6 Point Level Up System Problems . . Has anyone seen anything like this?

[pegmikef]

Disconnect shore power, let it sit for 30 minutes. Cycle the up down arrows on the level up control panel to find out the voltage getting to the control panel. Could be a battery/battery terminal problem. Could be a poor ground.

Funny you should mention that as I did that very test Saturday except I went about an hour and a half. When I removed the shore power, the voltage on the panel dropped from 13.2 to 12.9. About twenty minutes later it was down to 12.7, but after an hour it had only dropped to 12.6 and held there for 20 minutes or so, so I turned the shore power back on. I was also metering each battery and they each were the same as the voltage being displayed on the panel. Batteries had plenty of water as I had just topped them off before our last rally circuit. Frankly Dan, I am mystified by this whole deal.

 

[danemayer]

Mike,

I'd check the grounds next. There's probably a bunch of ground wires that come together and are attached to the frame, maybe behind the basement wall. A bad ground is as bad as low voltage. One problem with marginal connections is that under a light load, like a meter, they can check out ok. The failure shows up under load.

Also check the wiring at the hydraulic pump and at the 12V breakers near the batteries. Wiggle and pull on the wires to make sure you don't have a bad crimp at the fitting on the end of the wire.

 

[pegmikef]

Mike,

I'd check the grounds next. There's probably a bunch of ground wires that come together and are attached to the frame, maybe behind the basement wall. A bad ground is as bad as low voltage. One problem with marginal connections is that under a light load, like a meter, they can check out ok. The failure shows up under load.

Also check the wiring at the hydraulic pump and at the 12V breakers near the batteries. Wiggle and pull on the wires to make sure you don't have a bad crimp at the fitting on the end of the wire.

Ok, thanks Dan. When it's cooler out, I will see if I can find the grounding point and check it out. Mechanically, everything hydraulically related (e.g., slides, jacks) all work just fine. It is just that the controller did not control them correctly, until I managed to calibrate the controller.

 

[pegmikef]

Grounds looked good as does other wiring. As it turns out it may have been an intermittently shorting connector on the extension I use to hook up the A/C that may have been causing spikes and dips in voltage that reached the DC side via the converter and batteries thereby corrupting voltages to the controller. This is the only thing we have found wrong and it is really just a thought since everything is working well now. We will see as I am going to run it thru its paces a few times in the next couple of weeks using various scenarios to see if we can repeat the problem.

For those of you with a Big Horn 3010RE that need to find the rear sensor, here is what HL CS told me (I'm going to look later today or early tomorrow to see if it is really there).

Hello Michael
This is what I found out from engineering;
From where the sensor is located the front jacks are 210 5/8” front of sensor, Center Jacks are 102 ¾” front of sensor, and the Rear Jacks are 24 3/8” Rear of the Sensor

 

[Relayman]

do you have to be on level ground to zero the unit..or just have your unit leveled out using the landing gear and leveling jacks..verified with a 2 or 4 foot level ?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[BusManRG]

Grounds looked good as does other wiring. As it turns out it may have been an intermittently shorting connector on the extension I use to hook up the A/C that may have been causing spikes and dips in voltage that reached the DC side via the converter and batteries thereby corrupting voltages to the controller. This is the only thing we have found wrong and it is really just a thought since everything is working well now. We will see as I am going to run it thru its paces a few times in the next couple of weeks using various scenarios to see if we can repeat the problem.

For those of you with a Big Horn 3010RE that need to find the rear sensor, here is what HL CS told me (I'm going to look later today or early tomorrow to see if it is really there).

Hello Michael
This is what I found out from engineering;
From where the sensor is located the front jacks are 210 5/8” front of sensor, Center Jacks are 102 ¾” front of sensor, and the Rear Jacks are 24 3/8” Rear of the Sensor[/

I am completely ignorant when it comes to electricity. I'm trying to follow your explanation in case I were to have similar problems. Should your surge protector protect the system from the "corrupted voltages" you mention?
Sandy

 

[danemayer]

do you have to be on level ground to zero the unit..or just have your unit leveled out using the landing gear and leveling jacks..verified with a 2 or 4 foot level ?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

To zero calibrate the auto-level, you just need to have the coach level. The zero calibrate procedure stores the current sensor settings and the "brain" uses that setting in the future to know when the coach is level.

 

[Relayman]

that's what I figured. Thanks.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[pegmikef]

I am completely ignorant when it comes to electricity. I'm trying to follow your explanation in case I were to have similar problems. Should your surge protector protect the system from the "corrupted voltages" you mention?
Sandy

Yes it would have, however I am on a dedicated 20 Amp circuit at my house which has extremely stable power so I never hook up my progressive EMS. I have the portable model and if I had plugged it into the offending extension cord connector and it detected the anomalies it probably would have cut the power. If, however, I had plugged it into the outlet and then the extension into the EMS, then no it would not have detected it as the bad connector would have been down stream from the EMS.

 

[pegmikef]

Sorry folks, but I don't think anybody is going to learn a whole lot more here. I have not been able to repeat any of the problems I observed last week. All of the functions work as they are supposed to. The correct jacks retract when instructed. The auto retract works well as does the auto level function. I again hooked it up to my truck, raised all the jacks and disconnected the shore power for three hours. The batteries never went below 12.6 Volts. I then simulated my setup procedure that I always perform. Truck running, electric hooked to truck, lower landing gear, disconnect electric, open hitch, move truck out of way, connect shore power, wait two minutes (for EMS to kick in simulated in this case), turn on level up system, check voltage (13.6), press auto level and watch it dance. Again, worked perfectly!

The only other thing I did was to wipe down the jack shafts with silicon spray. I had noticed that they were pretty noisy when I had my initial problems so I cleaned them all real well and that quieted them down. I doubt this would have cause my problems though. I have no idea because everything checks out and the only real problem I found was the bad AC connector.

 

[pegmikef]

Oops, I forgot that I still have not been able to verify that the rear sensor connector is ok and that the sensor itself is not loose. That is still an open issue because the sensor was not at the location Heartland engineering specified. I am waiting for them to recheck the location before I open up another area of bottom.