Landing gear alarm

[Mr V]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping you can help me with this!

The Coach is equipped with Power gear jacks, the touch pad is model 500731.

I have a 2007 Diplomat 40 PDQ.
Enroute back to Canada from Florida, we lowered the landing gear and spent the night.

The next morning the front jack would not retract. When I looked underneath there was a huge puddle of hydraulic fluid.
After many phone calls to find a solution, I finally raised the back jacks to the max in order to shift the weight to the front and thankfully the front jack released with a tremendous jolt..

When I returned home I notified The Hitchhouse where I purchased the coach, and they ordered a new jack which was installed last week. Since the installation the alarm sounds intermittently and indicates that the jacks are down even though they are not.

The touch pad indicates jacks are down and the left and rear lights illuminate.
When I reported this to The Hitchhouse technician, he advises me that he has experienced this before and that the problem is a float malfunction and the only solution is to deactivate the alarm by disconnecting the harness at the fluid reservoir.

I am reluctant to defeat the purpose of this device.

I had not experienced any problems previous to the front jack malfunction.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank You

[hdossett]

Mr. V,

Had the same problem, alarm while driving. I added fluid and that helped but ended up pulling the fuse til I got it fixed.

One of two things cause this, low fluid, or a bad switch. Dan Gamels' (sp?) in CA replaced the switch under warranty while I was waiting on Ford to replace the seals in the transmission. I did not buy the rig from Gamel. Ford sent me to them before they realized the transmission was still under warranty. Would not let Gamel do the warrenty work. But that's another long story I won't go into now... unless you want me too!

Harold

[Robin_M]

Since it happened at the time of the jack replacement, my guess would be you simply have low fluid in one of the resovoirs. That's what triggers the alarm.

[JFC]

Not sure if this is the same situation as yours. On my 2002 Ambassador the alarm would sound for low fluid. The cure per the manual was to lower the jacks just until the alarm sounded, then add fluid until it stopped. Had to do that once and problem solved. On my 2007 Scepter, it developed a leak between the pump and tank for the system after only a couple of months. Monaco replaced the entie system, pump, tank and valves under warranty. A year later, alarm started sounding again. New system has a weep hole, fill until fluid comes out weep hole. Did that and alarm stopped for weeks. Started again, added fluid again and had system checked at shop. THey found no leaks but said fluid was coming out weep hole. Suggested adding a bracket to prevent tank movement and fluid splashing out. They're fabricating the bracket now, so we'll see after a few weeks if that makes a difference. Jacks work fine, just getting the low fluid alarm when driving.

[Mr V]

The service Tech toped up the fluid when he did the install, I assume that he did it according to recommended procedure but I will give it a try,

Thank You

[Robin_M]

It's possible that there was some air in the line that worked its way back up to the resovoir. I would add a little fluid to the reservoir with the lowest level with the jacks all the way up. Otherwise you might get the reservoirs too full.

[wa8yxm]

Power gear jacks use a float valve in the reservoir to sense "Jacks up" (If the tank's full the jacks are up) but if the jacks are replaced say in August, and the tank is topped off and the lines are properly bleed then come. say January the fluid level will be LOW enough to trip the alarm, even though the jacks are full up (Frankly I don't know how much temp change is needed)

Likewise if you top 'em off in January. .Come august the tank will overflow so next January.. BEEP BEEP BEEP