Isolating Hydraulic Leak Tips

[Zeb Severson]

I have a little hydraulic leak coming from in between the frame rails in my storage bay. Does anyone have any tips how I can nail down what hose is leaking and needs to be replaced. I'm not beyond dropping the water tank to find and replace the line, but I'd feel better knowing what line is the issue before hand. I suspect it's the slide, it has walked out 0.75-1" after closing. Short of being the bay watching for the leak and opening and closing the slide repeatedly, does anyone have some wisdom to share?

[Carl Boger]

Zeb,

I really don't have any easy ways for you the verify which line is leaking.  You can disconnect the lines and see which one holds pressure with a gauge screwed it.  Probably best just to visually see the leak maybe with a mirror or camara.

However if you are planning to replace it anyway it may be easier to just replace both lines with new ones running them however they will most easily fit, and then just abandon the old lines. The old lines  may be secured in several places and hard to remove.  Plug the ends on the old ones and hopefully the leak will go away.

Hope this helps some, others may have better ideas.

[David Ciotti]

The leak could be coming from the leveling system.  On my 2002 marquis all 4 hydraulic leveling jacks started leaking within about 12 months of each other after 20+ years of not leaking.

[Eric Maclean Co-Admin]

David
The power steering hoses run up the passenger side frame rail along with leveling jack hose and even slide hoses.
It would be best to get a look at what is actually leaking before tearing into it.
Dropping the tank isn't all that bad once you get the cargo bays emptied.

Eric

[Steve Huber]

Zeb,
If the slide moved on it's own, the leak is almost certain to be a slide hydraulic hose. I'm pretty sure the 06 is similar to the 07 models where the slide is held in position by hydraulic pressure both in the closed and open positions. Based on their age, your hoses may be reaching end of life. I had to replace my slide hoses on my 07 in 2023 as all were starting to "sweat" and one of my salon slides decided to extend about 8" while we were driving. So check all the slide hoses while you are at it. On my 07 the shop was able to use a coupler to connect a new hose to the old one and pull it through and into position.
Steve

[Zeb Severson]

I replaced both hydraulic lines supplying the slide, rerouting the lines nearly the same way as original. Both lines needed to be replaced as they had been cut by the frame and were blistering. Fortunately this gave me a great opportunity to inspect to a degree all of the other hoses and lines in between the frame rails. I found the fuel hose from the first fuel filter to the lift pump was degraded and replaced at the same time.