ride height adjustment

[Richard Good]

My 98 Patriot Ticonderoga ride height, i.e. air bag extension is right at 9" front and back. My manual has no information about the ride height for my RV, but reading posts here it appears the rear should be 10" at least. Due to the low clearance I do not plan on attempting this on my own, but will probably take it to a shop. I plan on changing tires next year, so maybe the tire shop will be able to do this work. Is my 10" number correct? I would hate to have this work done only to find later it was incorrect.

[Eric Maclean]

Yes Richard
 the ride height is measured from the top mounting plate to the bottom mounting plate of each air bag and should be 10 inches on your coach .
Not only does it give you more ground clearance which means less draging the rear over hang but more importantly it makes for a straighter drive line angle on the drive shaft which is very short on these coaches
The ride height adjustment is fairly easy but the coach should be parked on blocks to give enough clearance for you to safely crawl under even with all the air out of the bags in case of an unexpected loss of air to one of more air bags.

Hope this helps
Eric.

[Carl Boger]

Richard,

If you have or can make some ramps this is not a difficult job at all.  It is certainly easier than tightening the belt on the 3126 that you just did! 
 I use 3 2x10 for each ramp and that raises me up 4 1/2 inches.  I also put blocks between the two frames so it can only fall so much.  Since you need 10 inches at the air bags I would cut the blocks to 8 inches. 

You may want to examine the air valves while you are in there.  I replaced all of mine, but kept one of the old ones to use for a emergency spare.

You sound pretty mechanical so I think you will be fine if you attempt this.

[Richard Good]

Hi Carl, thanks for the message. I am gathering you have done this before. I have been unable to find any definitive description of the adjustment process. I assume moving the horizontal rod up increases the ride height? I am familiar with the rubber boots and the hose clamps that hold the vertical and horizontal rod assembly together. If my assumption is correct, how much adjustment would I need to make a 1" difference in the height?
Regards Richard Good.

[Richard Davis]

Richard
I was just reading the instructions for ride height adjustment in the Owners manual in the Technical Library on the main BAC website.  I was reading the owners manual for a 2006 Beaver Monterey (which is what I have).  It starts on page 264 in that manual if you can't find a good description anywhere else.  (They even have pictures of the valve, which helps a bunch.)
Good luck and be careful under there.
Richard

[Richard Davis]

Richard
Just a FYI.  You will need a small box end wrench (I think it is 7/16) to loosen the nut that tightens over the adjustment slot.  Don't loosen it much, just enough to move the adjustment lever.  I would guess you are only going to move it about 1/16 of an inch to get a 1" raise on the bags.  I assume yours is like mine and has one valve in the middle of the front axle and two valves (one on each side) of the rear axle.  The rear axle valves control the side to side leveling and the front axle pivots to keep from twisting the frame.
Richard

[Mike Shumack]

I don't know if this applies to the '98 Patriot or not - but for those Coaches with the HWH air leveling system, you have to have the Ignition Key On and HWH "awake" to adjust the ride height. If the HWH system is off it will not provide power to the Travel valves (they are closed) so air can't pass through them to get from the RHV to the airbag.

[Carl Boger]

Richard,

I did this to my Patriot about 3 years ago so it is not especially fresh in my mind, but here goes.  Once you have the coach on ramps high enough to protect you and on level ground, then put blocks between the 2 frames.  With the Coach running loosen one of the rear rods and move it until the bag expands to 10 inches.  Then just snug down the locking nut, don't tighten it just yet.  Then do the same thing for the other side rear bags.  At this point they should be pretty close to 10 inches, but you may have to tweak them to get them both to stay at exactly 10 inches.   

Now move to the front valve and set it at 10 inches.  Measure all the bags again and tweak as needed.  Hopefully you will not need to adjust them more than once or twice.  Then lock down the locking nut/bolt.

[Richard Good]

Thanks for all the replies. I will be having a go later this week but I will first make sure I have clearance with the coach lowered all the way. I can just about wriggle around underneath with it all the way down, but I dont move around as easily as I did when I was young! I will post the results if I get around to performing the adjustment.

[Joel Ashley]

Richard, it sounds like you may need to pay more serious attention to Carl’s and Eric’s admonitions about safety.  Carl’s ramps and blocks would be my priority before doing anything else;  and besides you’ll likely be glad you made them sometime down the road when you inevitably need to get under the coach for some other reason.
😉
Joel

[Richard Good]

Hi Joel, I absolutely intend to block the coach as well, but I intend to know where I can crawl around  with everything down before I even start. I certainly have no intention of getting myself crushed. I used to be chief engineer in the merchant navy and in the Canadian Coast Guard, so I am well familiar with working in hazardous conditions and trying to avoid stupid mistakes. Thanks for your concern though. My own nephew had a car fall off jacks onto his girlfriend who survived and even married him, so the dangers are certainly forefront in my mind.

[John Fitzgerald]

If I may add something that was told to me by one of my friends who is a heavy truck mechanic.  He recommends taking the rig out for a decent run and then rechecking the ride height.  He says the result of adjusting the ride height valves really cannot be known until the rig has seen a few miles of travel and settled in a bit.

John

[Mike Shumack]

I just "dump" the airbags after making an adjustment and refill (go into Travel mode) to recheck the height settings. Driving would be a good way too.

A couple of weeks ago I added air pressure gauges to the front and rear axle airbag systems to monitor the air bag pressures (so I know when enough air has leaked out that I need to start coach and restore pressures, and it gives me a good idea of loading).

The gauges are just above/in-front of the primary fuel filter, in the photo.

[Richard Good]

Well, I adjusted the ride height today. Less than an hour to do the front and rear valves. I first checked I was able to shimmy under the coach with it full down. I used  white electrical tape on the vertical rod to mark the original location. I started with 1/4" increments, but it appears the adjustment is pretty linear. A 1" vertical rise on the vertical arm/ horizontal valve arm attachment point equates to a 1" lift on the air bags. I did notice though that the ride height measurement was not uniform amongst the 8 air bags( it is a Magnum 8 bag chassis), so I took my readings in the same location left to right and only used the rear airbags at each axle for my readings. I hope that is correct. If you have any words of wisdom, please let me know.

[Mike Shumack]

I don't know if the '98 air bag adjustment is different from the '05 up models, but on the later models you don't adjust the "rod" length, you adjust the body of the RHV.
See example below: