Air Leveling System

[Ron Langdon]

I have a 2008 Patriot Thunder with 22000 miles on the engine. I have Power Gear leveling system and use the air leveling exclusively. Monday night about 4:00 am I was awakened by a burst of noise that sounds like a water pump or the air compression on the leveling system. It comes on randomly and "bursts" for about 2-3 seconds very 4-5 minutes. I seem to remember an article here a few years ago about a similar problem. As I recall the article, the problem (burst of noise) was caused by a faulty solenoid. Assuming this to be the problem, where is the solenoid located and is it easily replaced? Leveling has not been negatively impacted. Shutting off the Power Gear system does not stop the noise. I would greatly appreciate advice on how to proceed.
Thanks,

[Gerald Farris]

Ron,
First we need to determine were the noise is coming from. If it is the electric air compressor for the leveling system, a problem like you mentioned is usually corrected by either moving the check valve or moving the pressure switch for the compressor.

Gerald

[Bernie Vujicic]

Ron,

We had the same problem. The elec comp is located behind the front axle under the frame rail on the drivers side. Either jack up the left front axle or turn your steering wheel all the way to the right to open up the wheel well and you can see the pump. Disconnect the red wire to shut it off until you figure out if it's the check valve or solenoid. You can also put your power gear in manual and raise the left front corner to get access. As you said it doesn't affect any leveling, it is designed to top off lost air after being parked and level. Our coach holds air very well and I have never dug deeper into what the problem was. Leaving it disconnected has been our fix. In fact when we purchased the coach 3 years ago it was disconnected and I connected it for a week before I pulled the wire again. You'll sleep better.

bv

[Ron Langdon]

Today there is no sound from the problem area. Coach remains level. All systems go. Thanks for the information to Gerald & Bernie. This is the first time I have had an issue with this system, but now I know where to go if it reappears.
Thanks, again.

[Joel Ashley]

I find the level monitoring micro adjustment a fickle feature.  The night before last it was letting air out, then compressing every half hour, and made sleep difficult;  probably not impressing the campground neighbors too much either.  Yesterday and last night it rarely fired off.  Road heat, initial parking and leveling position, night cooling, humidity, chassis settling ... who knows what makes an air bag or line leak a smidge one day and be fine the next.

Joel

[Ron Langdon]

Ron,
First we need to determine were the noise is coming from. If it is the electric air compressor for the leveling system, a problem like you mentioned is usually corrected by either moving the check valve or moving the pressure switch for the compressor.

Gerald

Gerald, do you recommend moving the check valve or the pressure switch and in which direction? the problem presented itself again last night around 1:00 am and every 3 minutes for the remainder of the night. GGGRRRR
Thanks again for your help.

[Roy Warren Co-Admin]

I have overcome the air noise and compressor noise by using the manual leveling instead of the automatic leveling.  I adjust the coach manually raising or lowering the coach instead of having the HWH system do it automatically.  In the manual mode the system does not try to keep up with itself all night.  

[Gerald Farris]

Ron,
On many coaches, Monaco installed a check valve at the air tank for the electric air compressor. This check valve is not really needed since the compressor has a check valve at its discharge port. If your coach is configured in this manner, you can just replace the check valve at the tank with a standard fitting to correct the problem. However if you want to maintain the extra check valve as an extra margin of safety against a leak (that I think is totally unnecessary), you will need to move the pressure switch from the line between the two check valves to a location where it reads tank pressure directly from the tank.

Gerald

[Gil_Johnson]

My 08 Contessa did not have a check valve at the compressor.  Monaco installed the check valve on the tank between the tank and the compressor.  The pressure switch for activating the compressor was in the line between the check valve and the compressor. I moved the check valve to the tank through a T fitting.  This fixed the problem.  If I kept my Beaver I was going to install a photo sensor so that the air compressor could not cycle at night.