Leveling System

[Bill Parrish]

I have a 2005 Beaver Monterey and have a question about the automatic leveling system.  In the operators manual it says to manuver up steep driveways etc. you can raise the coach up to 4 inches by holding down the raise button, and still drive the coach without damage.  Has anyone successful done this without problems?


Thanks wlparr

[JimDyer]

No, but I drove mine about 300 yards with a heck of a tilt when my levelling valves decided to give me grief

[Craig Rollins]

I did use that feature once when exiting a gas station in WY that had quite a dip in the driveway apron. By holding down the "Raise" button and exiting at as much of an angle to the apron that I was able to maneuver, I was able to avoid bottoming out.

[Jim Gill]

Yes, I've used the "Raise" function of the leveling system on my 2006 Monterey many times without any apparent damage. As others have stated, it works well for clearing deep swales and/or going up or down steep driveways...this is especially true when pulling a trailer with a receiver hitch which further compromises the rear ground clearance on these coaches.

However, the first time you use this function, your butt will instantly "tell" you that you have just eliminated all of the suspension function of your air bags...even at 1-2 mph, you will be able to feel that your suspension system is now pretty much solid and that travel at anything above a few mph would NOT be advisable.

It's a handy feature but use it carefully.

Jim  

[Joel Ashley]

I've used the feature many times, but only at very slow speeds.  And if your coach is one of the shorter models like mine, be aware that going to full raised position may actually lever the hitch equal to or lower than its normal travel mode position, resulting in it dragging anyway, or worse.  This is because in order to protect the short driveline, Monaco put limiting straps on the rear axle so the driveline wouldn't be at too steep an angle and overly stressed.  My coach's front will lift about 4 inches in front, but only 2 inches at the rear wheels.

I try to feel my way to the half lift point, so at least the entire rig is up 2 inches.  HWH designed their system to lift and stop wherever you released the button, but Monaco feared people might drive down the highway higher than Travel Mode, so they overrode that, allowing fallback to TMode when the button is released.  A tech once told me the override is easily defeated.  Getting the rig to stay at a given lift point so you can concentrate on maneuvering in a tight spot, and not on finagling the Raise button, makes for a much less stressful day.

Joel