Maintaining the lift system guide rod.

An important and easily overlooked item of the Hi-Lo lift system is the guide rod. If not properly maintained you could have a problem someday. The guide rod is mounted near and parallel to the hydraulic cylinder that lifts the upper half of the trailer. If if starts to bind it can get bent and cause the lift system to stick and at worst can result in a bent hydraulic cylinder. You should check it periodically to make sure it is clean and greased. If you find it to be looking on the cruddy side, which it probably will be, clean it with a rag and something that will cut grease buildup, such as, kerosene. Then give it a good coating of all purpose grease. This is a simple operation that could save you allot of aggravation and expense.

Thats a great tip RichR, I had read something about keeping the guide rod lubricated but it didn't tell me where it was. I'll check mine this weekend.

Does it matter what kind of grease?

I presently don't have a manual since my 1705T is already at my dealer in transition to a new 2310H. I believe it is covered in there somewhere. I don't think the type of grease is critical. The main thing is keeping the rod cleaned and lubed. It should be done at least on an annual basis. I made a trip to the Hi-Lo factory several years ago, as a favor to my dealer, to get a new hydraulic cylinder to replace one that was on a non-maintained Hi-Lo. It was not cheap.

RichR,

I took your advise and crawled under our Hi-Lo this afternoon and took a look at the "Guide Rod".. OMG, it was totally rusted! I stared at it and thanked the Hi-Lo gods that it had not already bent.

I got some sandpaper (and my trusty camera) and sanded the rust off of it and then I coated it lightly in grease. I forgot the camera on my final trip underneath to apply the grease so I only have the first two pictures to share, the rusted one and the sanded one.

Thanks again for the heads up RichR

Neal

I will have to check this, thanks fo rthe tip. I just picked my trailer up from a dealer/ repair shop. My trailer would not go up all the way after getting stuck and dragging the bottom on a hill. I heard a loud pop when trying to put the trailer up after the accident.
Not knowing much about the system, I trusted the dealer to do things right.
They replaced a pulley, and he said it works fine. I did notice that he probably did nothing else to maintainance the system because he stated he raised it 7 times to make sure it works, but the guide rails on the sides of the trailer were dry, so he did not take the time to grease them at all. I doubt if he even checked to see if my guide was bent.
Wow, thanks.

I don't know that the guides on the sides should be greased. That would be messy.

If the top won't go all the way, the first thing I'd look at is cable adjustment.

A related item is the pulleys that the lift cables turn on, under the trailer. The shaft that each pulley turns on can use some lube periodically, maybe once a year. Tom (HiLo factory) recommended using spray lithium grease, aim it at the shaft in the middle of each pulley. The spray initially penetrates, then the lube sticks around longer than a lighter spray lube. He also said to spray the end of each cable, where it comes out under the bottom edge of the top half of the trailer. These ends are exposed to salt etc when driving.

I also spray the guide rails on the sides of the trailer with a light silicone spray. It doesn't last too long, but it's easy to reapply, and not messy. Not sure it's really needed, but if it's easy to do and won't hurt anything... why not. It does seem to smooth things out a bit when raising and lowering the top.

We grease the guide rod once a year and use white lithium grease which was what Hi-Lo used on the DVD we received with our Hi-Lo. For the pulley underneath they said to use something like WD-40.