Anybody changed out a pump on the Bigfoot system? (From TapaTalk Forum)

vairman

On my last autolevel, the system went haywire again. The front jacks retracted all the way and the rears went all the way up. As I tried to manually get the 5er releveled, one of the rear levelers would not retract. After talking to Quadra, their diagnosis was a bad pump due to an extreme out of stroke condition. In order to get the wheels on the ground, they suggested to switch the hydraulic lines so that retraction would be accomplished by hitting the extend button on the panel. This did not work since I could not easily stretch the lines to reverse them while the hydraulic fluid was spurting everywhere.

Well now to my question, since I can not move the trailer due to the cylinder being on the ground. The tech has told me how easy the pump is to replace but was wondering if anyone else has replaced the pump assembly. Any trick, issues? Any problem with the fact that the cylinder is partially extended?

Any advise would be appreciated.

Mark

P.S. I guess we will get to the intermittent misleveling issue after the pump is replaced.

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Posted: 10:39 PM – May 24, 2014

JohnD222

I can only guess that it is an easy swap out, but I would load the 5er back onto the truck before I started the swap.

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Posted: 12:08 AM – May 25, 2014

papacliff

Mark,

Sorry I can’t help with the pump replacement, but there’s a thread about intermittent misleveling.

http://www.carriage-lifestyle-owners.co … t1173.html

That might point you in the right direction on that part of your issue.

Cliff

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Posted: 8:31 AM – May 25, 2014

falconhunter

I’m with John on this one. Should be an easy swap out but might get a little messy. I would guess that you will have to bleed the one you are working on after the swap out so you would want to have a place where you can extend the jack fully with no weight on it. Do you have a copy of the bleeding procedure? If not, it is available for download in their website or I can post it for you.
Chip

BLEEDING AIR FROM LINES

UPON COMPLETION OF SYSTEM INSTALLATION, BUT BEFORE PROGRAMMING THE SENSOR, THE AIR MUST BE PURGED OUT OF THE LINES AND CYLINDERS FOR PROPER OPERATION OF THE SYSTEM.
• Raise the vehicle off of the ground far enough to fully extend the cylinders without touching the ground
(Use a hydraulic hoist or drive onto ramps)
• Fully extend each cylinder until you hear the pump motor strain. Achieve full extension without feet
touching the ground.

• Leave all levelers fully extended for 15 minutes.

• Fully retract cylinders and check fluid level, using the manual retractor feature. If necessary, fill reservoir
to measure 3⁄4” from the top.

•Repeat process as necessary.

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Posted: 8:46 AM – May 25, 2014

falconhunter

Also, as a safety precaution you should unhook the negative battery terminal from your batteries so you don’t short anything out while your poking around in there. The bigfoot system is wired directly to the batteries so turning the 12 volt main disconnect switch off will not disconnect the main power to the solenoids.
Chip

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Posted: 12:45 PM – May 31, 2014

vairman

Well, the job is done. The job was messy and nowhere near as easy as the guys at Quadra suggested. More awkward than hard. They have a new design for the frame with different placement of the holes so I had to reroute the hydraulic lines. In addition, it was almost impossible to top off the fluid level after I got the system bled but all and all, I am happy it is done. I am waiting until Monday to try Autolevel so that I can get the guys at Quadra on the phone if need be. Thanks again, Falconhunter for your advice. It really helped.

Mark

B.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX

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