Rear Hydraulic Levelers stuck in extended position

[pdmeehan]

New to forum and new to Class A MH. We have experienced an extremely rough ride During our first trip. I finally got the unit to Catepiller who has a lift. Great to finally get a look at the underside. Found that the rear hydraulic Levelers were extended as far as possible. This is probably the cause for the rough ride. Front Levelers are retracted as expected. I tried to manually retract the Levelers. No success. Any suggestions on things to try?

[Jim]

pdmeehan wrote:
Does anyone know of a source for replacement IDS hydraulic levelers?
I am sure they are expensive!

Any hydraulic shop will be able to service the levelers or be able to find a substitute. But they won't remove them for you. That's speaking of the leveler cylinders. The hydraulic valves are also available as generics that might require some adapting. The control pad might be difficult to find, but again, not impossible. You can check RV salvage yards for that.

My guess is that OEM parts will be more then a new RV. 🙂

[mccsix]

Might start here
http://rvcomponents.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/f/levelingjacks.pl?

[pdmeehan]

Does anyone know of a source for replacement IDS hydraulic levelers?
I am sure they are expensive!

[dougrainer]

I will bet the Design engineers at Beaver decided to have the Hydraulic over Air system with the HYD jacks NOT touching the ground but using those steel plates to level and secure the motorhome. The reason for air leveling is to NOT have jack pads that can sink in soft pads/ground. Usually HYD and Air systems the HYD pads will touch the ground if you elect to not use the Air leveling mode. Doug

[crasster]

Effy wrote:
I can't see how it was drivable with the levelers fully extended. It would have lifted the rear wheels off the ground. I imagine if they were extended somewhat you may have hit a few times. Probably pretty exciting fireworks show for the folks behind you, but if they were down and you did hit them, there's nothing left but to replace them. I have to imagine the rams are bent beyond the ability to retract.

This is what I was thinking. How pretty for memorial day. They were probably extended just enough where when he'd bump they'd scrape. Man, wasn't there a enormous scraping sound? haha...

Nah looks like he figured he meant something different. 🙂

However, huh? That is strange engineering.

[Bruce_Brown]

Add me to the "first time I've ever seen anything like that" list. I'm not even 100% sure I understand how it would work. I'm about 75% there... :B

[pdmeehan]

Doug, looks like an IDS system built for Safari Motor Coach (SMC). Thanks mccsix, Effy and Doug for the advice.

[Effy]

Never saw that before. So I guess it is possible they were all the way down. I bet the ride was rough. On the plus side you'd never be stuck with levelers like that.

[dougrainer]

I thought I had seen everything on Motorhomes. Well, I just have seen something Beaver has done that I have never seen before. Yes, with those type jacks, it is no wonder your ride was horrible. A quick way to get them up a little would be to open up the lines at each rear jack and let the coach push them up enough to clear for safer travel. From the pic it appears the system is either RVA or Powergear or IDS, but I have never seen such a system before. What is the name on the dash area Jack control panel? Doug

[pdmeehan]

My bad! Now the rest of the story. This Beaver coach has levelers that do not touch the ground. The ram extends down from the coach to pads welded to the chassis/frame just inward of the tires. I have included images of front (retracted) and rear (extended).

[dan-nickie]

What??? Subbed.

[Effy]

I can't see how it was drivable with the levelers fully extended. It would have lifted the rear wheels off the ground. I imagine if they were extended somewhat you may have hit a few times. Probably pretty exciting fireworks show for the folks behind you, but if they were down and you did hit them, there's nothing left but to replace them. I have to imagine the rams are bent beyond the ability to retract.

[mccsix]

Call your coach hot line.
Look at the reservoir area for the valve module where the hoses come together. Most times there are 2 or 4 buttons (sometimes rubber coated) that when pushed will release pressure to that cylinder.
Last resort loosen the hyd line to dump pressure.