Levelers

[Ljnasa]

My levelers would not retract this morning whe I was ready to leave. I call a Jayco technician and told him I turned the power on and than hit the retract button and it kept kicking off. He told me to try starting the engine wihic I did and it worked. He said the house battery is probably bad.

I then received a call back from a local mobile repair person and he to me it is probably the engine battery because most of the levelers are on the engine battery. But I’m thinking why did the engine start. a Also we notice the refrigerator light was dim all weekend which we were plugged into shore power.

Any thoughts on which battery it could be.

Thanks, Larry

[Fishstick8]

I am pretty sure it is off the chassis battery. That is why engine must be running in order to use levelers or you get low battery if not running.

[Ljnasa]

Ok, but why would the light be dim in the refrigerator also or just coincidence. The light maybe going out or loose connection.
I will be getting the batteries checked next weekend.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by Ljnasa

Also we notice the refrigerator light was dim all weekend which we were plugged into shore power.

Don't quote me on this but I think your 'fridge is 12V. Yeah when plugged in, you should be getting a full 13.2V or better off the converter. But maybe this is an indication of a possible problem.

[Ljnasa]

Yes the refrigerator is 12V, the refrigerator should be on the house battery and the jacks should be on the chassis battery, so does this mean both batteries are bad.

On a different note, I read on this forum you should start your engine when extending or retracting your leveling jacks. In the Jayco manual is says turn the engine off, what do most of you guys do.

[jd99336]

Not sure what jacks you have (mine are Equalizer systems) but low voltage will not allow jacks to operate properly. I am dealing with that right now. In my case, it appears that my jacks are connected to the house battery and there is no requirement to have the engine running to extend or retract. However yours may be set up differently. Steps are certainly connected to the engine battery.

Even though your batter may have been low (check resting voltage with multi-meter), it may have been enough to start the engine. Another possible and common problem is a bad ground somewhere. If a ground is making poor contact, even slightly less voltage than normal can create problems.

If starting the engine resolved the issue, count your blessings. Mine appears to be the controller ($556 shipped) to fix the 3 year old ES jacks. I am not happy about it, but US built jacks does not necessarily mean US built electronics, so I guess I write the check and figure I saves another $500 by doing it myself.

[Ljnasa]

Thanks for the response, yes I was happy when starting the engine solved the problem.

[Camper_bob]

My rig is set up so the engine MUST be running to run the jacks. They use A LOT of juice, so it makes sense IMO.

[Ljnasa]

I understand the chassis battery may be bad and causing the leveling jack problem..

I can’t understand why the frigid light was dim, I was plugged into shore power, I would thing the frigid would be on the Coach battery. Maybe both batteries are bad.

[Love To Travel 2]

As with Camper Bob, in our 2018 29MV, the engine MUST be running and the emergency brake set before the jacks will deploy.

[Redhawk 22C]

When I started the motorhome today, the Equalizer control panel started beeping and all lights blinking.
Pushing any buttons would not do anything. Eventually it would stop beeping and flashing, but the Power LED would flash intermittently. Now I don't know if they are going to work, when I need them.
Also, my manual says engine off for operation, and when it worked, had the E brake on and the ignition off.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by Redhawk 22C

When I started the motorhome today, the Equalizer control panel started beeping and all lights blinking.
Pushing any buttons would not do anything. Eventually it would stop beeping and flashing, but the Power LED would flash intermittently. Now I don't know if they are going to work, when I need them.
Also, my manual says engine off for operation, and when it worked, had the E brake on and the ignition off.
Any help would be appreciated.

My Thor. The Jack's and slide-outs will not work unless the parking brake is on and the engine is running. It's a feature they have I think because so many people had problems with bad batteries or low batteries. If you think about it, its better for the motors to run at full power instead of laboring

[dvspl]

Originally Posted by Redhawk 22C

When I started the motorhome today, the Equalizer control panel started beeping and all lights blinking.
Pushing any buttons would not do anything. Eventually it would stop beeping and flashing, but the Power LED would flash intermittently. Now I don't know if they are going to work, when I need them.

My experience with anything electrical, and especially with my leveling system, has been to start by making sure the ground is good. That's where I would start.

[Redhawk 22C]

I see your point. I'll check everything when I get to my destination. Seems like it needs reset after the battery being so low. It always worked OK, before that.

[mini4mw]

Definitely check the ground. I had low voltage (or maybe panel wouldn't turn on, can't remember) issue at the control panel and it ended up the ground at the hydraulic motor had a cracked eyelet and wasn't connected or barely hanging on.

As far as using levelers, mine is connected to house battery, as well as slides. When I get to a site I always plug in the 30amp shore power before running either. I can see my house battery monitor go to 13.x when converter starts charging and then drop to 12.x while running slides or levelers and then pop back to 13.x when they are turned off.