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Wheel well interference

et2
Explorer
Explorer
What are they thinking? Our new 2019 Discovery 44h LXE after it sits and the air bags deflate, if the wheels aren't pretty much straight there's gonna be some metal damage. Just noticed this. The wheels had maybe a 10 degree variance from straight. The tires just barely misses the wheel well. Any more and there would have been contact after the body came down on top of the tires.

The motorhome really squats down in the front. I Never had that on our old Expedition. I remember someone in this forum or on another I visit stating their salesman told them about keeping the wheels straight on this model. I really never thought about it .... Until now.

Anyone else experience this on your rigs?
13 REPLIES 13

FIRE_UP
Explorer
Explorer
Tom/Barb wrote:
dougrainer wrote:
Tom/Barb wrote:
We have the HWH system, hit the on button once, run the jacks down until they touch the ground, hit the on button again, the air will dump. hit the off button.
Standard routine with us, because we do not like our coach way up in the air.

Your HWH system does have a manual mode.


Sorry, you reasoning does NOT make sense. You state you do NOT like your coach way up in the air. But, doing your procedure is exactly what you do NOT want to happen. By lowering(extending) the jacks with Air bags FULL, will level the coach 4 inches HIGHER off the ground. Once the RV is level, you do NOT have to hit the Air dump button. The Air bags will deflate due to the jacks causing the ride height arms to move and auto deflate the bags. There IS a reason that HWH Auto/Computerizes systems DUMP the Bags FIRST, then level. Doug

Not true,, you can level the coach at any hight you like. run the jacks down until they touch. dump the air, and lower to any hight you like.
Lot less stress on the HWH system when running unloaded than carrying the coach up and down..


What Doug said is true. You're starting your leveling procedures at or near, 4" higher than you need to, due to your bags are still inflated and holding the coach at a higher altitude. If your "Auto Leveling" is raising the coach too much, then simply adjust it. It's about 5 minutes to adjust it. And you state: "Lot less stress on the HWH system..." Who cares about stress on the HWH hydraulic system? It's designed to take any "stress" you throw at it.

Those hydraulic systems are designed to operate at high pressure. The operate at a given pressure for normal ops then, when jacks are topped out or, a slide is extended to the max, they auto-open a relief valve. It's all normal. It's your coach and you can operated as you see fit. But, Doug's right. Your logic for not dumping prior to the Jacks touching the ground, means you start your leveling operations with a coach height, at least 3.5" - 4" higher than needs to be and, you say you don't like it that high, huh?
Scott
Scott and Karla
SDFD RETIRED
2004 Itasca Horizon, 36GD Slate Blue 330 CAT
2011 GMC Sierra 1500 Ext Cab 4x4 Toad
2008 Caliente Red LVL II GL 1800 Goldwing
KI60ND

Tom_Barb
Explorer
Explorer
dougrainer wrote:
Tom/Barb wrote:
We have the HWH system, hit the on button once, run the jacks down until they touch the ground, hit the on button again, the air will dump. hit the off button.
Standard routine with us, because we do not like our coach way up in the air.

Your HWH system does have a manual mode.


Sorry, you reasoning does NOT make sense. You state you do NOT like your coach way up in the air. But, doing your procedure is exactly what you do NOT want to happen. By lowering(extending) the jacks with Air bags FULL, will level the coach 4 inches HIGHER off the ground. Once the RV is level, you do NOT have to hit the Air dump button. The Air bags will deflate due to the jacks causing the ride height arms to move and auto deflate the bags. There IS a reason that HWH Auto/Computerizes systems DUMP the Bags FIRST, then level. Doug

Not true,, you can level the coach at any hight you like. run the jacks down until they touch. dump the air, and lower to any hight you like.
Lot less stress on the HWH system when running unloaded than carrying the coach up and down..
2000 Newmar mountain aire 4081 DP, ISC/350 Allison 6 speed, Wrangler JL toad.

dougrainer
Nomad
Nomad
Tom/Barb wrote:
We have the HWH system, hit the on button once, run the jacks down until they touch the ground, hit the on button again, the air will dump. hit the off button.
Standard routine with us, because we do not like our coach way up in the air.

Your HWH system does have a manual mode.


Sorry, you reasoning does NOT make sense. You state you do NOT like your coach way up in the air. But, doing your procedure is exactly what you do NOT want to happen. By lowering(extending) the jacks with Air bags FULL, will level the coach 4 inches HIGHER off the ground. Once the RV is level, you do NOT have to hit the Air dump button. The Air bags will deflate due to the jacks causing the ride height arms to move and auto deflate the bags. There IS a reason that HWH Auto/Computerizes systems DUMP the Bags FIRST, then level. Doug

Tom_Barb
Explorer
Explorer
dougrainer wrote:
Tom/Barb wrote:
Another good reason to put the jacks down prior to dumping the air.


1. You NEVER extend jacks with Air in the air bags
2. Doing so, you LOSE 4 inches of lift.
3. Once the jacks hit the ground, your Bags WILL deflate when the ride height arms move from the jacks extension. Doug


Not true, you can shut the system off any time during the auto leveling cycle and not harm anything. we never allow the auto leveling cycle to go all the way up to the top.
2000 Newmar mountain aire 4081 DP, ISC/350 Allison 6 speed, Wrangler JL toad.

Tom_Barb
Explorer
Explorer
We have the HWH system, hit the on button once, run the jacks down until they touch the ground, hit the on button again, the air will dump. hit the off button.
Standard routine with us, because we do not like our coach way up in the air.

Your HWH system does have a manual mode.
2000 Newmar mountain aire 4081 DP, ISC/350 Allison 6 speed, Wrangler JL toad.

cvbdsl
Explorer
Explorer
On my 2008 HR Scepter PDQ 42' the owners manual states to straighten the wheel prior to leveling - I have air leveling only, no jacks.
I've never really thought about it, just naturally have the wheels straight when I finish backing or driving in.

Chris
2008 Holiday Rambler Scepter 42 PDQ
2018 Ford Edge SEL- Ready Brute Elite Tow Bar/Blue Ox Base plate/Patriot Brake System
Retired Canadian Army WO (1971-2000)

Ed_C
Explorer
Explorer
Entegra says: Make sure your wheels are straight before you try to level. If you don't there WILL BE DAMAGE!
Ed/Jeanie & Slade the GSD
2017 Entegra Aspire 42 RBQ/ Sierra Crew

dougrainer
Nomad
Nomad
Tom/Barb wrote:
Another good reason to put the jacks down prior to dumping the air.


1. You NEVER extend jacks with Air in the air bags
2. Doing so, you LOSE 4 inches of lift.
3. Once the jacks hit the ground, your Bags WILL deflate when the ride height arms move from the jacks extension. Doug

et2
Explorer
Explorer
We keep our rig in a storage yard. Yes, the air leaks out. The air dump feature as mentioned is automatic, not controllable on ours. And it does dump when the jacks are used and re-inflate when retracted.

The jacks aren't used when parked in storage for various reasons. One, the storage yard prohibits it. There's no guarantee if used it'll solve the issue either especially if already level.

Wheel positioning is now a must priority when parking and to be added to the checklist.

FIRE_UP
Explorer
Explorer
Tom/Barb wrote:
Another good reason to put the jacks down prior to dumping the air.


There are some coaches/chassis/makes and models that AUTO DUMP prior to allowing the Jacks to be used. Ours being one of them. It's an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT. When I hit the Auto-level button, the HWH control center takes over and dumps the air for me. Then, after about 20+ seconds of dumping, the jacks will begin to deploy, normally two side ones first, then two end ones, then the final one for stabilization.

As for the OPs statements, many, many coaches drop quite a bit when the bags are either manually dumped or, the air systems in those coaches just leak down and will have the same result, a drop in height. As has been stated, many, many diesel pilots will automatically center the wheels as they final park for a camp spot or, parking at home or, where ever and plan either on leveling or, parking for quite a while which, also as stated earlier, the potential for leak-down is high and so is body drop. Then, when the coach is started, the air system will auto-air up IF, it was not place in the level status when previously parked.

If it was placed in level operations, then when started, it will not begin to rise in height until the asked for by the drivers operations. On my HWH control panel, it has a "Store" button. I must push that in order for the air system to begin to fill the bags and, the jacks will auto retract and, the coach will rise.
Scott
Scott and Karla
SDFD RETIRED
2004 Itasca Horizon, 36GD Slate Blue 330 CAT
2011 GMC Sierra 1500 Ext Cab 4x4 Toad
2008 Caliente Red LVL II GL 1800 Goldwing
KI60ND

Tom_Barb
Explorer
Explorer
Another good reason to put the jacks down prior to dumping the air.
2000 Newmar mountain aire 4081 DP, ISC/350 Allison 6 speed, Wrangler JL toad.

Bruce_Brown
Moderator
Moderator
Ours center themselves, just another feature of Comfort Drive. Probably good too, since we upsized our tires they'd probably hit too if the wheels were turned and the air dumped.
There are 24 hours in every day - it all depends on how you choose to use them.
Bruce & Jill Brown
2008 Kountry Star Pusher 3910

wallynm
Explorer
Explorer
Interesting question. I always centered the steering wheel before shutting down for the night. Don’t know why just habit I guess from the days when we used blocks to level.
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