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Thread: Dumb questions about leveling
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10-31-2020, 01:42 PM #1
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Dumb questions about leveling
My wife and I are looking at new Solitude. We have had a Class A for 20 years so how does unhooking your truck and leveling work with the 6 point leveling system? Thanks
KCLooking at Solitude 390RK
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10-31-2020, 01:58 PM #2
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I've got a Momentum 394M with the same system, so I'll try to give you a brief description. When you are ready to unhook from the truck, and you've got your trailer wheels chocked, you simply fire up the control box and push the up arrow. When the trailer is slightly up off the truck 5ver hitch and the hitch is released, drive out from under the Kingpin and park your truck. With these systems, the nose of the trailer needs to be at level (front to back) or just slightly nose high. Next step is to push the Auto Level and let it go to work. It will ground the middle legs on both sides, then the rear legs and start the levelling process. The green light on the control panel will be flashing while it's doing it's thing and once it's level, the light will turn green (no flashing).
There is also a "hitch height" button and when you are ready to hook back up and leave, simply fire up the control box and push the hitch height button. The rear and middle legs on both sides will fully retract, and when that is done, the landing gear will drop the front of the trailer down to the position (height) that it was at before you pushed the auto level button when you were setting up.
The one caveat about this system though, is that if you try to auto level and the trailer is nose low, it will go into fault and will not auto level. It is a built in safety to keep someone from getting a smashed truck bed. So if you pull in a spot and when you are done unhitching from the truck and the nose of the trailer is low, you must raise the front of the trailer (landing gear) until it's level or slightly above. Having to do this kind of negates the "Hitch height" button's 100% accuracy, but it will also protect your truck and trailer. Auto Level, once you learn how to use it, is so easy.....it's almost like cheating! LOL2016 F350 CrewCab Dually
2018 Momentum 394M...Heavily Modded!
2023 Suzuki GSX-S1000 GT+
Excessive Payload is a Wonderful Thing
"If it ain't fast....It ain't Fun"
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10-31-2020, 02:42 PM #3
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Great tutorial xrated, that should be a sticky. It is a fun process to watch as well, the hydraulic motor sounds like a movie Transformer moving around lol. I set up one time next to a small travel trailer and they watched mine level itself and they were fascinated lol.
2019 Solitude 375RES Onan 5500 Splendide W/D Samsung res. fridge
2020 Ford F450 Platinum dually 6.7L 4:30 gears
B&W Companion for Ford puck system 20K lbs
Jeff
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10-31-2020, 02:54 PM #4
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The nose tends to drop during leveling, so keep that in mind. We always keep the truck away from the front of the rv until after it's leveled.
2019 Momentum 395
2018 Ram 3500 DRW 4.10 AISIN
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10-31-2020, 02:54 PM #5
Excellent info, however, not 100% correct on the nose low scenario. What @xrated described is definitely true for the hitch height button; however, the camper can be nose low to engage the auto level function.
The pad at my house is not level and the camper is always nose low. When I unhitch my truck and pull forward i press the auto level button and there are never any faults. I've also been to campgrounds where the front legs end up extending almost all the way during the leveling process, which indicates the camper was nose low, and no faults.
The only time I've received a fault is when the front landing gear ran out stroke to extend because of how unlevel the site was. To correct that I had to hook back up to the truck and put blocks under the front landing gear and try again.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk2023 Momentum 398M-R
2023 Ford F-450
SOLD - 2021 Reflection 311BHS
SOLD - 2017 Momentum 399TH
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10-31-2020, 04:29 PM #6
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2016 F350 CrewCab Dually
2018 Momentum 394M...Heavily Modded!
2023 Suzuki GSX-S1000 GT+
Excessive Payload is a Wonderful Thing
"If it ain't fast....It ain't Fun"
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10-31-2020, 04:39 PM #7
It's possible we have different versions of the system. I have checked my calibration with a 4ft level and all is well. Here is a screen shot from the owners manual of my system. It does say you should start on a level surface, but doesnt say you need to do any additional raising of the nose prior to pushing auto level.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk2023 Momentum 398M-R
2023 Ford F-450
SOLD - 2021 Reflection 311BHS
SOLD - 2017 Momentum 399TH
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10-31-2020, 04:53 PM #8
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We have a solitude, front living Room, mid kitchen, rear bedroom and bathroom. It's really quite easy, It's all push button. Lower the front landing gear and take the weight off the back of the truck chalk the tires unplug the electrical cord in the emergency brake dropp the tailgate on the truck, open the hitch and pull forward. When the truck is clear press auto level it does everything. When done you can go and lower the stairs and open up the slides. And hooking up is just the reverse, bringing in the slides, raise the stairs and there are 2 options either auto retract all. It will Drop the front of the trailer down all the way and raise up all of the landing gear. Or press auto reconnect And it will usually get pretty close to where you disconnected. We find there still a little bit of manual pressing of buttons up or down to get it just right, but then just back the truck in when it's at the right level plugin everything lock the hitch and remove the chocks. What I do then is raised the front legs, again push button, about an inch off the ground and do a tug test with the manual override on the electric brake to make sure the hitch and everything is secure Then just raise the jacks the rest of the way with the push button control.
If you are having a hard time finding a solitude, we are considering selling ours, it is a 2020, and we are looking at moving into a super C right now.
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11-01-2020, 09:30 AM #9
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Simply put, I enjoy unhooking moving truck forward and then pushing auto level. A couple minutes later I can open slides and enjoy where I am at. When I get ready to leave, pushing one button retracts and sets up hitch for my truck to back in.
Bob and Cheryl, Puka the doodle
2018 Ram 2500 Crew,Diesel,4x4
2016 Reflection 27RL
2012 Palomino 6.5 camper
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11-01-2020, 10:01 AM #10
The foremost expert in the system actually now works for Grand Design! Incidentally, he is the one who finally diagnosed the issue with my system in exactly 6 minutes after 1 full year of it never working properly, 3 dealer attempts to fix, 4.5 hours of me diagnosing it with Lippert, and me becoming an an "amateur expert" in the system over this time plus 4 new controllers, 2 brains, 2 jacks, and all new harnesses... He doesn't work for them in a tech capacity either, but one of the 4 guys good enough to stay behind on a Friday night at the Factory Service Center when the system failed again after the GD techs were certain it was OK after having it in for a week! I digress, and long story short @FT4NOW, is that your system should not do what it has when nose down, but I will bet even if you re-zero it that it will still do this. Why you might ask? Because there is a sensor rearward of the axles and if it is mounted incorrectly it can let this happen. Guess how I know? LOL.
Rob & Nikki + Cloverfield
2020 Grand Design Solitude S-Class 3350RL
2015 RAM 3500 Longhorn Laramie Crew Cab, Long Bed, 4x4 Dually Cummins/AISIN
Mountains of Pennsylvania
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