slide hose leak

[Don Voss]

I am in a campground, and the slide hose on the rear of the drive has a leak.  It is almost inacessable, as the drive is mounted inside of the coach frame above the freshwater tank.  I don't have a tool long enough to reach through the hole the in the frame the drive passes through, to attempt to tighten the fitting, and see if that stops the leak.  Dropping the tank for access might not be too bad, but the tank drain valve under the tank looks like it has to be removed first.  Any one done this before, or have suggestions?  If I dropped the the tank, I would probably replace the hose with a higher pressure one, and run it outside the frame, in order to avoid the mess in the basement.

Don Voss
04 Marquis

[George Harwell]

Don, hate to spoil your weekend, but as you probably know, Beaver did not use the best hose material, and a large number of coaches have had leaks caused by internal failure that leads to a blister on the outer coating and poof, you have red fluid dripping.  I tried to fix one of my lines 3 times, but it always failed, so bought 2 new high pressure lines from a shop in Oklahoma City, and ran them outside the frame rail, as you mentioned. Did not try to remove the old hoses, installed good quality plugs, and tywrapped them out of the way. Hopefully, you still have enough fluid in the reservoir to get the room in, and repair when at home. Good luck!

[Don Voss]

Thanks George.  I thought I might have to replace the hoses.  The problem is the return hose is inside the frame as mentioned.  I wondered if anyone has tried to access that area between the frame beams before.  I have a 2004 Marquis and I noticed a Monteray close to the same year has a livingroom hyd. slide drive mechanism like mine that has the return hose on the back of the drive inside the frame.  I've got a mechanic coming Tuesday with a HWH mechanic to see if they can mount new hoses.  I was looking for a technique to give them for accessing the return hose.  And if they have to how to drop the fresh water tank.  The  fresh water dump valve is directly below the tank and would have to be removed by the looks of things.