Lippert Jacks, Orange Hoses

[leomosley]

My orange retract hoses are showing the dreaded bubbles. I'm in the process of seeing whether Forest River might help me out with replacements. If not, I will purchase them myself. Removal and replacement of the hoses looks pretty straightforward. I'm wondering though whether the system will self bleed itself, or whether there is a bleeding procedure. I am figuring that I will need several litres of transmission fluid to replace what is lost in the old hoses. Has anyone done this job, or watched? Any tips would be appreciated!

[bubbles]

The system is suppossed to be self bleeding. Contacting Lippert directly is another approach. That is what I did with this issue on my coach. A local RV repair facility took the pictures and Lippert promptly sent a complete set of the orange hoses to them. No expense from my pocket. Good luck.

[sherman12]

If Lippert does not help you out on the hoses, they should especially if you talk about how dangerous it would be if jacks or slides deployed while under way, I would be very cautious about doing the job yourself. There are several threads on this forum about these defective lines and replacing them yourself. The one thing that comes to mind is the high pressure they are under, reportedly 1500psi. When I purchased my 2011 rig I had the dealer replace the orange lines. Lippert would not authorize replacing all, so the dealer cheaped out too. I mistakenly believed them during my pdi that all lines were replace. I found out they weren't on the shake down weekend and immediately went back to the dealership. To their credit to right a wrong the dealer called in a mobile hydraulic line mechanic and had the remaining lines replace with better quality D.O.T certified lines.

[ohiobill]

I would call Forest River first. They replaced mine out of warranty at no cost. This is a known problem caused by defective hoses furnished by the supplier.

[jergeod]

Just to add a little something I have been talking to lippert tech about the pressure switch and he said the pressure is 2170 psi. Be careful.

[Ford Idaho]

Originally Posted by jergeod

Just to add a little something I have been talking to lippert tech about the pressure switch and he said the pressure is 2170 psi. Be careful.

That's kind of high is it not?

170 PSI I can see, but not 2170 PSI.

And yes caution must be taken.

[B47]

Originally Posted by Ford Idaho

That's kind of high is it not?

170 PSI I can see, but not 2170 PSI.

And yes caution must be taken.

I agree - 2170 is way too high for this rig. It must be a typo or mistake on someone's part.

Even 170 PSI is high and caution in the form of goggles etc should be taken.

[Ford Idaho]

Even a train does not require or use that much air pressure.

The compressor on the locomotive charges the main reservoir with air at 125–140 psi (8.6–9.7 bar; 860–970 kPa). The train brakes are released by admitting air to the train pipe through the engineer's brake valve. A fully charged brake pipe is typically 70–90 psi (4.8–6.2 bar; 480–620 kPa) for freight trains and 110 psi (7.6 bar; 760 kPa) for passenger trains. The brakes are applied when the engineer moves the brake handle to the "service" position, which causes a reduction in pressure in the train pipe. In normal braking, the pressure in the train pipe does not reduce to zero. If it does fall to zero, (e.g., because of a broken brake hose) an emergency brake application will be made.[4

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...MF5bYaq_2AwyOw

Semi's run right around 120 PSI even with air suspension.

[bubbles]

Well in the manual it says that if the system pressure falls to approximately 1500psi while driving an alarm will sound warning the driver to pull over and stop due to the levellers possibly coming down. I think what Lippert says about the 2170psi operating pressure being normal is not out of line. That's why some sort of high temp hydraulic fluid (ATF) is needed.

[jergeod]

No mistake guys, Call Lippert if you think I'm feeding wrong info. I have been having a problem with the motor not shutting off and no green light so I'v been talking to tech at Lippert to fix my problem and it takes 2170 psi to trip the pressure switch.

[B47]

Originally Posted by jergeod

No mistake guys, Call Lippert if you think I'm feeding wrong info. I have been having a problem with the motor not shutting off and no green light so I'v been talking to tech at Lippert to fix my problem and it takes 2170 psi to trip the pressure switch.

Well they should know - 2170 psi it is.

[lbrunning]

Here is my opinion on the orange hoses backed by 25 years of working on mobile hydraulics. I see a lot of this kind of failure on all sorts of equipment using dc power units just like the ones that run your jacks and slides. The hoses the factory are using are cheep junk so even if they are free replacement then all you have is free junk and likely to do the same thing. IMO find a shop that knows what they are doing and replace hoses with ones rated SAE 100R2 and if you want the best make sure they are using either gates hose or weatherhead hose.

[leomosley]

I decided to go ahead and replace the orange hoses on my own. As the second owner of my 2011 300s, it seemed unlikely I would get them easily from Forest River or Lippert
I got the hoses from Princess Auto's hydraulic shop (Princess Auto in Canada is similar to Harbor Freight in the USA). I needed 47 feet of hose and 8 fittings. Princess Auto makes the hoses for free when you buy the parts. The cost was $144.00. The hose is 1/4", and the new hose is rated at 6,000 psi (orange hose is 2,750 psi). The fittings are #4 ORFS.
I lowered the jacks, thinking that once I released the pressure they would drop. Replacement took about 5 hours, and was pretty easy. There was no real pressure relief when I loosened the fittings. I used less than a 1/2 litre of ATF to top off the tank. The jacks work great and self bleed.
Job done!

[johnnypal]

I own a 2011 378. After my warranty was long over I noticed the bubble hoses. I contacted FR and they sent me all new hoses with an hour allowance for each hose.

[Ford Idaho]

Originally Posted by leomosley

I decided to go ahead and replace the orange hoses on my own. As the second owner of my 2011 300s, it seemed unlikely I would get them easily from Forest River or Lippert
I got the hoses from Princess Auto's hydraulic shop (Princess Auto in Canada is similar to Harbor Freight in the USA). I needed 47 feet of hose and 8 fittings. Princess Auto makes the hoses for free when you buy the parts. The cost was $144.00. The hose is 1/4", and the new hose is rated at 6,000 psi (orange hose is 2,750 psi). The fittings are #4 ORFS.
I lowered the jacks, thinking that once I released the pressure they would drop. Replacement took about 5 hours, and was pretty easy. There was no real pressure relief when I loosened the fittings. I used less than a 1/2 litre of ATF to top off the tank. The jacks work great and self bleed.
Job done!

Glad to see you got it done and hope it works well for you.

[petey]

Originally Posted by Ford Idaho

Glad to see you got it done and hope it works well for you.

howdy: I just went threw this stuff with forest river and talked to Justin Williams. and had a guy here in Oregon replace all my orange hoses with a total of 1882.00 I know that's high but I needed it done before we left in a week. They would not pay for at least the hoses that were 776.00 because I didn't send hoses back they never told me that or I would have, now aim having problems with steps now I will not call them they have treated me unfair, be careful how you do this stuff with them.my coach was built in march of 2011 and they called it 2012.justin said my coach had the new hoses and I asked him why mine failed no answer, and I sent him pictures of all bad hoses. Pete

[sherman12]

Pete, I don't quite understand, are you going to contact them about the steps, or are you not because you don't feel you were fairly treated with the hydraulic lines?

[petey]

sherman12 howdy: I will not contact forest river on steps they didn't help me on orangs hoses so why should I call them on steps, I call them on orange hoses and they told me to get it fixed and send a bill and I did that. I talked to kevin stration first,and then they switched me over to Justin Williams and he talked to his boss and they said no.so I have a hard time calling them on my steps that are going out. wow what a ordeal. Pete

[sherman12]

petey, thanks for the clarification. I can understand your frustration with FR. I've been dealing with Kevin Stratton since June regarding my steps, went to order them yesterday following his directions and when I got to parts the price was a hundred dollars more plus the need of the door magnet which Stratton never mentioned was a separate part. Guy at parts gave me the name of Stratton's boss and I put a call into him, still waiting for a return call as of this morning.

[Tbonz]

Good luck on a call back,I have been waiting three weeks for one,hasn't happened yet..