Help! Class c house batteries dead. Cannot lift levelers

[shirleyj62]

I hope someone can help with our problem. We have a Class C motorhome. It is currently parked in our driveway with the levelers down. We are trying to retract them, but they won’t retract. To make matters worse, our house batteries on C are dead. The coach has been plugged into our home’s electricity for 24 hrs

Right now are main concern is getting the levelers retracted.

Thanks.

[ernie1]

When push come to shove and all or some of the above suggestions don't work, a sure method to undo the jacks so that you can raise them is to carefully and slowly loosen the hose connection to each jack and the pressure will be relieved so each jack can be manually raised. After this is done you would want to secure each jack in an upward position so they don't lower again until necessary as in when you reach a service center. Be ready for a bit of fluid to run out when the hoses are loosened but it shouldn't be a whole lot. When the pressure is taken off the jacks the vehicle will then lower and be prepared for that. It shouldn't be a whole lot until the tires take over the job of supporting the vehicle. I have the BigFoot Platinum model on my class C also and they are not trouble free.

[pconroy328]

shirleyj62 wrote:
So additional info on our problem.

We have Bigfoot Leveling System. The All Up and the Air dump lights are flashing. unfortunately Big Foot Company closes at 4 pm Eastern. So we can’t call them.

We have 2 house batteries and we have someone who should be bringing new batteries.

70% or more of the Leveling problems posts on our Jayco forum are ground related. I had some intermittent problems and then eventually lost all control over the jacks.

Even the Lippert tech, I reached online, told me: Crawl under there and make sure the ground connection hasn't worked loose or got corroded.

He was right. Cleaning and reseating the ground solved our problems.

If you are sure your house batteries are dead - then fine, Replace them. But next time I have ANY jack problems, I'm checking that ground lug.

One test I did to make sure was to hook up an expensive "jump box" directly to the battery. Didn't fix it. Then I hooked the negative lead on that jump box to the ground lug on the jack motor. Fixed it. Therefore I knew I had a ground problem.

[BFL13]

If you have a converter, you should not need any house battery if you have shore power. So while waiting for new batteries, get that converter working. (Could be several reasons it is not working.) That should get the levellers working too.

If you have an inverter/charger then with dead house batteries you have no 12v to the inverter/ charger, so the charger part won't work to recharge the batteries. New batteries will solve that, or just jump those batteries and get the charger part enabled to recharge the dead batts. (if they are worth recharging)

If no 12v to the house from running the engine, that is another thing that needs fixing while waiting for the new batteries.

It may be that your levellers have their own fuse or breaker that is "open" and that is the real problem.

[wanderingaimles]

Is the engine running? Our system just flashes if the engine isnt running, the emergency brake set, and the rig in park.

[shirleyj62]

So additional info on our problem.

We have Bigfoot Leveling System. The All Up and the Air dump lights are flashing. unfortunately Big Foot Company closes at 4 pm Eastern. So we can’t call them.

We have 2 house batteries and we have someone who should be bringing new batteries.

[DrewE]

I'd first start the main engine (assuming the chassis battery isn't dead too--if it is, jump start it normally). The battery combiner will supply 12V power to the house 12V system. If the levelers will not raise then, try disconnecting the negative from the house battery in case it's "sucking down" a lot of current that you want to use.

If the house battery isn't charging from being plugged into shore power, it won't charge better from the generator, since in both cases it's the same converter doing (or not doing) the charging.

If you look in the literature for the levelers, there might be some sort of a manual override/retraction method you can use with a socket or something. I don't know how common that is, nor for that matter what particular levelers you have, but it sure seems like a sensible feature to have.

[mleekamp]

ndrorder's advice is the same as what I'd give. Check switches first, then do as he mentions.

Other than that, since you are home, go get a battery.

[ndrorder]

Are you sure the disconnect switches are on? Sorry, had to ask.

I'd focus on getting the generator running.

Disconnect the negative cable from the house batteries.

Hook jumper cables from running car or battery charger with boost start capability to the +ve cable of the house bank first and then to the disconnected negative. Of course make sure the negative doesn't touch the positive.

Turn on the battery disconnect switch for the house bank.

Start generator.

Leaving the generator running, disconnect the negative the jumper cable or battery charger. Keep negative away from the positive.

Leaving the generator running, reconnect the negative to the batteries.

Generator should produce enough to retract the levelers, start the engine via the boost switch, and begin charging everything.

If you cannot get a jumper cable to the house batteries, jump start the engine. Hold the boost switch while trying to start the generator. The boost switch may need to be held for a few minutes to build up enough charge.

[Terryallan]

shirleyj62 wrote:
I hope someone can help with our problem. We have a Class C motorhome. It is currently parked in our driveway with the levelers down. We are trying to retract them, but they won’t retract. To make matters worse, our house batteries on C are dead. The coach has been plugged into our home’s electricity for 24 hrs

Right now are main concern is getting the levelers retracted.

Thanks.

Can you jump it off, and maybe they will raise with the engine running. If not check your fuses, and breakers.