Bent Hydraulic shaft for mainslide

[raycyn778]

Originally Posted by VinceU

Just for laughs google "Straighten shafting" there's over 100 sites, more than 1/2 use heat as a energy to cause straightening w/o shaft damage. This is LCI were talking not NASA. These rods will not be cheap to fabricate.

Ray I suggest you try to reach Gary in the support division, he seemed quite knowledgeable about these systems.

Just to close, in my line of work it was routine have 10' long sections of 1 11/16" shafting straightened after a pump failure. For shops that know how its routine to bring large shaft back to .001" of original.

Vince, do you know how to reach Gary? Is he at FR or Lippert? I agree that the bends are not that bad and should be able to be straightened by a hydraulic press. The slides do not weigh that much and move pretty easily if they are adjusted correctly. Just need to know how it happened to prevent it from happening again. My take is that the rod ends were adjusted to short and the rod had more travel in it and since the span was so long, instead of triggering the back pressure cut off, the rod bowed. It really is a design defect. The rod end of the cylinder is not supported, only each end and when fully extended has a span over 6 feet, instead of about 30" if the rod end was supported. I believe that had the rod end been supported, the 30" span would not have been able to bow and the automatic pressure relief would have kicked in.

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by raycyn778

Vince, do you know how to reach Gary? Is he at FR or Lippert? I agree that the bends are not that bad and should be able to be straightened by a hydraulic press. The slides do not weigh that much and move pretty easily if they are adjusted correctly. Just need to know how it happened to prevent it from happening again. My take is that the rod ends were adjusted to short and the rod had more travel in it and since the span was so long, instead of triggering the back pressure cut off, the rod bowed. It really is a design defect. The rod end of the cylinder is not supported, only each end and when fully extended has a span over 6 feet, instead of about 30" if the rod end was supported. I believe that had the rod end been supported, the 30" span would not have been able to bow and the automatic pressure relief would have kicked in.

Twice now this site ate my words (doc blanked out) so I'll be brief, Gary was at extension 6106 with Lippert Serv. Eng. Have no email.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by raycyn778

... The rod end of the cylinder is not supported, only each end and when fully extended has a span over 6 feet, instead of about 30" if the rod end was supported. I believe that had the rod end been supported, the 30" span would not have been able to bow and the automatic pressure relief would have kicked in.

I can understand if the rod end of the cyl was resting on a support as long as it allowed the cylinder to go down a limited amount for slide alignment. The cylinder no doubt has to float up and down due to the vertical movement of the slide.

[wrapperman]

I too almost had that same problem. My adjusting nuts on the cylinder rod were never tightened. My cylinder rods were at that point of slightly bending at the fully extended slide out range. If I had not noticed it the nuts could have vibrated to the outter end of the rod and at some point put too much pressure on the rod causing it to finally bend. I downloaded the pdf file from lippert on their slideout/landing gear adjustment procedures. On my new georgetown 378 Forrest River's QC is not the greatest. Several small issues that could turn into big ones if not addressed soon.

[raycyn778]

Well, just about finished putting it all back together. Local hydraulic repair shop did a great job straightening the rods and I installed them today. All adjusted and ready to roll. The repair shop agrees that it was a design flaw, there should not be a 6' span on a horizontal set up. The Cylinder should have a support at the rod end. Just need to let go of the switch as soon as you hear the strain on the pump. Had all of the seals and packings replaced since they took it apart to straighten the rod. Got out of it for just under $300. Took longer to adjust the jamb nuts and the end nut than it did to hook up the hoses and mount the cylinders! thanks to all who help with comments and advice...

[OldCoot]

Can you not add some kind of a bracket to support the rod end of the cylinder. Wouldn't have to attach the cyl. to the bracket altho if the end does not float/ move, it would probably be advantageous.