Today and tomorrow I'm dedicated to making this happen in a parking lot:
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A tag axle dump or a kneeling system ?
Looks like your installing a leveling system with your air bags.
Don't expect much from it.
air ride seat...
Left hand and right hand oil spraying nozzles to ward off obnoxious drivers! Am I right or what? ;D ;D Jack
a groovy leveling system. ???
Air leveling system. I have half of it installed already. My main concern is using 1/4" lines for this. I'm guessing the inflate/|deflate rate will slow. Craig, why? Not enough travel?
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The one on our 4104 had 1/4" lines. It is somewhat slow if you are exhausting all the air from one of the chamber's, although the push-pull valves may have restricted the air flow.
How exactly am I supposed to measure ride height, is it from the ground to the bottom edge of the luggage bag? I have looked at the manual but I guess I'm still I'm sure I've seen different reports of different ways of measuring ride height
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Quote from: Scott & Heather on October 19, 2016, 03:41:24 AM
Air leveling system. I have half of it installed already. My main concern is using 1/4" lines for this. I'm guessing the inflate/|deflate rate will slow. Craig, why? Not enough travel?
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The manual ones I have seen don't seem to have much travel unless you by pass the leveling valves.I forgot who but I think it was Sean that used the liner actuators attached to his leveling valves.I have a HWH system to install on mine lol I may need to add a couple more friggn computers to make it work though.Just about all buses use 14 inches for clearance from the luggage bays
Thank you cliff. Ok, that's what I measured it out to but wanted to be sure. I have completely bypassed the levelers. I have run 1/4" dot air line from dash to rear bags through a manual air paddle switch. I haven't tested everything yet. Still picking up bits and pieces today to complete the install before it rains. I have leveling blocks that I use for extreme leveling issues but for parking lot leveling, this system should help a lot. Sometimes it might just be nice to dump the air out of the bags just so I can level the coach with blocks and not wonder how it will "sit" by the next day. I have been having to do that up until now: park coach. Level on blocks. Next day it's leaning, start it up, relevel based on estimated lean. Next day leans a little too much the other way once bags have drained, start up and fine tune level. I'm over that system. So if nothing else, having the ability
To dump air all the way around from the dash will be nice.
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You are going to need a small auxiliary compressor tied to system or it will still lean,my drawings show installing the small BlueDot DC compressor
My leveling system had a highway/ manual selector so you just bypassed the leveling valves when you wanted to adjust when camping.
The newer M/H with air suspension really have some high tech air leveling systems like the HWH and Power Gear it is way over my head
Curious why most self crafted leveling systems I see on the boards choose to run multiple lenghly lines of pneumatic instead of low volt electric to switch operated solenoids at the control points very close to what's being controlled.
What an I missing here?
Quote from: dtcerrato on October 19, 2016, 06:43:16 AM
Curious why most self crafted leveling systems I see on the boards choose to run multiple lenghly lines of pneumatic instead of low volt electric to switch operated solenoids at the control points very close to what's being controlled.
What an I missing here?
They run lines to keep from dealing with Norgren valves Prevost use the solenoids and they are very high up keep
You have enough trouble with all the electrical items on a coach. Don't need more, especially if they are inaccessible. Pneumatic systems are very trouble free; used a lot in industry on machines making products.
OK, I see...
My earlier separate post on simple & inexpensive leaving system is 12vdc solenoids and really contributed our convenience & comfort on our latest major journey.
It's been about a year since installation and trouble free.
Nothing automatic about it, just switches at the driver.
We'll put it to the test of time - $50 and couple days labor
Leveling system are most straight forward on a 2 axle GM when you add the tag (3rd axle) it becomes a little more complicated and Scott has a tag axle to deal with.
I would really prefer the HWH hydraulic system like I had on my Eagle but I don't have room or nothing to weld to for support
Quote from: Scott & Heather on October 19, 2016, 05:47:37 AM
How exactly am I supposed to measure ride height
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with a tape measure .... :o
Lol Jim.
Dan, run lengthy wiring or run lengthy airline? It's just a matter of which one you'd prefer to run. I like the non electric setup of a manual air paddle. Air ride seats are made using the same setup. Works perfect for what I need. Cliff, where is the air leaking from one I've eliminated the leveling valves? The only leakage areas would be between the bag and my paddle switch....
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I kept my normal automatic leveling valves (1 front, 2 rear). I used Red Cap air solenoids. One normally open, two normally closed for each position. The normally open is positioned between the automatic leveling valve and the air bags. When activated, it closes air to the air bags. Then between the solenoid and the air bags is Tee'd in the supply and exhaust solenoids for manual leveling. The solenoids have been 100% reliable since installing in 1994. Good Luck, TomC
Quote from: Scott & Heather on October 19, 2016, 08:21:04 AM
Lol Jim.
Dan, run lengthy wiring or run lengthy airline? It's just a matter of which one you'd prefer to run. I like the non electric setup of a manual air paddle. Air ride seats are made using the same setup. Works perfect for what I need. Cliff, where is the air leaking from one I've eliminated the leveling valves? The only leakage areas would be between the bag and my paddle switch....
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They don't need to leak the temperature changes affect the level on everyone I have been around
I just don't like the air leveling system no matter what you do if you are not down on the stops the bus wiggles with the wind and walking around.My 8 would wobble if you turned over in bed at night now my Eagle never even had a bobble.The DL3 I am thinking could be different with the way the air bags are set up but I will see soon I hope
I'm with you hundred percent I don't like the wobble, but until we can afford to have a leveling system installed that is hydraulic this is going to have to get us by.
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Quote from: Scott & Heather on October 19, 2016, 03:41:24 AM
Air leveling system. I have half of it installed already. My main concern is using 1/4" lines for this. I'm guessing the inflate/|deflate rate will slow. Craig, why? Not enough travel?
Yes. Very limited travel, and over a 40 foot bus, it really can't adjust very much. You pretty much need to be very close to level to get it level with the bags. And, if you have leaks in your air beams, air bags, connections, relays, etc, by morning it doesn't matter anyway. If I could afford it, I'd put bigfoot levelers on my axles and then just dump the bags down to the bump stops.
Scott, are you installing individual gauges to allow you to distribute the weight evenly?
mine is as simple as it gets . 1 air line to each corner to the control + 1 feed line . no leaks , works great
dave
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hope this works
dave
Craig, thankfully my c doesn't have air beams. But yeah if I have any leaks in the lines between the bags and the paddle switch I could have leakdown issues I suppose
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My 2000 Countrycoach has the HWH air leveling system on the Gillig (Dynomax) chassis. We really like it. It works automatically or you can override and level manually. It is real solid when parked, the coach doesn't move around much when we move. I think a hydraulic system would be better but the air works fine. Craig is right, you don't have much travel. I think the max I can accommodate is 6" off of level. Any more than than that, we carry run up blocks to get close and then let the HWH system take it from there.
I did same as Dave above. One line to supply and one to each corner of 2 bags each with these right next to my hip when I am driving. 2 gauges with 2 needles on each valve. 4 paddles. I don't get wobble and keep the bags at 70 front and 80 rear when driving. They don't leak and it stays up until I either put more air in or take it out. It will only give you about 4 inches at the axles but if you measure say with the front up all the way and the rear down all the way it can be as much as 11 inches difference because of the overhanges. Its a good inexpensive system. Leveling valves were used to keep 47 customers comfortable while riding in a passenger bus IMHO. ;D
Dave5Cs
PS When we are getting ready to go we only have to use the shop compressor to fill up the brake system because the bags are most of the times full already or just need adjusting for the road to travel if I had dropped or raised a corner for an out of level site.
We've been using my manual air leveling now for several weeks on the road and thousands of miles. No issues whatsoever. I had a terrible lean and side to side rocking while driving. That is literally completely gone now. She drives solid as a rock. I have been able to level the coach when parked off the edge of a road or even at truck stops with drain grades in their lots. Works really well. I love it.
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