Adding Air Leveling

[Edward Buker]

John,

Hope all is well with you and the family. I will add you to the list. My weather in VT is a lot like you weather in Bothell. Enjoy your goose dinner if they spend too much time at your site :-) Anyone else interested?

Later Ed

[Jerry and Kay Hudson]

Ed,

Do not forget me on this. I will be prepared to do this in the fall.  I still think that I might can fix mine as it looks like I took a power surge while we were in North Carolina and this is what might have caused me problems.  I am going to try and reprogram the leveling unit and see what I come up with.  Anyone know where I can obtain a 50 AMP hardwire surge protector at a resaonable price?

Thanks Jerry

[Edward Buker]

Jerry,

I won't forget you, so far it is Ed, Jerry, Marc, and John as a potential group. Any other takers? I will give this another week, and then whatever potential parties we have, we will call that our group. At some point after that I will call HWH and have the conversation about a group rate and will keep you posted.

As much as we do not want to spend the money, and at the moment have an operating system, I do think think in the end this is the right thing to do. The only time you will experience a fail with the existing system is when you need it while on the road.  At that point you will be stuck due to lack of parts or a resource that knows the system and can repair it. That scenario just gets worse with time. The other issue is for the most part these are a well built coach that they will not make again in the industry. If you have a plan to keep it or sell it down the road a ways, this upgrade will work for you in either case. The current leveling system does a decent job regarding leveling but a terrible design for retracting and dropping the coach too rapidly in my opinion. That class B fair ride, as one owner put it, I would like to see gone. Mostly I want a system that I know I can get repaired and get real support and parts with a phone call. The option of raising the coach for a driveway entrance would also be nice if needed.

FYI I am thinking of having the jacks removed in my case and just keep things simple with one system and one leveling control pad. Time will tell on that one...

Later Ed

[Jerry and Kay Hudson]

Ed,

As previously stated, mine is broke now and yes, I want something that works and something that I can get support with. I am not planning on getting rid of the coach as we are happy with it but when it decides to act up like this, I need a solution not a money pit. Of course everyone states that they can fix it but after they have taken a big bunch of my cash. This system uses the coaches existing air bags as the leveing sytem?

Thanks,
Jerry

[Edward Buker]

Jerry,

Yes the air leveling system uses the existing air bags to level the coach. I know little about your Contessa Coach configuration and what if any differences that would be involved in adding air leveling to your coach vs mine. The specifics about your coach will have to be discussed by you with HWH when the time comes. If your coach rides on air springs (bags) then HWH should have a solution.

When I discuss the pricing with them I should end up with a contact and a number to pass along if we are provided any benefit as a group. I plan on calling early next week.

Later Ed

[Edward Buker]

I have been a bit remiss on my schedule to discuss this group rate proposal with HWH. We had a good friend go into the hospital and we have been helping them out as well as family members here in VT so this project took a back seat for a bit. I also had a hard time reaching the right individual at HWH but I was able to connect and have the discussion that I needed to with Jeff at HWH yesterday.

The net is it looks like it is a no go from HWH. As the factory they are obligated not to undercut the dealer network pricing so they have that limitation as a policy. It is a bit of a catch 22 given that he shared that the HWH dealer network people do not generally come to the factory and get the level of training needed to do this kind of conversion. He would only have the folks at the factory perform this installation. I understand that issue. I'm not implying that there are not good dealers out there who could service the HWH systems, just that the best skill base for the kind of work needed to do a full conversion resides at the factory. The person to speak with if you find yourself wanting to go ahead with this is Jeff and the current pricing that he quoted was $4600.

There are probably a hand full of folks from Bend that have the skills given they installed these systems at the factory but I'm not sure who those resources are and if they are still in the business. I guess if I have this done it would be with HWH at some point.

Later Ed

[Jerry and Kay Hudson]

thanks a lot for your research on this.... we will try and make an educated decision in the near future.

Regards,
jerry

[Jerry and Kay Hudson]

All,

Just a bit of an update...We replaced the Brain to the system and programmed it and amazingly it has worked with no problem. I currently have two spare "brains" and two key pads if anyone runs into any problems. I plan on sending the two brains to BCS to have them flashed or zeroed. Now to sort thru another problem with air dump switch  or air dump solenoid not working....(Can live with it).

Thanks to all for their assistance with this problem.

Jerry

[Dave Cunningham]

Sounds like they used the SMC system on 2003s as well.  I have it on my Marquis.  It just decided to stop working last night. Why would someone who paid in excess of $ 550,000.00 not order the dual levelling systems?  Hopefully I don't have to join you guys in a $4000.00 air changeover

[Jerry and Kay Hudson]

Dave,
I did not have to add the air leveling system. I just changed out the brain and programmed it and all is well. so far.....
Please let me know about the brain if you need one. I am currently working overseas now and I will be home at the end of March if you need one of the brains. The price for the the brain is $300 plus whatever shipping would be involved in me sending to Beaver Coach  Sales for zeroing. Also the cost of shipping to you. For the keypad the cost is $200 plus the cost of shipping to you.

Jerry

[Edward Buker]

When I bought my coach the SMC system would not level the coach properly and left a side to side tilt. In retrospect I probably should have gone back to BCS and had them zero it but I had already left there and was in a campground some miles away and was not aware of the availability of that calibration technique.

The level sensor is in the brain module under the dash cover on mine. By adding washers under one side of the brain I was able to zero out the tilt myself. The mount is on wood strand board as I remember it and that may be not as stable a material over the years as one would like to keep this calibrated or maybe the brain unit ages and induces the tilt in calibration. At any rate, if the tilt is repeatable, you should be able to compensate for it yourself by retilting the brain module using spacers under the appropriate mounting screws with a little trial and error. Mine has not had to be touched for the three years I have been using it, once I initially calibrated the proper mounting tilt.

later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Hi Jerry, I may take you up on those components, as I mentioned the system just decided to stop working a couple of days ago, and after reading all these posts I started calling it the SMC system , but after looking at the controller today , it is actually an IDS system, I was going to call Beaver Coach tomorrow and ask for some advice.  The system was working perfectly, and then nothing. The control pad has power, it shows all up, and if you hit the retract button, you can hear the pump.  But nothing happens when you hit the auto button, or the semi button.  It does not even dump the air, and the air dump toggle on the console does not dump the air either.  Ahhhhhrrrrg, what next?  The day before water leaked into the electrical bay from a hole someone drilled for a tire pressure monitoring system, shorted out the connectors on the smart wheel controller, which I thought, no big deal.  I'll just clean them up and spray them with WD-40 and that will fix it, no such luck.  Downloaded the manual and ran through their diagnostics, and it says replace the controller.  Awesome what's that worth?