HWH leveling system

[Gary Wolfer]

Can someone please explain to me the proper way to level my coach when I camp for the night. My old coach had HWH 3 point system but this 98 Patriot has 3 lights and an alarm that goes off. Last time I pulled out of camp I brought the slide in then turned the key to on then hit the all position The legs all came up fine but red light stayed flashing. It finally quit but when I stepped on the brakes and when I turned it came on and alarm beeped. I kept going because the air held at 118lbs and above 90 on the other needle. It still beeped when I turned a corner for quite a few miles. What am I doing wrong? What is it trying to tell me? What is the proper procedure? Should I drop each leg individually? My old Safari coach did not have air bags just springs.

[David T. Richelderfer]

I turn my key to the on position, turn on the hydraulic leveling switch, and turn on the auto retract switch... then wait for a few minutes.  My hydraulic alarm continues to sound.  I then turn off the hydraulic on/off switch and turn it back to on, then manually retract individually all the "legs."  I have one fore leg and two aft legs.  Now I go outside and check them to be sure they are all up.  The alarm rings through all this.  After all this hydraulic stuff is done the engine is started to air up all the tanks and suspension bags.  Not until I am able to get a travel light do I bring in the slides.  Most of the time the hydraulic alarm continues to ring until well after I start the C-12 to air up the tanks and bags, and the alarm continues to ring after I retract the slides.  Only now that I am ready to finally start the C-12 to get underway does the hydraulic alarm not ring.  If the hydraulic alarm rings from this point on it usually means the oil level is low in the hydraulic reservoir.

Please note that there are several threads in the forum discussing leveling and when to put out and retract the slides.  The rule is slides out first and in last.  When setting up for camping, put the slides out FIRST... then do the leveling.  When getting ready to travel after camping, pick up the legs FIRST... then air up the tanks and bags to full... then retract the slides.

[Roy C Tyler]

If your alarm rings when you are going around corners, check the hydraulic fluid in your tank.  On my system, if it rings while going around corners, it means the fluid is low.  My instructions say to lower one leg until the alarm starts to ring (about 6 inches)  but not all the way to the ground and then fill the tank until the alarm stops ringing.  This fills the tank to the proper level on my RVA system.

[Gary Wolfer]

I really appreciate the imput David do you have two switches for on and all my switch is a 3 position switch up is on off is middle and lower is all which dumps all cylinder fluid at the same time. I have 3 lights to the right of that switch top is green middle is amber and bottom is red. Will the top one come on after the legs are up? I have a habit of checking to make sure the legs are always up before I move as well.
   Roy That makes sense to me. Where is the Hydraulic resavoir on a 98 patriot. On my old Safari the steel tank under the HWH lines had a chrome vent that when unscrewed had a short dipstick on it. The resevoir in the master bay was for power steering.

[Roy C Tyler]

My system sounds like it is the same as yours. My leveler control panel is the same as yours.  I do not know where your tank is but on mine, it is on the passenger side behind the rear axle in the last basement door that opens.  It is a small black tank with the control valves mounted on top.  The cap removes for filling but there is no dipstick on it. When the alarm used to sound when I went around corners, I filled it as I described above.  I had the DW stand on the steps and tell me when the alarm quit ringing as I poured in ATF.  I have not had any more problems with the alarm in corners since.

[Gary Wolfer]

Thanks Roy I will look for the tank this morning. Sounds like it is in the same area my Safari tank was between the master bay on the back passenger corner and the battery bay just ahead of that. Speaking of the battery bay I wonder why they did not put a key lock on my battery door. I would hate to have someone steal my batteries. Maybe I can find a vent cap with a dipstick from an old Safari Roy are you using ATF in your Hydraulic system HWH told me thats what they used on Safari leveling systems.

[David T. Richelderfer]

Gary - I am thinking our systems are quite different.  I have two separate leveling systems - hydraulic and air.  They have separate keypads and do not interact except that hydraulic auto-leveling causes the air to dump to zero on the dash gauge.  Hydraulic manual-leveling does not dump the air.  My hydraulic leveling keypad is located on the horizontal surface left of the pilot's left elbow.  The hydraulic leveling keypad is a series of two-way rocker switches - from left to right: on/off, manual left aft leg, manual fore leg, manual right aft leg, and auto level/auto retract. The air leveling keypad is located on the vertical surface just above the hydraulic keypad.  Interestingly, leveling can be achieved by either system, and both systems have an auto-leveling mode and manual-leveling mode.  The hydraulic leveling keypad is about 3" by 5".  The air leveling keypad is about 5" by 5".

Adjacent to the hydraulic leveling keypad's auto level/auto retract rocker switch are three lights - two green and one red.  I have not taken the time to figure out what these lights are telling me.  Perhaps I should, eh?