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Ride height valve

Yahoo Message Number: 109863
I suspect the rear left ride height valve is bad as that corner is sitting low in travel mode, but levels fine when using hwh. Anyone know of a mobile mechanic around fort myers beach Florida area that can repair? I am concerned about driving it anywhere since tires rub when going down the road. Thanks!

Steve

2000 Intrigue
#11168

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109864
Steve:

I have intrigue 11021 a 2000 model coach with 166,000 + miles. I can help you with this problem Call 410 666-2094 Eastern time best between 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM or up to 10:00 PM Jim

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109866
Thanks. I have a couple possible leads on a mobile mechanic too and will contact you...do you have parts? I appreciate your quick response.

Steve

2000 Intrigue
#11168

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109867
Steve, you can drive your coach if you put the coach at ride height and then pull the fuse to the HWH brain. Start the motor and use the HWH pad to get the coach to correct ride height and then pull the fuse. Do not put the coach in gear before pulling the fuse.

Don

'02 Intrigue 11427
'02 Intrigue #11427

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109872
You just may need an adjustment. If you have the older brass models you then want to replace out both sides in the rear if the valve it self is bad.
If you have the height requirements any shop can do the work. It's a pretty easy task.

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109874
On our 2000 Magna with HWH air leveling the ride height valves are attached to the axle with a small shaft that attaches to the ride height valve with a sliding rubber bushing. Driving over rough roads sometimes that rubber bushing slides up or down the shaft causing the coach to lean one way or the other. Drive it up on blocks; Block the body in place and crawl under there and loosen the bushing and slide it up or down the shaft to re-level. There is a hose clamp that squeezes the bushing tight on the shaft. Loosen the clamp and move the bushing with your fingers. But you have to have the coach up on blocks.

The ride height valves do fail periodically, but in our case I noticed the coach leaning last summer on a trip to the east coast and I was able to solve the problem with the above procedure. We've put over 10,000 miles on since.

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109887
Here's an easy way to defeat switching from HWH leveling to mechanical control of the leveling. Level the coach with the HWH panel taking care to provide adequate clearance between the tires and wheel wells.
I hope the image comes through.

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/photos/photostream/lightbox/752911946?orderBy=mtime&sortOrder=desc&photoFilter=ALL#

Ground wire #21 and the coach will stay where the HWH left it. Do not turn off the HWH. The voice may complain that the parking brake is set when a gear is selected on the shift pad. It's not a problem. I drove our coach for about 2,000 miles with this workaround in place until we got the ride height control valve replaced.

FWIW

Dave M. 2002 Affinity #6103
Dave & Cathy M, 2002 Affinity #6103, 2018 GMC Acadia, Linux Mint 19.2

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 109918
Not sure about your coach and floor plan but many (most?) Country Coaches have a group of three air pressure activated switches located in the front run bay. That's the one beneath the driver's seat accessible from the exterior door on the driver's side all the way forward.

One is for the parking brake indicator, one is for the brake lights, and I forget what the third one is for without pulling out the owner's manual.

We're interested in the one for the parking brake indicator. In our coach and I believe in others, It's the middle one. Wire number 21 is a white wire leading from that middle switch. The wire has a tape label with "21" on it. I thought it was pretty clear in the image referred to via the link in the middle of my post. I could not get the image itself to appear but clicking on the link will bring it up.

HTH

Dave M. 2002 Affinity #6103
Dave & Cathy M, 2002 Affinity #6103, 2018 GMC Acadia, Linux Mint 19.2

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 110109
Sounds like an easy temporary solution to move it to a repair shop, but someone had mentioned the concern of getting the proper height traveling down the road or it could do damage to the driveshaft and unjoints. Would I need to use the raise button on HWH and measure distance from the frame to bottom of airbags like you do when adjusting ride height valves before hooking up this ground wire? Thanks.

Steve

2000 Intrigue
#11168

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 110119
I was advised that a clearance of six inches between the tops of the tires and the wheel well body work above them is sufficient. Achieving the clearance is done from the HWH panel by adjusting the height at the front, back, and sides. It's important that the coach be on a level surface when this is done.

The way we did it was for DW to be in the coach and on the phone with me being on the outside. I'd check clearance over one tire and advise DW which quadrant to adjust and in which direction. Then I'd move to the next tire. Then we repeated the process until equal clearance was obtained above each tire. Did not include the tag axle tires but left the tag axle down.

The most difficult part of this process was finding a truly level place to adjust the ride height.

The the parking brake indicator switch can be grounded at any time prior to getting underway. All it does is prevent shifting from HWH leveling to over-the-road ride mode leveling. This presupposes that the HWH system is left on. We left the ground wire on for 2,000 miles and several weeks until getting to Premier RV in Junction City where Gary's tech replaced the failed ride height control valve.

Replacing that valve (left rear in our case) is not an easy job. Tech Dave had to remove the left rear tag axle wheel to gain access.

FWIW

Dave M. 2002 Affinity #6103
Dave & Cathy M, 2002 Affinity #6103, 2018 GMC Acadia, Linux Mint 19.2

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 110124
On the '00 Intrigue, you can measure the distance from ground level to the bottom of the wheel well and set it to 42 1/2" using your HWH buttons..Once this distance is set, you have to pull the fuse tht runs the HWH brain and that can be done from the fuse panel in the front driver's compartment. The fuse has to be pulled before you put the coach in gear or else it will fall out of ride heght

Don

'02 Intrigue 11427
'02 Intrigue #11427

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #14 –
Yahoo Message Number: 110125
Thank you all for the assistance in bypassing the travel mode on hwh to move the coach safely.

I have been reading the hwh manual troubleshooting guide, and now I am not convinced it is a ride height valve. According to the manual, if the travel mode green light does not light up and a red warning light stays lit (which is the case with mine having rear drivers side corner light on), it could be a travel solenoid or blown solenoid fuse which prevents the air bag from getting enough air....make sense to anyone? The manual says not to drive it if a red warning light is on.

I can still try either the ground wire as some have suggested and/or pulling the fuse but will see if doing this will still work if it is in fact a travel solenoid and not a ride height valve.

Steve

2000 Intrigue
#11168

Re: Ride height valve

Reply #15 –
Yahoo Message Number: 110128
I am not exactly clear on what your problem is or what this red light is but be aware there is a brake switch in the run bay, and if this fails, the system will not go into travel mode, and a light will come on telling you the brake has not been released. This has been discussed in our group if you search.

Rich 2002 Magna