Power Gear Leveling System Issue

[rkdillinger]

Hi Everybody,
After a 7 day camping trip I was retracting my Power Gear leveling jacks, using the Touch Pad P/N#500629, and at some point during the retraction there was a loud “snapping” or “popping” sound. The jacks seem to have come all the way up, but now the Touch Pad is only displaying the “ON/OFF” light, the blinking “Right” light, and the “Jacks Down” light. If I press the “Auto” button, the light comes on, but nothing happens, nor does anything happen if I press the "Retract All Jacks" button. After pressing the "Auto" leveling button I walked back to the hydraulic Power Level pump but could not hear it operating at all. I topped the fluid level off a little over a year ago and have had zero issues with the system over the three years I've owned it.

Thanks,

[Marty G.]

Power Gear generally has fantastic tech support so contacting them would be my first move. Secondly, visit your owners manual to see how to do a reset. The process you should go through will determine which leg might be the problem. I had to run each leg down at different levels from the other 3, do an auto retract and then see which legs made it all the way up before giving me an error signal. The problem I had was very difficult to find but a simple fix. All the techs wanted me to replace the control panel and or one of the gear motors. Turns out, there is a dime-sized magnet attached to the bottom of each leg. That magnet lets the system know when each leg is completely retracted. Once a magnetic switch is made at each leg, that leg’s motor shuts off. If that magnetic switch is not made, the leg’s motor continues to run even when the leg is completely retracted, has no where else to go and causes and overcurrent condition, hence the error I was getting. A missing magnet, $6.00. They wanted me to spend a grand. Work towards isolating the issue as best you can with your manual and the use of tech support. Sorry so long winded.

[rkdillinger]

Thanks Marty,

Mine is a little different as it uses a pump sitting on top of the hydraulic fluid reservoir to "Extend" the jacks, and then when "Retracting" the jacks, a "dump valve" opens and the jacks are pulled back up with individual springs, pushing the hydraulic fluid back into the hydraulic fluid reservoir. The only way the system knows when all the jacks are retracted is when the hydraulic fluid returning from the jacks fill up the reservoir. If there isn't enough fluid to fill up the reservoir, the system will think the jacks are still down. I don't think that's what is happening here as they have retracted all the way back up, but won't "Extend". When I try to "Extend" them again using the automatic system, the jacks don't extend, and I do not hear the hydraulic pump motor doing anything at all. There must be something significant to the "Right" jack light blinking, and the "Jacks Down" light being on, but I have searched through the "Operations Manual" for my system and there is nothing that covers this. I have sent an email to customer service, so hopefully I will get some help soon. My guess is that something electrical is going on, but I don't even really know where to start.

If anybody else has had this specific problem, please let me know how it was resolved.

Thanks,

Randy

[HarryStone]

Right leg blinking, should indicate low on right side. Jacks down could be slightly low on fluid, or coach is leaning and float thinks level is low, pump not running; check for 12 VDC at pump solenoid. One side should have 12 VDC, possibly 2 or more wires, one coming from the battery, the others powering the hydraulic valves. If you have power there, check for power at the 2 large posts on the same solenoid. You should see battery voltage on one side, and pump connection on the other. If no battery voltage, then trace the wire back to the battery, and you should find a resettable DC breaker that may be unset. If that's good, recheck your ground, and if that fails, run a jumper cable from the battery to the pump side of the solenoid, if the pump doesn't run, it's bad.

[rkdillinger]

Originally Posted by HarryStone

Right leg blinking, should indicate low on right side. Jacks down could be slightly low on fluid, or coach is leaning and float thinks level is low, pump not running; check for 12 VDC at pump solenoid. One side should have 12 VDC, possibly 2 or more wires, one coming from the battery, the others powering the hydraulic valves. If you have power there, check for power at the 2 large posts on the same solenoid. You should see battery voltage on one side, and pump connection on the other. If no battery voltage, then trace the wire back to the battery, and you should find a resettable DC breaker that may be unset. If that's good, recheck your ground, and if that fails, run a jumper cable from the battery to the pump side of the solenoid, if the pump doesn't run, it's bad.

I've been thinking DC breaker this whole time. I helped a friend, in a completely different rig, reset his DC breaker, but so far I've been completely unable to track it down in my rig....I'll take another look for it tomorrow. Thanks!!

[rkdillinger]

Well, it took me a while to get back up to my rig to try and resolve this issue. After searching in vain for a DC breaker I started up my rig to see if anything had changed, but unfortunately when I pressed the "Auto" button nothing happened. However, this time I put the control panel into "Manual" mode by pressing and holding the manual button for about 3 seconds. I was able to successfully extend and retract all of my jacks. The "Auto" function, however, still does nothing. So, I've eliminated any issues related to power to the pump and the pump itself, since everything worked fine in the "Manual" mode. This leads me to believe there might be something wrong with the control panel itself, or with some other component of the "auto leveling" system. Does anybody know if these control panels just "go bad"? They're around $400, so I don't really want to buy a replacement if it's not the control panel. Anybody had a similar issue?

Thanks,

Randy

[rkdillinger]

More info after another resolution attempt: I began to think there might be an issue with the "Control Box", which is the part of the system that does the "Auto" leveling. It is separate from the "Touchpad", which I originally thought might have an issue. I was able to enter the "Calibration" mode for the "Control Box", and was able to manually level the rig, and then successfully "Set" the level position in the "Control Box". However, I was still unable to get the "Auto" function to do anything. So it seems the "Touchpad" is working correctly, and at least part of the "Control Box" is working (the "Calibration" mode). So now I'm wondering if something wrong with the connection between the "Control Box" and the pump. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate the "Control Box" anywhere on my rig (perhaps loose connectors at the box?). Does anybody have a 39' 2005 Fleetwood Excursion who happens to know where the "Control Box" is located?

Thanks again!

[rkdillinger]

Problem Resolved! In case this happens to anybody else, the resolution was far simpler than I would have guessed. After the re-calibration failed I added some hydraulic fluid to the reservoir and BINGO! The "Auto" function actually leveled the RV. This is quite strange since the other time I was a little low on fluid, (the "Jacks Down" light was illuminated), the "Auto" function worked fine. This time, however, it would not. Not sure what was different, but it's working fine now. Oh, I never did find the "Control Box".....

[HarryStone]

Your control box will be somewhere near the center of the chassis, probably located in one of the storage compartments, on the top inside. Maybe will have a cover over it.

[Bigd9]

The control box in my 2006 Discovery is in the passenger side compartment right between the front and rear axles. The control box is mounted on the ceiling of the compartment.

[rkdillinger]

Thanks everybody, I've been looking in the compartments, on the top, but haven't been able to find it yet. I'll go take another look.

In addition, I found out why my hydraulic fluid was low in the Power Gear reservoir. After filling up the reservoir 2 weeks ago, we went to an RV park last week, and when I put the leveling jacks down on Monday the line to the left rear jack leaked all over the place...looks like three distinct places. One at the top of the jack where it attaches, and one at the pump, where it attaches, and a leak somewhere in the middle. Not sure why all three places would start to leak simultaneously, but now I know why I was low.

[F4Gary]

Originally Posted by rkdillinger

Thanks everybody, I've been looking in the compartments, on the top, but haven't been able to find it yet. I'll go take another look.

In addition, I found out why my hydraulic fluid was low in the Power Gear reservoir. After filling up the reservoir 2 weeks ago, we went to an RV park last week, and when I put the leveling jacks down on Monday the line to the left rear jack leaked all over the place...looks like three distinct places. One at the top of the jack where it attaches, and one at the pump, where it attaches, and a leak somewhere in the middle. Not sure why all three places would start to leak simultaneously, but now I know why I was low.

How did you stop the leak? Just tightening the fittings?

[rkdillinger]

I haven't fixed the leaks yet. Not sure how to get to the top of the jack since there's very little clearance under the rig when the jacks are up. I may have to take it somewhere for this repair, since I can't really get underneath. And I couldn't even tell where the middle leak is. The lines are covered with plastic conduit, so it's possible the fluid is leaking from somewhere else and running inside the conduit until it gets to the lowest spot in the middle, right next to the motor.

[F4Gary]

Originally Posted by rkdillinger

I haven't fixed the leaks yet. Not sure how to get to the top of the jack since there's very little clearance under the rig when the jacks are up. I may have to take it somewhere for this repair, since I can't really get underneath. And I couldn't even tell where the middle leak is. The lines are covered with plastic conduit, so it's possible the fluid is leaking from somewhere else and running inside the conduit until it gets to the lowest spot in the middle, right next to the motor.

Also, if it makes you feel any better, I almost always level manually and don't use the automatic feature.