I think the major solution to poor slide and jack performance at ANY temperature for me was replacing the hydraulic pump 50A breaker with an 80A breaker from Grand Design - call up GD Tech Support 574-825-9679 to get a replacement.
I posted a quick note on how I switched over to 80A in a different post and others have done the same.
The other thing I was concerned about was that for my 2018 Solitude 310GK, I had never changed the hydraulic fluid. 3-5 years is recommended.
Also I live in MN and when we left a couple weeks ago, it was -10F and the jacks and slides did NOT like to work.
So I looked up the Lippert recommendations for BELOW FREEZING hydraulic operation fluids and found that a big chain store had Valvoline(tm) Full Synthetic ATF. The Lippert recommendations are attached - TI-188.
Prep was to have at least 7 qts of ATF fluid on hand (I did not have enough and had to make more trips to get a total of 8 quarts = 7 quarts + 1 spare) though I had read 4 qts was enough (NOT).
AND a transfer pump - in my case I bought one from a big box store that had one hose for suction, one for liquid out. It worked well and fairly fast but about $30. You could also use a squeeze bulb type albeit slower.
AND run the hydraulic slides in.
AND raise ALL the jacks. I put a 9" (or so) block under the front jacks when I unhitched so I could still access the hydraulic tank when the front jacks were fully retracted. BTW at this height, auto-level works fine.
Then I sucked ALL the old ATF fluid out of the tank into a holding tank on the ground - an empty plastic lid in my case. Or milk jugs would be OK. Or a couple plastic cups if you underestimated the amount of fluid

Put a piece of carboard or plastic down. Even if you don't spill it is messy
This worked well to empty the tank BUT the suction hose kept curling up and I could not get all the fluid out. Solution was to tape a stick to the end of the tube inserted into the tank with the tube slightly longer than the stick so the tube was straight and touched the bottom of the hydraulic fluid container. I washed the stick in the old hydraulic fluid to make sure it was clean. I included a picture with the suction setup and the "precision" stick and a some of red ATF that I spilled.
Then refill the tank to the FULL line pouring directly from the quart bottles into the tank. Take the cap and lock ring off all the way so you don't have to fish them out of the tank
This was just short of 7 qts of synthetic ATF fluid for me.
Test autoleveling the trailer and then run the slides out.
I put the old fluid back in the quart bottles and am looking for where to get rid of it - if nothing else a hazardous waste center near home will take it.
Seems to work great and I hope the lower temp performance of the full synthetic ATF helps with the trailer operation.
Another recommendation from Lippert is to add an Anti-stiction fluid to the hydraulic system. I could not find any but I attached the Lippert data sheet TI-191 in case you can find some.
Lippert contact is [email protected] or 574-537-8900. I have not contacted them since the directions were pretty clear.
Good luck and I hope the full synthetic fluid helps on cold weather slide operation. I always run full synthetic motor oil in the diesel truck so am a fan of full synthetic fluids for critical applications.
The last picture is the tank after filling to the FULL line with all the slides and jacks in and then auto-leveling and running the slides out. Doesn't actually use that much fluid!!
I posted a quick note on how I switched over to 80A in a different post and others have done the same.
The other thing I was concerned about was that for my 2018 Solitude 310GK, I had never changed the hydraulic fluid. 3-5 years is recommended.
Also I live in MN and when we left a couple weeks ago, it was -10F and the jacks and slides did NOT like to work.
So I looked up the Lippert recommendations for BELOW FREEZING hydraulic operation fluids and found that a big chain store had Valvoline(tm) Full Synthetic ATF. The Lippert recommendations are attached - TI-188.
Prep was to have at least 7 qts of ATF fluid on hand (I did not have enough and had to make more trips to get a total of 8 quarts = 7 quarts + 1 spare) though I had read 4 qts was enough (NOT).
AND a transfer pump - in my case I bought one from a big box store that had one hose for suction, one for liquid out. It worked well and fairly fast but about $30. You could also use a squeeze bulb type albeit slower.
AND run the hydraulic slides in.
AND raise ALL the jacks. I put a 9" (or so) block under the front jacks when I unhitched so I could still access the hydraulic tank when the front jacks were fully retracted. BTW at this height, auto-level works fine.
Then I sucked ALL the old ATF fluid out of the tank into a holding tank on the ground - an empty plastic lid in my case. Or milk jugs would be OK. Or a couple plastic cups if you underestimated the amount of fluid
Put a piece of carboard or plastic down. Even if you don't spill it is messy
This worked well to empty the tank BUT the suction hose kept curling up and I could not get all the fluid out. Solution was to tape a stick to the end of the tube inserted into the tank with the tube slightly longer than the stick so the tube was straight and touched the bottom of the hydraulic fluid container. I washed the stick in the old hydraulic fluid to make sure it was clean. I included a picture with the suction setup and the "precision" stick and a some of red ATF that I spilled.
Then refill the tank to the FULL line pouring directly from the quart bottles into the tank. Take the cap and lock ring off all the way so you don't have to fish them out of the tank
Test autoleveling the trailer and then run the slides out.
I put the old fluid back in the quart bottles and am looking for where to get rid of it - if nothing else a hazardous waste center near home will take it.
Seems to work great and I hope the lower temp performance of the full synthetic ATF helps with the trailer operation.
Another recommendation from Lippert is to add an Anti-stiction fluid to the hydraulic system. I could not find any but I attached the Lippert data sheet TI-191 in case you can find some.
Lippert contact is [email protected] or 574-537-8900. I have not contacted them since the directions were pretty clear.
Good luck and I hope the full synthetic fluid helps on cold weather slide operation. I always run full synthetic motor oil in the diesel truck so am a fan of full synthetic fluids for critical applications.
The last picture is the tank after filling to the FULL line with all the slides and jacks in and then auto-leveling and running the slides out. Doesn't actually use that much fluid!!
Attachments
Last edited: