Hydraulic slide plumbing

[Marty and Suzie Schenck]

2002 Patriot Thunder. The living room slide has sprung a leak in one of the hoses. The hoses are falling apart so I am going to replace them rather than put a splice in the line at the leak. My question is: how do you bleed the air out of the lines? Each line is a pressure and a return line depending on which way the flow is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Marty

[Jim Shaw]

You should be able to get rid of the air by running the slide in and out several times after replacing the hoses. Be sure to have the fluid full.
Jim Shaw

[Marty and Suzie Schenck]

Thank you for the reply, Marty

[Les Marzec]

Marty

How hard was this to replace.  Does anyone else have any thoughts.  I am at BCS in Bend and they quoted me almost $1200 to replace them.  They said that you have to remove the water tanks to get the new hoses in.  They leave the old ones in place.

Appreciate any help from anybody that has had the problem.

Thanks

[Marty and Suzie Schenck]

I replaced them myself with 5000psi hose. I ran the new hose on the outside of the frame. I drilled 2 holes through the wall outside of the frame just in front of the water bay control panel. I routed the lines behind that panel and drilled 2 more holes to exit on the opposite end. I then routed the lines up and over the wheel well and against the frame. From there I went up and over the Allison to the pump next to the engine. I sealed the holes with a rubber sealant. The lines were kept as close as possible to the frame and secured to keep them from rubbing on anything. That was over two years ago and I have had no problems. You would have to know where to look to see what had been done. It cost about $260.00 for the lines and about six hours work. I left the old lines in and just sealed the ends. Marty

[Les Marzec]

Marty

Thanks for the info.  Doesn't sound too difficult.

Does anyone know where the pump and reservoir are for the front hydraulic slide.  The only one I can find is at the back of the coach on Pass side.
Thanks

[Les Marzec]

I found it.  It is back by the main reservoir on pass side in rear compartment

[Joel Weiss]

Marty

How hard was this to replace.  Does anyone else have any thoughts.  I am at BCS in Bend and they quoted me almost $1200 to replace them.  They said that you have to remove the water tanks to get the new hoses in.  They leave the old ones in place.

I had this same problem in my 2000 Patriot Thunder a few months ago and posted on it.  It cost me ~$1000 to have the hoses replaced.  We also left the old ones in place and flushed them clean.  We were able to run the new hoses through the "box" that contains the gray and black tanks without removing them.  We used 6000 psi hose.

You are correct that the reservoir in the rear is the one involved; it is also the reservoir for the leveling jacks.  As for bleeding the air, as far as I can tell the slide hydraulics are not self-purging so we still have a little air in the line.  It doesn't really affect the operation so I'm not too troubled by it.  I gather it is necessary to manually bleed the system at the piston to fully purge the line; I'll get to it eventually.

I hope you didn't get too much hydraulic fluid in your storage compartments from the leak; we lost a few things and I'm probably going to have to replace the carpeting eventually.