Currently broke down - Airbags will not air up

[Gayden.Peel]

So the coach had been working fine, and this morning when we got on the road after parked over night the coach was driving very bumpy and noticed the steering seemed strange, so stopped and noticed the coach is all the way down, and the bags are not airing up. Not really sure where to start looking, I can hear the air pressure relief open when it gets to pressure and I know the system is airing up for brakes and the tank reads 120psi at the gauge, I cannot hear any air leaks, even with the engine off. I would imagine the "dump valve" being open would really let a lot of air out if and this would be audible. My levelers do not work, so I cannot use the HWH system to raise the coach. It seems like the valve to let air in to air up might not be opening, if that is a thing, maybe this is the same as the dump? I'm not even sure where this would be on the 1997 Marquis with the Gillig chassis. I did a brief search but didn't come across other posts like this yet, and with the urgency to get it moving I didn't have time to invest in googling it more. I'll keep poking around and pull out the Gillig chassis manual here in a min to ee if they show any trouble shooting.

Thanks for any pointers.

[Carl Boger]

I really am not familiar with you chassis, but I would start by going to the air bags and following the air lines back toward the air compressor.  Inspect any fittings or junctions/distribution blocks on the way.  Also check the air control valves at the air bags.  It's air in and air out so something has to be stopping the air in.

[Eric Maclean Co-Admin]

Gayden
Does your coach have the HWH air leveling system?
Is it just the front that's not coming to ride height or is it both front and rear?

Eric

[David T. Richelderfer]

When you confirm the manufacturer of your leveling system, which is likely HWH, experiment with it to determine what works and what doesn't. Then, call the manufacturer, again likely HWH, and describe your findings.  I know HWH is very helpful on the phone, and may be able to suggest a first step to a repair.

https://www.hwhcorp.com/

[Gayden.Peel]

Gayden
Does your coach have the HWH air leveling system?
Is it just the front that's not coming to ride height or is it both front and rear?

Eric

Hey Eric,

Yes this is an HWH 600 system, some of my other posts have some history on the controller. The Cliff Notes are, the board has been back to HWH a few times and they have "repaired" it by doing jumper wires and such, but it is just too far gone. I ran across another post on the board that was talking about some gray wires  (1700 front and 3700 rear) running from the board and how they needed 12V. So I ended up pulling the connectors from the board they were not putting out 12V, and found switched 12V power and wired it up and bam, the solenoids started working. I'm guessing the control board has finally fully checked out at this point. I am still working on a DIY replacement air / hydraulic leveling system. I have little faith that HWH could repair it again, there are dozens of tiny 22ga wires they added to jump over bad traces from before. I don't think the FL weather has been very kind to this circuit.

We did about 1000 miles on our last trip and the coach ran great, pulled my 24' trailer with a 4wheeler and a side by side up to PA and back thru WV. Other than not having any way to level the coach we were so happy with how she drove. Having a 12L is a game changer on this rig, so much more power to get up and down the mountains. We are heading to California from Florida in a few months so that will be the big test.

Sorry I didn't see the posts sooner, once we got moving again it was non-stop thru the trip and work has been crazy since we got back, I just got back on the forum to poke around and saw the responses. I need to turn on alerts for post replies.

[Gayden.Peel]

Here is a picture of the wires, the yellow wire is a switched 12V source and I split it off to the 2 gray wires (1700 Front and 3700 Rear)

Here is the link to the BAC post that helped me - https://beaveramb.org/forum/index.php/topic,7826.msg54420.html#msg54420

[Eric Maclean Co-Admin]

Gayden
It's good to hear you weren't stranded long.
You might want to look into a used board but you'll need the numbers off the tag on the case to get the right one.
Visone RV salvage or Colaw may have what you need but they aren't cheap.
You may also what to contact HWH again.

https://rvcomponents.visonerv.com/cgi-bin/f/levelingsystemcontrollers.pl?

https://shop.colawrv.com/

Hope this helps
Eric