Seneca moves when leveling

[MD3]

Anyone else have the entire RV move/slide around when leveling and retracting the levelers ?
Mine is moving/sliding enough I worry about bending/folding one of the levelers.
Hopefully something just needs reclibrated, maybe.... any ideas ?


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[Crossingover]

Follow the procedure beginning on p. 45 of your Owner's Manual (may be a different page for your year) and you should not have these issues. Be sure the transmission is in NEUTRAL with the parking brake engaged. There is a calibration procedure on p. 46 that might also be helpful. Also note the OM tells you to raise the jacks BEFORE bringing in the slides and to start the engine to fill the air tanks before retracting. Let us know how it goes with the OM procedure.

[WaltW]

Not sure how much movement you are experiencing. You do feel it when you put jacks up or down.
If your Seneca's rear wheels are off the ground it is possible for the coach to move when leveling and that's not good. The emergency brakes are the rear wheel brakes. Seneca's have been known for raising the coach higher than necessary due to the airbags not emptying adequately during the leveling process.
I manually level mine to avoid over-lifting the coach.

[jvteach77]

Originally Posted by Crossingover

Follow the procedure beginning on p. 45 of your Owner's Manual (may be a different page for your year) and you should not have these issues. Be sure the transmission is in NEUTRAL with the parking brake engaged. There is a calibration procedure on p. 46 that might also be helpful. Also note the OM tells you to raise the jacks BEFORE bringing in the slides and to start the engine to fill the air tanks before retracting. Let us know how it goes with the OM procedure.

I've noticed that once I start the engine, I can't retract my jacks. I'm not too fond of the idea of cranking and getting the airbags full, then have to shut it off to retrack the jacks and then having to recrank it.

[Les7h]

We start the engine and fill the airbags and then retract the jacks with the engine running - we still get some movement but not as much as when we don't fill the airbags

[memphis02]

I have the same issue as Jvteach77. I cannot retract (unless emergency retract) with engine on. I am also not fond of starting, then re-starting the main either.

After my seneca squished a few of those yellow camco wheel chalks, I decided on a pressure-treated 8x8 x 8' (was about $25) and got the 'ol chain saw out to make some proper wheel chalks. I chalk the front and rear of all 4 corners before I drop my jacks. The rig doesn't move an inch and as an added bonus, my front driver's side jack no longer binds up when I retract.

Afterthought:
One other thing I did was re-calibrating the auto-level system. After executing that, my auto-leveling with my bigfoot has less of a tendency to raise the cab significantly higher than necessary.

[RVermont]

Originally Posted by jvteach77

I've noticed that once I start the engine, I can't retract my jacks. I'm not too fond of the idea of cranking and getting the airbags full, then have to shut it off to retrack the jacks and then having to recrank it.

On the 2018 units, with the engine on you can not lower the jacks or move the slides in or out however you can raise the jacks. I wonder if there is an issue with your wiring or if that was a change. If I start the truck the airbags start to fill and it will actually lift the unit off the back jack in some instances. If the truck is running and someone ignores the screaming alarms from the leveling system and puts the truck in gear it will automatically retract the jacks ( I haven't tested that one and hopefully never will, but I take their word for that one)

I have started to do what most others are doing, lower the rear jacks and lift the back up, then once the air is dumped hit all retract, then start all over with auto level, also I have started to block the front wheels to reduce the forward and backward movement.

[javamon]

Originally Posted by RVermont

On the 2018 units, with the engine on you can not lower the jacks or move the slides in or out however you can raise the jacks. I wonder if there is an issue with your wiring or if that was a change.

My 2017 FS works the same as your 2018. I was also wondering if something is mis-wired.

[crumgater]

The engine on our 2015 won't crank at all if the jacks are down. All you get is a loud nasty alarm.

We fully chock the wheels on the low side of level, and that minimizes the 'rolling' off the levels as we retract them.