Slide Maintenance

Gene takes care of most of the maintenance on the Montana. He gives this bit of advice.

Primary tool for this task was a straw

My unit is two and a half years old. The slide out rooms on my unit operate on a hydraulic system. The slides had begun to react a little sluggishly. It dawned on me perhaps the fluid level was low. Sure enough, it was.

I read the Keystone manual and glanced at the Lippart owner’s manual. It said to buy type A Automatic Transmission Fluid ATF and fill the reservoir to within 1 inch of the top. I took the unit to a dealer to have the bearings repacked. While that was being done, I bought the fluid and filled the tank to within 1 inch while the slides were in.

Back at the campground after set up, I found the partial bottle of transmission fluid, and checked the level in the tank. It was down a little. What the heck, I put in more fluid.

At 3.30 AM the next morning my eyes flew open. I bet I overfilled the tank with ATF fluid! Bet the fluid was out in the lines somewhere since the slides were now extended. I read in more detail the Lippart manual. I called Keystone later (during normal business hours) and confirmed my fears. I was advised nothing would break, but I'd have a mess if the tank overflowed when I brought the slides in. To avoid the mess, I decided to remove some of the fluid from the reservoir.

Putting the fluid in was a whole lot easier than taking it out. The reservoir is located in the battery storage compartment under the front end cap. There is only about 6 inches of space to work in and the opening on the tank is small. Judi suggested a turkey baster might work to suck out the fluid. I didn’t have one. What I had was a plastic drinking straw. That worked, but it took just about forever. Any type of siphon that is small enough for the space would work, but be sure it is clean. You don’t want to contaminate the fluid.

By the way, the fluid I bought didn't say “Type A” anywhere. In fact, no ATF at Wal-Mart had that designation. It did say for multi vehicle use. Keystone advised that Type A was an old standard, and what I bought was fine.

And the Lippart manual clearly says to check the fluid level only when the slides are retracted.