Level Up not returning to correct unhook height

[mtpocket]

Just curious if anyone else is seeing this. When hooking back up the level up system always returns to a position higher than when we unhooked. I had written it off to not having the truck at the same angle etc. The last place we stayed both the truck and camper were on the same concrete pad. I did not touch the level up between unhooking and hooking except the original auto level. It was a straight shot backing up to the trailer. The position it returned to would have resulted in a "high hitch" which is the same every time. I have to manually adjust the height at every re-hook.

 

[Stuts]

Hey Chris,

I think my system has worked half the time for me with regards to returning to the hitching position. I had the dealer check it and they claim that it is working as designed. I think the issue is that when you unhitch, you are then auto leveling and moving on to the other things of setting up and you don't really take the time to measure or troubleshoot for accuracy.

Yesterday when I went to hook back up, I was an inch too high and had to lower slightly. Now, I've read other threads that talk about the RV has to be at least level or higher in the front when you unhitch for it to work right. I think back to whether the fact that I raise it and then do a slight retract when unhitching as to whether that has an affect.

I've also had the issue where I get the error when hitting the left and right arrow and have to go through the manual process. Now I'm seeing the way to avoid that is to hold the left and right arrow.

All I care about now is that when I hit auto-level, the unit is level when complete. I had to have that recalibrated after I took original delivery.

-Scott

 

[mtpocket]

Stuts
I have a 1 ton dually 4x4 so my trailer has always been higher in the front when the auto level begins. I have never seen any error messages, lucky me! Probably just live with it because sometimes the fix makes things worse. I can hit the button to lower it. I do want to measure it for my own curosity to see if it is consistently the same height over where I unhook. Now if I can just remember to do that when we unhook.

 

[thompsons 369rl]

This is a difficult issue. I feel it may depend on the individuals unhooking process. We have 3 friends that also own 369s and we often camp together. Everyboby has a slightly different way of unhooking. Some raise the rig more than others. I've seen times when someone pulls their truck forward and the bed will drop an inch or two. Other times it will bounce up. It all depends on just how high one raises their rig before unhooking. Where ever the rig is positioned for unhooking is where it should go back to. Personally, I always raise the rig just until I see a tiny bit of space between the pinbox and the hitch head. It works for me and I've never had a problem with it returning to a too high or too low position when we re-hook.

 

[thompsons 369rl]

Stuts
I have a 1 ton dually 4x4 so my trailer has always been higher in the front when the auto level begins. I have never seen any error messages, lucky me! Probably just live with it because sometimes the fix makes things worse. I can hit the button to lower it. I do want to measure it for my own curosity to see if it is consistently the same height over where I unhook. Now if I can just remember to do that when we unhook.

I did a little test our last time out. After unhooking, the front of the rig was fairly high so I lowered it a few inches prior to hitting the auto level. Auto level worked as designed. When hooking back up, I hit the left/right buttons and the rig auto returned to the position it was in just prior to hitting auto level (which was a few inches lower that the original unhook height). I had to manually raise it up to the original unhook height.

Next time we unhooked, I didn't mess with the height. Auto level worked as designed. When we hooked back up hitting the left/right buttons, it auto returned almost exactly to the original unhook height.

My conclusion is the system remembers the last position it was in prior to hitting auto level.

 

[longshot]

our 369RL has come out of level a few times when using it, although the dealer could find nothing wrong with it, every time it came out of level enough to where I had to re-level it, it did not return to zero when we went to hook up otherwise it has always been at least close enough to connect

 

[Capen's Cottage]

The same issue has happened with us as well. We get an error message saying "This feature is disabled press enter to acknowledge" It works some of the time and other times it doesn't. We also have an issue with the unit staying in level position. The front of the unit seems to drop after a period of time. We installed "JT Strongarms" on our unit to help with the wiggling while set up and at our last spot in Medora, ND we heard a snapping sound and when I looked the point at which the strong arms attach to the frame on the front - front to rear ones - the bolts had sheered off and the unit had come down considerably on the front.
I'm contacting both GD and Lippert about the strong arms and leveling issue.

 

[Steve and Cill]

Welcome to the forum Capen's Cottage! Are you guys full timers? I checked out your album and the one on Lake Superior is beautiful.

Steve

 

[Capen's Cottage]

Hi Steve and Cill,
Yes we are full timers, have been now for a little over 2 1/2 yrs. We are currently on our western tour of the US and right now in Rapid City, SD. When we went full time we were living in NC but we are originally from New England. We wintered in Arizona last winter and we are returning there this year for another winter.
It was beautiful up on Lake Superior and we had a great time there. People ask us if we have a favorite spot we have seen and we generally say that we actually don't. Each place we go (unless just for an overnight in walmart parking lot) is special in its own way. The people we have met, for the most part, have been great and many have asked to see our 369RL #49. It is a great way to promote Grand Design.
Our only regret is we won't be able to get to the 1st Rally as we will be somewhere in the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone NP. I hope all goes well and the weather cooperates for the Rally. We really love our Solitude and with the exception of a few problems which the factory fixed and did a great job. That is one thing I hope never changes with Grand Design - their commitment to service. Unfortunately our experience with another company "A Thor owned company" was really bad and we can't emphasize the difference between the companies when speaking with people interested in our Solitude.
Hope we might meet up sometime but for now we are committed to the west for the next year or year and a half.
Gary

 

[longshot]

The same issue has happened with us as well. We get an error message saying "This feature is disabled press enter to acknowledge" It works some of the time and other times it doesn't. We also have an issue with the unit staying in level position. The front of the unit seems to drop after a period of time. We installed "JT Strongarms" on our unit to help with the wiggling while set up and at our last spot in Medora, ND we heard a snapping sound and when I looked the point at which the strong arms attach to the frame on the front - front to rear ones - the bolts had sheered off and the unit had come down considerably on the front.
I'm contacting both GD and Lippert about the strong arms and leveling issue.

our 369RL has come out of level a couple of times as well, when we took it in to have a few things done the dealership could find nothing wrong

 

[Capen's Cottage]

That was true for us as well, when we took it back to the factory, and it seems that it happens without notice. I have seen in other posts that replacing the hydraulic fluid with a different type has helped some but we haven't tried that so far as keeping it level. I know that when it happens we notice it most by the way that the pantry door wants to close when opened and not opened all the way.
Hopefully some answers will come from all the folks who are having this same problem.

 

[longshot]

our pantry door always wants to close with ours the bathroom door opens on it's own

 

[Capen's Cottage]

It sounds like they need to re-calibrate the leveling system. I know that mine was re-calibrated and it worked much better. Still though we have the problem of not always returning to the un-hook point when the two buttons (right and left) are pushed at the same time on the level-up system.

 

[kanatachris]

So here's our deal on the level up. Set it up no prob. Push L&R and get some error type msg. Dealt with LCI & GD. Seems that in order for the feature to work, the nose needs to be a degree or two higher. So when unhooking, I raise the front of the trlr so it's in that attitude. Works every time now.

 

[Joe N R]

I to have a problem with my level up not returning to unhook height. What works for me is that I retract the rear jacks, and when I unhooked I put a weighted line on the pin box so I return to that height and hookup the truck. I know that to some that this may seem like extra work but it does work without a lot of extra work of adjusting the height.
I should add that I have a back flip bed cover on my Ford and I can't see my fifth wheel so before I used the weighted line trick I may have to adjust the tailer height several times.