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HWH Slide Hydraulic Line Replacement
Hello all - Here is a 'report' of sorts concerning some leaking hydraulic lines on our 2004 Vectra. This is the abbreviated version (!) so I'd be happy to answer any questions not covered.
After noticing some oil leakage on the ground under the driver’s side slide, I found that the hydraulic lines for the passenger-side slide were leaking.
As it turns out, the two synchronizing cylinders for the opposing slides in the front of the rig (both driver’s and passenger’s) are located under the driver’s side slide. The lines running across to the passenger side slide were leaking where they connect to the synchronizing cylinder itself, which is located under the driver’s side slide.
Once I looked on the other side (passenger side slide), I found that there were 2 more leaking connections under the passenger side slide (accessed from the bay beneath) at the point where the hydraulic lines from the synchronizing cylinder connect to the hydraulic rams that move the slide.
All of the leaks were at the connecting points where the female screw-on connectors had been swedged on to the lines themselves. I called HWH after reading about a previous recall, but was told that since ours was a 2004, the recall did not apply because the problem was ‘fixed’ with the 2004 model year. Several of the leaks had enormous bubbles where the tubing looked about to burst at any minute (see photos).
After reviewing all of the diagrams online, I called HWH and ordered replacement lines for the passenger-side slide (which corresponds to the forward synchronizing cylinder on the driver’s side). Naturally, only one end of each of the 4 lines was leaking; it would have been nice and both ends of a single line leaked so I’d only have to replace 2 lines instead of 4 – but such was not the case. I ordered the 4 lines and they were received pretty quickly.
Replacing the lines was relatively straight-forward; I had to cut a bunch of zip ties to un-bundle the existing lines and then disconnect where they screwed in. I was able to route the replacement lines along pretty much the same path as the stock lines, and then zip-tied the new ones in place. The lines are long (218”) and the job is very dirty crawling around under the rig, but not super-difficult. The hardest part was understanding where the lines actually ran from one side (synchronizing cylinder) to the other (rams).
To bleed air out of the system, I ran the jacks up and down 3-4 times, and then had to add a little bit of hydraulic fluid to replace that which was in the 1/8” diameter lines that were replaced.
I’d be happy to answer any questions that anyone has. The hardest part for me was wrapping my head around how the lines were run. Replacing was not that difficult once I understood how the lines ran. The diagrams posted online at Winnebago made sense only after I poked around and investigated thoroughly. In short: The forward synchronizing cylinder has lines from the forward end of the synch cylinder that run across the front towards the front edge of the passenger-side slide. The rear of the same synchronizing cylinder has lines that run across under the rear edge of the driver’s side slide to connect to junctions found in the bay underneath for the rear of the passenger-side slide. The lines are long but stiff enough that routing them wasn’t a problem.
Once re-connected, all is well and all slides and jack work without a problem. Happy to have this one behind me, but even happier that the large bubbles didn’t burst while we were on the road travelling somewhere. Photos are of one end of a leaking line, the 'bubble' line end, and finally the forward synchronizing cylinder after replacement of the leaking lines.
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John S
2008 Journey 39Z Cummins 350 ISB 6.7L
2006 Honda CR-V LX Tow
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