Beaver sits on its tail when parked

[Bill Lampkin]

After a week or so parked at the storage yard, the beaver sits on its tail. The dash air gauges both show zero air pressure, the rear sits low and the front looks normal. I don't pretend to understand how the air suspension works, but I would like to know what to look for when we take the rig to the shop for annual maintenance. I have no way of rolling under the coach so I can't check out what might be going on, just looking for a reason that the rear will settle down when parked while the front stays at ride height. Does not happen when we are on the road.

[Lee Welbanks]

Bill, When you parked the coach the suspension was probably in travel mode and while parked the rear has leaked off the air supply and sat down. I believe yours has a HWH system and will have two manifolds one for the drive axle and one for the tag. These manifolds have solenoid valve and air pressure switches and a forest of air lines to and from.
About the only way to find these leaks is air the coach up level the suspension and use a spray bottle with dish soap and water and start spraying all fittings and manifolds.
One thing you can be happy about you don't have leaks in the front travel suspension, the front and rear are separate systems.

[Bill Lampkin]

So if both air tanks are at zero pressure, and the front is still at ride height, there must be some sort of leaky check valve(s) on the rear air bags, or on an air line that ties the bags together. It seems the rear sets down evenly side to side, so the leak must be on a common point or connection. There are 6 air bags back there so I'm sure it can be a rat's nest trying to figure out where the leak is. Another head scratcher for me is if the front ride height is maintained by check valves, how do the air bags work when going down the road? Are they always at a constant pressure? If so, how do they absorb road shocks etc?

[Eric Maclean]

Bill if your ride height drops say from a leak in an air bag or line from the ride height valve to the air bag the ride height valve will air air to the air bag to try to maintain ride height it will continue to do so untill the air tanks are depleted.
As there are two ride height valves one right rear one left rear it would be odd to have both leaking not impossible but odd
My guess would be o rings at the rear six pack valve arrangement for the HWH air leveling as stated earlier the best way to find the !same is with dish soap and water but you have to get under the coach for that ( be careful)
Eric

[Bill Lampkin]

I'll see if I can get the shop to check the ride height valves. Thanks all.

[Lee Welbanks]

Bill, As Eric stated start with the six pack manifold, the base O rings on the solenoid valves and the pressure switches are a good place to start. On mine there was a couple swivel fittings that were leaking also a few of the push to connect fittings. I replaced them with Parker air brake compression fittings.
A shop can run up a pretty large bill spending hours fixing leaks, some of the fittings are a real b**** to get at. And make sure they know not to mix up the solenoid valves replacing the O rings, then you'll have a real mess.

[Fred Brooks]

    Bill,
If you have the HWH leveling system, the 6 pack looks like these. I had leaks in the front 6-pack and the rear 6-pack. I numbered each air line then took a picture with my phone. Fred

[Lee Welbanks]

On my 06 PT it has 8 packs and I've found that most of the base O rings will leak sooner or later, in fact right now I'm in the process of removing all of the solenoid valves and cleaning the manifold and replacing all the O rings on both rear manifolds. Also when they built the coach the manifolds are tucked up in the chassic where you cannot get at them so I'm lowering both rears down about 5" so they are easier to service.
One other thing I've done is replace all the fittings on the foot service valve (Bendix E-6) with Parker compression fittings. The coach was built with some swivel fittings which always leak and those leaking push to connect brass fitting, not more leaking with this valve.