Hydraulic headache
So... I took our "new to us" 2008 Keystone Montana 3400RL to get new tires. That went okay. Then I brought it home to do some minor repairs to it. I opened all four sliders, no problem. The sequence seems to be bedroom, kitchen, small living room slider, then the large living room/dining room slider on the curb side. The problem was when I went to close them. The bedroom slider closed no problem. Then when it came time to close the kitchen slider, I heard the pump go to a no load sound and all sliders stopped moving. About that time, my neighbor said something and I went out to see hydraulic fluid leaking from under the trailer. After removing the covering panels under the trailer, I found that a hose was leaking. The hoses look to be in good shape, but this one appeared to have a cut on one side of the hose. I am guessing that the hose got pinched when the slide outs were retracted? I'm guessing that because the cable carriers that attach to the outer slide out wall have broken off from the wall and are allowing the cables to sag when retracted. To fix that particular problem I think I'll reattach them to the wall with some small hinges. The original seemed to just be allowing the plastic piece to flex back and forth which would certainly fail after a while. The piece has broken at this flex point on all four sliders.
Anyway, I had a 1/4" brass barbed connector along with a couple small hose clamps that I used to splice the damaged hose back together. It blew off one end a couple times but I was able to reclamp it both times and at least get the sliders all closed.
From what I've read, most people seem to recommend against running with a spliced hose -- that the clamps (even a proper hydraulic line connector/clamp) can't withstand the pressures associated with the system and should only be used as a field repair to get the unit where the hose can be replaced.
So, I couple questions. Do any of you know of a splice connection that could be used that would be reliable on these hoses? Or does everyone say to just replace the entire hose?
If replacing the hose, do you recommend getting it from Keystone supplier or just removing the old hose and taking it to a tractor/auto parts/hydraulic shop and having them fabricate a replacement.
To replace the hose, I am thinking that I will need to remove all of the covering under the trailer to gain access to the hoses.
Oh, one other question too
I noticed that on the long slider for the living /dining room, when it closes, it closes evenly on the bottom, but that the top is still out about 2.5 inches. When retracting, you see it change its angle going in. From looking at the Lippert manual, it looks like you just adjust that vertical adjustment screw to change the vertical alignment?
Thanks for your help.
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