I have been battling 8 years with Atwood screw leveler jacks. I have owned a 2006 Phaeton for the last 8 years with these screw levelers. I should have seen signs when the previous owner didn't want to demonstrate them, claiming the lot owner didn't allow them, but the seller looked honest and was a friend of a friend.
From the beginning, they worked sometimes and not at others. Air dump and lift systems were not even active and I didn't know enough to question this. I had to replace 2 jacks, 2 controllers and rebuilt 2 jacks over the years besides all the times I had to crawl under the coach to use my drill to manually move the jacks in up so I could depart. I always dreaded arriving or leaving a campsite, not knowing if they were going to work or not. I spent enough to have replaced them with hydraulic jacks more than once.
I finally had enough, drove to Moscow, IA, 775 miles each way, this week spending 5 days and $6600 having the Atwood junk replaced with an HWH hydraulic system. While there, I saw scrap bins full of Atwood jacks. They say they do at least 2 coaches a week and have a backlog of people waiting. I was told that during the years from 2006 to 2010 that several rv builders went with Atwood to save $1400 per coach.
I know $6600 sounds like a lot and 1550 miles sounds like a lot of driving but the peace of mind is worth it all.
