One day my Atwood Levelegs control panel in our Bounder lights flickered and never would come on again. After checking the fuse and finding it passing power correctly to the Atwood controller under the dash, I assumed the control pad went bad--we were on a trip and did not do any further investigating.
I was able to buy a NOS control pad and it arrived after we returned home from our trip. When I installed the new panel, it also would not turn on.
For the levelegs control pad to work, the RV must be running, in park or neutral and the brake set---I verified all three were happening.
Atwood 66275 controllers are not available, although I've read forums that discussed retrofitting. There are four wires that go to the control pad from the Atwood Auto Controller under the dash, a black, a red, a green, and a white. Assuming the black and red were ground and positive, I could not get any power through to the control pad. So I plugged the unit back in, and connected a 12volt power source to the red wire, bypassing the auto controller...bingo...everything lit right up when I pushed the on button.
So here is my question. I did not try to see if the levelers would work yet, until I got some feedback from others. If my level pad will function this way, do you see a problem in putting a switch near the control panel to power the red wire this way, so the control pad will work. When I did the test, the lights went through the check and illuminated "engine running, "park brake engaged, and park/neutral" indicating the system was ready to operate the autoleveling.
Do you foresee this workaround being a problem if it works? I see there are companies that advertise repairing the auto controller for around $600.
Thoughts?