Seneca leaning

mikew968

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2015
Messages
452
I finally have a shop for the Seneca and when i brought it in I noticed it is not sitting level and is low on the drivers side. I am assuming the air suspension is not properly leveling the rear and that translates into the coach sitting low on the drivers side. could it be that once I am out on the road it will self level? anybody else have this issue?



Thanks
 
Hi Mike.

There was another thread on this last year. Here is what I said in that thread:

My 2016 36FK did the same thing. I thought maybe it was adjustments on the air bags in the back, so I took it into Freightliner. They said they couldn't get it perfectly level with the air bags, but that this was common on this chassis and that they have a shim kit they put in the drivers side front leaf spring to fix it. I had them do that and that fixed it for me. Now the coach is level and it was covered under warranty I believe.

Here is a link to the thread if you want to look at that:
https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f5/rig-is-leaning-50663.html
 
Isn't it sad, when manufacturers have to put out a "fix" for something that they got wrong in the first place... ?

There's a famous line from a very old training video... "Oh, yeah, they do that on this model..."
 
Leaning

I took mine to Freightliner and they looked at it and said that it was my imagination and charged me $80 - it doesn't lean anymore so they changed something
Les
 
I would imagine your experience with Freightliner will depend on your local shop as unfortunately, they all seem to be different. I was surprised at how friendly the guys at my local shop were. They really seemed like they were going to try and make things right for me. I watched as two guys spent 15 minutes trying to get the coach level using the airbags. When they couldn’t, they came to me and talked to me about the shim kit for the front, which is an actual Freightliner kit, not just an idea the guys had to try and level it. I was also quite surprised that it was covered under warranty. Based on all the reading I’ve done in this forum, you just don’t know what will be covered and what won’t.
 
I finally have a shop for the Seneca and when i brought it in I noticed it is not sitting level and is low on the drivers side. I am assuming the air suspension is not properly leveling the rear and that translates into the coach sitting low on the drivers side. could it be that once I am out on the road it will self level? anybody else have this issue?



Thanks
There’s a rod on each side of the level control valve that’s probably bent
 
So, i called Freightliner and I am under warranty with them for 3 years (until end of July). They told me to check the frame height and it is dead on behind the rear axle and within 1/2" at the front axle. It would appear the Motorhome body is sitting 1.5" higher on the passenger side (as the frame is level). Any ideas on this?
 
i finally got under the MH and the frame in the rear is dead level from side to side and the front is less than 1/2" different. The wheel arches measure 1.5" high on the passenger side. I would conclude the MH box or shell was not built level from side to side.
**Does anyone else have this issue where the frame is level and box is not?
** Does it really matter?
**Pending it matters, can Jaco do anything about and will they?



Thanks
 
The first thing you want to do is ensure the weight is roughly equal side to side. Measure front axle both sides, and rear axle both sides. The weight can be mismatched at the factory due to the comparative weight of various slide outs. It can also be mismatched depending on what you carry in the storage compartments and how you arrange it. It is a good idea to plan your storage cabinets accordingly to the extent you can. It's likely that a difference of 400-500 lbs either side could account for an inch or more of lean. Of course, this assumes there is no assembly defect with body-to-frame contact, which ought to be covered under warranty. But before simply dropping it off at the shop with a complaint that it's leaning, and assuming they will cover it all under warranty, I'd do the homework to ensure you aren't too heavily loaded on one side. Their "fix" will probably assume you aren't willing to relocate heavy items, and they might likely charge you for it as a modification rather than a defect.
 
We finally got our Seneca in to freightliner. Our ride height was way out of adjustment. Since it was adjustments, it wasn't covered by warranty. So $336.00 later it's fixed.
 
We finally got our Seneca in to freightliner. Our ride height was way out of adjustment. Since it was adjustments, it wasn't covered by warranty. So $336.00 later it's fixed.
Glad to hear you got your Seneca fixed. Warranty with a $360.00 fix doesn’t seam like a very good warranty! Did they tell you what was fixed?
 
The warranty was a freightliner one. It only warranteed the chassis. We have the extended warranty but it wasn't covered either.
They adjusted the ride height and everything was else was ok.
 
My ride height was off too. The Freightliner dealer here in Washington adjusted it under warranty , along with the front end wheel alignment.
 
So i took my Seneca to Freightliner yesterday and they diagnosed a level control valve was leaking. So, they replaced it and hopefully all is level with the world now!!! Nice to have a 3 year warranty from Freightliner!
 
Got it home and pulled straight into the level shop...now it’s leaning about an inch to the passenger side!!!!
 
Mike, that is with the engine running’s? The switches are a mechanical arm so the best thing but time consuming is back to Freightliner for an adjustment.
 

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