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Old 12-18-2022, 10:09 AM   #14
AppliedThinking
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Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 28
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More Lessons Learned, Old BigFoot QEI-21 with the new QEI-16 corners:

I spent several hours squeezed or on my back under the RV yesterday.
The first one is always the hardest they say. I removed the old hydraulic leg. But it was so tight that I had to dismantle the tank and control assy from the hydraulic cylinder first. This lead to having Dex III fluid spilling out of the jacks. Luckily I had rags handy. Still spilled some on the concrete.
I did get it out. In doing so, I found the large 12v positive line was pinched and the conductors exposed to the frame. Very bad installation by Gulfstream. Also there is no 80amp breaker nor master power switch. The 12VDC is wired direct to the battery. SAFETY ISSUE that I will correct.

UPS came later that day with the new corner legs. It all looked good until I saw the size difference of the new tank/control boxes. Yikes!!! they were much larger. I started to panic knowing that the space was already tight with the old tank/control boxes. Gulfstream built the storage containers right up to the box (Bad engineering). The top right cylinder mounting bolt cannot be removed. By working both the heavy new QEI-16 cylinder and by twisting the cylinder to the side and working the tank/control box in between the front suspension mount and the storage box. After I got it all in place, one bolt would not go in, arghhh, I tried using a spike to try and get things lined up. No joy. I was getting ready to drill the 7/16 hole out. Then I realized the new cylinder was lower than the existing jack. Yikes #2! I had to take it all apart and bring up the new cylinder one bolt hole.
Finally got all 4 bolts in place along with the tank/control box. It was getting dark and chilly. time to quit.

Today, I will hook up the hydraulic lines from the tank/control box to the cylinder along with the existing Power and control lines. I need to drill out a cable entry in the new tank/control box with a standard snap in plastic grommet for 1-1/16 hole. That will work. I will bleed out the new hydraulic lines and that will complete one corner.
Time to start the other corner with removal. I hope it goes better!


If I could not remote the new tank/control box in the same location, I would have to relocate it to inside the storage box and use longer hydraulic, control lines and install a separate ground line to the frame.


Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

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