Jacked Around by Lippert Jacks

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Mr_Toad

Thank you very much, Mr. HoosierGuy!



This is excellent information, so I will reply as shown below...also, may I ask a question of you?



QUESTION: If the battery power is adequate to support Manual Leveling without interruption, then how is the battery power not adequate to support AutoLeveling at all? Does that make sense to you?





HoosierGuy: I am a retired electrical/electronics engineer. Battery terminal voltage varies a function of the charge status of the battery. A fully charged lead-acid type battery will have terminal voltage in the range of 13.2 to 13.4 volts. As energy is drawn from the battery and it discharges, the terminal voltage will decrease. I expect that the Lippert tech really means that their control system requires a minimum of 12.75 Volts for the Auto-Level control system to function properly. Like others have posted, I recommend that you have the shore power connected or tow vehicle power connected to the coach when you are leveling the coach. This will ensure that there is sufficient voltage available as most charging systems will put out 14.5 to 14.7 volts when charging the batteries.

REPLY: Yep....in EVERY attempt at resolving this, the 36FB has been attached to the 50 amp RV park connection.





HoosierGuy: All of the suggestions that have been posted are good suggestions. Since you can level the system manually, have you tried re-calibrating the leveling system? If so, and it still doesn't function properly, then possibly the level sensor box ( that is mounted to the ceiling above the battery and hydraulic pump compartment ) and/or the leveling control board is defective. Lippert should be able to walk your technician through a check of those items.

REPLY: Yep...my RV repair guy has been on the phone for about four total hours with Lippert, and re-calibrating was just one of the multiple trial and error solutions offered by Lippert.





HoosierGuy: You may have to get Redwood involve in this process also to ge resolution.

REPLY: Nope....Redwood says it is Lippert's product, so Lippert has to resolve it. But I have not spoken with Redwood myself, as yet.

I can only conjecture as to a possible answer to your question because I don't havespecific knowledge on the electronic control and level sensor in the Lippert system. It may be possible to operate the leveling system manually even though it doesn't function correctly in the automatic mode. In the manual mode, the electronics are essentially bypassed except for those circuits required to activate the pump motor in either direction.



In the automatic mode, the control system may require aminimum level of voltage at the batteryin order for the "level sensor" circuits to function properly. Closed loop control systems require a reference (likely some value of voltage in this case) in order to drive towards a target (the leveled condition as determine by the sensor). If the battery voltage dips too low (this could happen even when connected to shore power if the battery/s are failing under load)when operating thesystem in automatic mode, the circuits may not have sufficient voltage to develope the correct reference for the "level sensor", therefore it does not achieve a level condition. This may be why the Lippert tech support is directing your technician towards the possibility of a bad battery. It may be necessary to remove your battery/s (I hope you have at least 2) and have them checked with a load tester.



Edited by: hoosierguy