ASAP. I don't envy you sir...... I'm sorry to hear your trouble, you'll get beyond this, things will get better soon!

Joe, I hope you don't end up going through what Mtntrek is going through or what we went through. It takes the fun right out of RVing.

Dan
Thanks Dan for the kind thoughts and (prayers).
Frustration aside we do have to inject humor in the situation to keep from crying at times.
Everyday is a blessing and we do thank the Lord for health, safety and safe passage daily.
One thing about it, I've never talked to so many good folks in a camp ground ever, as they passed with puzzled looks and comments. The companionship and well wishes of most campers is extraordinary. With everything else going on in the world, we still feel blessed!
Yes indeed we're moving on.

Be well, John
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EZGo-TXT, Yamaha-G22E, CC Precedent
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