Community Forums

46490 · 06-22-2019, 12:00 PM

How much can a coach be raised and or lowered to level if not using the jacks. Is there a slope degree limit and can you put out the slides without being level?

buck58 · 06-22-2019, 01:44 PM

? I’m not sure about Air Leveling, but,,,, The engine has to be running to do the slide outs, and it has to be shut off to do the leveling with Auto Jacks. So, I do my slide outs while engine is running then I shut it off and do my leveling jacks... Is that wrong?

buck58 · 06-22-2019, 01:45 PM

Oh and hi all, first time to post,,, been reading it, a lot of really good stuff here... We have a 2018 Aspire... have used it very little, this is really our first trip. We’re not full timers, yet.

Gary.Jones · 06-22-2019, 02:26 PM

Buck

Well, your coach may be different but on both my 15 Anthem and my 19 Cornerstone, you can certainly move the slides in and out without the engine being running at the time. In fact, that is the way you probably want to do it. The slides move out and back with electric motors and gears so the Cummins engine is not needed to move the slides.

Entegra wants you to move you slides in or out when the coach is at ride height, NOT after it is leveled. The Entegra process is to come to where you think that you are going to park, usually with the Cumming ending shut down, run the slides out, and once out, then level the coach. Getting underway, fire up the engine and let the coach come to ride height fully (retract the jacks if they are deployed and wait for the coach to come to ride height), then with the engine running or off, bring in the slides. That is a different process than is recommended by many manufacturers, but is Entegra's recommendation since their coaches have narrow spaces between the slide edges and the walls of the coach.

Congrats to the new coach and hope to see your comments and presence on the forum much in the future.

Gary

Gary.Jones · 06-22-2019, 02:35 PM

46490

Your question and answer depends on what model coach you have. On my 15 Anthem, essentially you had no ability to raise or lower your coach. The coach was normally at ride height and it was not adjustable.

Now, on my 19 Cornerstone, which has Hadley air level system over top of the Hadley hydraulic system, when traveling, you are at ride height which is standard but and I am going from memory here you can raise the coach about 3" higher than ride height or lower it about 2.5" from ride height. For example, you might want to raise the coach (the entire coach) 3" to help get it over a "crown" in the road or over some rough spot, or maybe even if you are coming down a slight slope and you dont want the nose of the front cap to "dive into" the horizontal road, you would want to raise the coach to help make that transition. Or you might want to lower the coach slightly while it is still able to move to help get your coach into or out of a garage door that is not much higher than the normal total height of the coach.

I have used the air raise feature one time..... to help get the coach over a "crown" in the road in a parking lot. Other than that, I have had no need to manipulate the air ride. Now, at rest, I often use the air leveling rather than the hydraulic leveling.

Whether your coach has that additional air leveling process depends on which model coach you are looking at. In the 19s, my understanding is that only the Anthem and Cornerstone had the air over hydraulic leveling. I might be wrong.

Gary

Gary

TXBart · 06-22-2019, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buck58

? I’m not sure about Air Leveling, but,,,, The engine has to be running to do the slide outs, and it has to be shut off to do the leveling with Auto Jacks. So, I do my slide outs while engine is running then I shut it off and do my leveling jacks... Is that wrong?

My ‘14, I assume my ‘18 is the same, had a safety feature where the slides would retract but not extend with the engine running.

We pull into a site, I shut off the engine and head outside. Coach is still at ride height. My wife extends slides and does auto level while I’m hooking up water, electricity, etc. For departure I start the engine, get to ride height, see the air “pop-over” (can’t hear it anymore so watch for the drop on the gage), raise the jacks and head outside. Wife retracts slides with engine running while I unhook everything.

I have used air leveling once only because we have it and wanted to try it. I prefer using jacks.

Gary.Jones · 06-22-2019, 03:21 PM

What Vance is telling you is correct. The difference is that my DW takes care of everything inside and I do everything outside, including deploying and retracting the slides. However, we and Vance follow the same procedure as far as the Cummins goes.

Gary

46490 · 06-22-2019, 07:24 PM

Do you do the 4 corner weighing with an empty coach - just fuel and water and then add items and guesstimate the weight on each corner based on what is loaded. I would think doing the check after its loaded would and or cause an uneven load. Best suggestions are appreciated.

Gary.Jones · 06-22-2019, 07:30 PM

Four corner weighing should definitely be done when you are typically fully loaded for a trip.... all your stuff on board, full fresh water tank, full fuel tank, and I have black and gray at half tank, and both pilot and Co-pilot should be seated in their normal positions. You want to know your weight at each tire position when you are fully loaded and at close to max weight. Then you adjust your tire pressures to deal with that load. The whole process is so you are not guessing. And yes, you can be loaded heavier on one side of let’s say the steer axle than on the other side, and if that puts you over the axle or tire weight on that side, then you redistribute weight. That’s the whole reason you do the process.

Gary.

Gary.Jones · 06-22-2019, 08:42 PM

On my 15 Anthem (and everyone else's Anthem too (of that vintage)), the 8 house batteries sat right behind the driver side steer tire. That was a lot of weight in addition to the fuel tank which is also right behind the steer axle plus the whole front of the coach and I weigh 240# and my coach ran 315 Michelin tires on the front steer axle. Loaded for travel and as set-up like I say in the previous [paragraph, I was 100# over the proper weight for that tire position. I really could not move much away from that front driver side tire position, but I moved what I could which was the stuff that I carried in the first basement compartment on the driver side to another location and replaced it with bulky but not heavy items. That got my weight down to just a few pounds over on the front left tire. So, I adjusted my pressure on the steer axle to handle that load, and everyone agrees that I was close enough to spec that I should not have a problem. The passenger side, on the other hand, had no big batteries there and the weight on that tire was well within the axle and tire design weight. I never carried heavy items in the front driver side basement compartment knowing that I was close to spec on that driver side steer tire.

The batteries on my Cornerstone are now positioned right in front of the drive axle and in the center of the coach and I have a lot of weight "head room" on both sides of the steer axle, plus much larger tires (365s)

Gary