Fleetwood air brake/jack leveler issue
I have a 2018 Pace Arrow diesel on a freightliner chassis. Its has an intermittent problem that causes big headaches- intermittently. This is the scenario: Occasionally running down the highway the...
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Ok! I'm not sure anyone cares but I will post this info in case some other poor soul encounters my problem and the ultimate fix.
As i said I went to REV in Oregon. This is a good service center with good staff. They never really identified the problem but unplugged and replugged my harnesses, did a hard reset on the leveler panel and the system worked as it should ..... until we moved about 30 miles to a new campsite. Then, it was the same problem: Powergear would not recognize my parking brake on until I tapped the air horn a couple times. Called back and the service advisor suggested the powergear control boards. Frustrated I said I'm heading 1000 miles home and I will have a local tech check that out.
But the RV gods intervened! (is there such a thing?) On the way home I got a radiator hose leak and took the unit to Freightliner for repair. I mentioned the air brake switch alarm, and during their repair the tech had to hit the horn to open the rear slide to access the radiator hose, This led the frieghtliner tech to run a diagnostic check and eventually found that an 80 pin communication connector located on the bulkhead(right under the air horn!) had not been seated properly and damaged pins were causing misreads. He unplugged, repaired and replugged. All is well! Evidently blasting the air horn either vibrated the connector enough to allow the electrical connection or perhaps sent some electrical charge thru the affected plugs.
What a blessing to use my jacks and slides without having to wake the whole campground up with an air blast. So far so good and it was worth the trip to finally solve this problem.
For folks with a freightliner chassis this connector plug is up under the dash behind the air brake switch. Accessed thru the inside of the coach. Not easy to get to but what is in a motorhome? If you took the time to read this- Thanks and happy motoring!
As i said I went to REV in Oregon. This is a good service center with good staff. They never really identified the problem but unplugged and replugged my harnesses, did a hard reset on the leveler panel and the system worked as it should ..... until we moved about 30 miles to a new campsite. Then, it was the same problem: Powergear would not recognize my parking brake on until I tapped the air horn a couple times. Called back and the service advisor suggested the powergear control boards. Frustrated I said I'm heading 1000 miles home and I will have a local tech check that out.
But the RV gods intervened! (is there such a thing?) On the way home I got a radiator hose leak and took the unit to Freightliner for repair. I mentioned the air brake switch alarm, and during their repair the tech had to hit the horn to open the rear slide to access the radiator hose, This led the frieghtliner tech to run a diagnostic check and eventually found that an 80 pin communication connector located on the bulkhead(right under the air horn!) had not been seated properly and damaged pins were causing misreads. He unplugged, repaired and replugged. All is well! Evidently blasting the air horn either vibrated the connector enough to allow the electrical connection or perhaps sent some electrical charge thru the affected plugs.
What a blessing to use my jacks and slides without having to wake the whole campground up with an air blast. So far so good and it was worth the trip to finally solve this problem.
For folks with a freightliner chassis this connector plug is up under the dash behind the air brake switch. Accessed thru the inside of the coach. Not easy to get to but what is in a motorhome? If you took the time to read this- Thanks and happy motoring!
