Lippert LCI Electric auto-level system gremlins

[Macman83]

Well, I hope that this helps someone else.

I have recently purchased a 2013 Voltage 3905 with the 6 point electric auto-leveling system from LCI. After reading all the forums, I did a 3 hour PDI with the service manager of the dealership before I even hooked up the unit. We ran everything and it all worked well. I have camped in the unit twice now and on the second trip, when the system was running in Autolevel, the R/H center stabilizer jack moved out about 3/4 inch and then tripped an ERROR R/H Stab code, and the system stopped. It then tells you to manually retract the jacks and try again. Well, in manual mode, neither of the center jacks would retract. I hit the Auto button again with the center jacks hanging and it started again. It got as far as stabilizing all 4 corners, then when it tryed to ground the center stabilizers...yup...ERROR. I just left them hanging with the L/H center jack on the block but not really solid. When we went to hook up and leave, of course the centers would not move, but fortunately, the L/H jack that was sitting on the ground lifted enough when I jacked the front up high, that I got the pins pulled and the leg stowed up and out of the way. The R/H jack never moved again, so we towed it home with both jacks partially extended.

That was the bad news, now the good news. After searching every forum and tech site I could find, there seems to be no way to manually operate the center jacks. They are supposed to auto retract with the rear jack when you push the "RET all rear" selection. Anyway, I checked the connections to the controller, and they seemed to be tight, then I looked at the jacks themselves, and they looked fine, with the exception of the installation of wire nuts to connect the jacks to the harness. Being a mechanic, I have a deep seated hatred of wire nuts. (they corrode and if not installed tightly, provide a weak electrical connection) These are even right in front of the trailer wheels, and we did pull it in the rain on our first trip out. So, I pulled these apart, and sure enough, there was lots of nasty stuff in there.(dirt, and oxidatiion) There was not even any evidence that the manufacturer tried to seal these connections. I cleaned them up and put them together, but still the jacks would not work. The system would not manually retract the jacks. I had read somewhere that you could use a drill battery to operate the jacks in an emergency, so I disconnected the wire nuts again, and ran the motors with my 14.4 volt dewalt battery. (which worked great) After retracting the jacks with the battery, VOILA! the system works perfectly again. I can only assume that since the system could not sense the jacks being either up or down, it just forgot they were there?!?

So, after this long winded post, I hope that someone will benefit out in the field, and be lucky enough to have their cordless drill with them when their jacks have a brain fart. Just retract them with the battery, and try again. It is pretty easy to do, especially if they are connected with wire nuts!

By the way, I am going to install a weather sealed junction box next to the jack, and connect all the wires in there to hopefully prevent the connections from corroding again. Then I am going to rig a jumper wire that will connect to my battery, and the connectors.

I was pretty lucky that it was easy. Oh, and BTW, even though my dealer here in Tulsa has been great, I knew that it had to be something stupid, and I didn't want to bother with taking it to them until I had tried the simple stuff. If this hadn't worked, then it was going to the dealer, as it is still under warranty.

Happy Camping all!

[Macman83]

These are the electric jacks, not the hydraulics. They run individually or in pairs when extending. And it was plugged in, I just think it was a bad connection that interrupted the system, then the computer forgot that the jacks were there.

[720Deere]

It sounds as though your battery was too weak to continue running the pump once a real load hit it. Those jacks work sequencially and the pump works harder as each stage reaches the top. My middle jacks usually won't start to pick up until the rear jacks are all the way up. At that point based on the sound of the pump, you would figure that everything was up and the system was dead heading.

I'm pretty sure I recall the instructions recommending that you either be plugged into shore power or 12v power on your tow vehicle when operating the Level Up system. It does draw a hefty amount of current.

[DR_Buck]

Not that is of any help here, but we recently (November 12) purchased the 2013 Voltage 3200 with the hydraulic auto leveling and have not had any issues as of yet

[Macman83]

Not sure about the polarity. When I touched the leads to the drill battery, both of the jacks moved to retract the first time. Maybe I just got lucky, maybe there is a direction switch in the motor, or some other device, not sure about that.

I also had a friend tell me about waterproof wire nuts that have electrical grease in them. They use them in underground irrigation systems. They would certainly have helped keep the road spray out of the connection.

We don't camp much at ten killer. We like Sequoia state park on Gibson.

[Redwing1]

Thanks for the heads up on the center jacks, I've had to cycle ours a few times but they haven't failed to function to this point.
When you use the battery is it just a question of polarity as to which direction the jacks move?

Thanks again, maybe see you on Tenkiller sometime, thats our usual haunt if we're just out for a weekend.