Leveling

[TomC]

If I'm staying more then 2 days in one spot, I'll level the bus with blocks then exhaust all the air out of the air bags to lower the bus down. Then it is resting on the rubber blocks. But funny-it bounces differently when bottomed out then with air in the air bags. When bottomed out, when someone is walking in the bus, it vibrates much faster than when it is pumped up. More solid, I guess. Good Luck, TomC

[Tnghost]

Thanks for all the replies guys now to find someone to install me something. It's funny no 1 has never installed something on my bus already guess they left me something to do 😆

[uncle ned]

  My hydraulic jacks fold up to the rear, safety reason i think so if you try to drive off they just fold up.

I have never felt any twisting of the coach that it does not have going down the road.

I can pick one wheel off the ground to change a tire, might twist a little but has not hurt any thing in the 12 years that i have had them.
the door moves a little if you have the pass. front off the ground.

not much on pictures but I plan on being a Arcadia this year.
I want to talk to John Silvers about a series 50.

I see that the air bags on the 06 is different than a 04.  I had mine cutting to far and rubbed a hole in the back on on the drivers side.
had to make some good stops to stop from going to far.

uncle ned

[Tnghost]

Who installs air leveling system

[kyle4501]

Ned, are you going to be showing off those levelers at the October NonRally ?

[PRZNBUS]

So....what was the consensus on three or four jacks and why?

Bruce

[Darkspeed]

So....what was the consensus on three or four jacks and why?

Bruce

Just a guess but it depends on how flexible your bus is .

Three jacks forms a triangle so there is less side to side loading on your shell so less chance of twisting your bus, but there is all so less opportunity to deal with uneven terrain.

Four jacks gives you more capability to deal with uneven terrain, would give you a more stable vehicle (when on jacks), but if you were not careful in your leveling process, could induce a lot of twist force.

I went with four but only after some substantial reinforcements.


As far as installing an air leveling system it should be as easy as replacing your (3?) pneumatic ride height valves with two way pneumatic solenoid valves and running wires up to the dash to individually control them.

[Tnghost]

So it shouldn't cost me an arm and a leg then 

[Darkspeed]

So it shouldn't cost me an arm and a leg then 

I have bought a lot of 12/24vdc 2 way solenoid valves from ebay / surplus around $12 each.

You would be defeating your bus automatic ride height system but you would be gaining the ability to manually control your ride height.

I am making the extra effort of running the air lines from the air bags to the dash so I can have a manual momentary valve and a pressure gauge for each corner of the bus.

[Tnghost]

Yeah I get what ur saying and airing the bus up to drive it wouldn't bother me I'm just not very mechanical handy with wood but not drive train

[Darkspeed]

Yeah I get what ur saying and airing the bus up to drive it wouldn't bother me I'm just not very mechanical handy with wood but not drive train

Another option on an installer would be your local shop that installs air ride suspensions for cars, that is if there is not a bus specific shop around. I had a budy that did nothing but ridetech.com installs and a bus would be a very basic job for him.

[Tnghost]

Ok thanks for the info sounds more in my budget than hydro jacks for now I got a friend who works on semis shouldn't b no prob fur him to install me sumthing or another

[Scott & Heather]

Can I thread drift a little? Two thoughts,

1. When you are driving your coach in and out of parking lots with grades or bumps or uneven terrain, you are twisting it a bit. Not gonna kill it in my opinion to have four jacks. When I level my coach, if I can't close the door, I know I need to adjust it a little lol.

2. In terms of setting coach up for air leveling, I would be interested to know if I could run the bags at less PSI and lower the coach while on the hwy. Would it be more stable? or less stable because of the squishy airbags??

[Darkspeed]

Can I thread drift a little? Two thoughts,

1. When you are driving your coach in and out of parking lots with grades or bumps or uneven terrain, you are twisting it a bit. Not gonna kill it in my opinion to have four jacks. When I level my coach, if I can't close the door, I know I need to adjust it a little lol.

2. In terms of setting coach up for air leveling, I would be interested to know if I could run the bags at less PSI and lower the coach while on the hwy. Would it be more stable? or less stable because of the squishy airbags??

1. when you are driving you are not loading the shell with the weight of the "sprung" suspension, so if you lift your tires your shell is taking a lot more weight.

2. Scott, if you have 6" of total suspension travel and your normal driving height is say 3" off of the stops and you go lower to say 1.5" off of the stops you are going to beat the crap out of your bus by hitting the stops all the time.. you really would not get that much out of it.

[uncle ned]

Kyle  I always us them at Palmetto cove.  Where we park I can drop the front down on the stops and keep the back high so my shor legged boss can get in and out.

Just wonder if I will have the same parking buddy now that he is a NEWELL owner.  He might park over on the high dollar side.  LOL

uncle ned