My notes from HWH's seminar at the GNR

Here is another post I am bringing over to this forum.  The document could be applicable to any HWH system installed on another manufacturer's product, but Paul was specifically addressing Winnebago products.  YMMV.

Paul Smith of HWH Corp. gave a fantastic seminar here at the 2008 GNR and I made some notes. Just uploaded them to our web site. Here is the document in PDF.

A bit of sad news, the restaurant where HWH treats customers to a free lunch is closed  :'(

Edit:  Tom added the document to the Library and can be accessed here as an html page.

Interesting information and answered a couple of questions I had. 

We don't have a leveling system on our motorhome, yet, but is a big ticket item on my wish-list if I have the opportunity for another contract job back where I used to work.

Retract procedure: start engine first, let air pressure build, then hit store. Air bags will immediately get an inrush of air to prevent pinching since you let air build up

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Good info, thanks for posting it.  I don't follow the procedure of starting engine before storing jacks, however.  I always dump the airbags before putting the jacks down so I'm not sure if this is necessary.  Can the airbags get pinched if they're already dumped?

It is possible to pinch the air bags when doing a normal dump, just not probable.  Normally if you dump the bags before you extend jacks the bags will remain clear of the chassis.  The time you would have the greatest chance of pinching the bags would be if you were on an extreme side angle one way or the other when you air dumped.

Sarge

Mike Goad said:

Interesting information and answered a couple of questions I had.  

We don't have a leveling system on our motorhome, yet, but is a big ticket item on my wish-list if I have the opportunity for another contract job back where I used to work.

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Mike - the jacks are a nice feature and prevent 'motion-sickness' when you walk around.  We are real happy with the HWH system and their customer care.  Hope you can get some good contracts for jacks to come to the top of the list!

rsalhus said:

Good info, thanks for posting it.  I don't follow the procedure of starting engine before storing jacks, however.  I always dump the airbags before putting the jacks down so I'm not sure if this is necessary.  Can the airbags get pinched if they're already dumped?

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Good question and here is my answer to a similar question that was asked on the other forum:

"The airbags won't start filling until a valve(s?) is/are closed by you punching store on the control panel.

The idea behind this is to have air in the tanks before you hit store so the bags won't be pinched with retracting jacks due to a large inrush of air from the tanks. With no air in the tank, it will take a while to fill the bags and they could get pinched early-on in the process.

This shouldn't be an issue if you are moving every day or even every week. If you do sit for a while and your tanks are low on air, then you want to run the engine until the spitter goes off."

The airbags won't start filling until a valve(s?) is/are closed by you punching store on the control panel.

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I think my airbags will fill when the engine is started whether the jacks are down or not, but I could very well be wrong about that.  And since I don't have air brakes (I have hydraulic brakes) my air tank doesn't have a spitter.  When I start the engine, I can hear the air compressor running and I wait until it quits before starting out to insure that the airbags are filled. 

On a side note, I was at the HWH facility last year to have one jack fixed.  While replacing the jack (driver's side rear) and making another modification I had asked for, they noticed that the front airbags weren't being dumped when pressing dump from the control panel.  The rear airbags were being dumped so it always felt like all airbags were being dumped properly when, in fact, only the rear airbags were actually being dumped.  So that omission might not have ever been discovered had I not brought the coach in for that repair.  They hooked up the front airbags so they now dump when the button is pushed, but when you're sitting inside the coach and you feel the coach move when dumping, you might not notice that only the rear airbags are actually being dumped. 

Another thing that owner's should be aware of is that the dump button has to be pushed and HELD IN the entire time that the airbag dumping is being done.  You can't just hit the button and then take your finger off of it, it has to be held in.  It's not like the store button in which you can hit it once and then take your finger off of it.

Well, John and all:

I wish I had known  about the "store" button last winter.  We had just left beautiful Apache Junction when we encountered a bumpy ride; the air bags were not filling.  To make the story shorter (this is a really long story) we were towed to Freightliner in Tolleson, where the mechanic/technician could not replicate the problem.  They advised that a valve was probably failing from time to time and we agreed to have the valve which controls air to the air bags to fill replaced.

If either the Coach-Net people or the Freightliner people had known (or if I had read about this issue) I would have saved a large bunch of money and aggravation that day.

Now we punch the "store" button until we see that the bags raising the coach.

Oh, well...live and hopefully learn.

Wendell

rsalhus said:

Another thing that owner's should be aware of is that the dump button has to be pushed and HELD IN the entire time that the airbag dumping is being done.  You can't just hit the button and then take your finger off of it, it has to be held in.  It's not like the store button in which you can hit it once and then take your finger off of it.

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We have the automatic HWH controls:  to level, we punch the top-left button (forgot what it's called) twice and we're done.  To store the jacks and fill the bags, we punch store once and we're done.  The system shuts itself off when finished.

To store the jacks and fill the bags, we punch store once and we're done.  The system shuts itself off when finished.

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Yes, even with the manual HWH system, hitting the store button once stores the jacks and shuts itself off when finished.  Once I shut the HWH system off before it shut itself off because I thought it was done, and if I remember correctly, I got a red light on the control panel (jack lowered more than 2 inches) while driving down the road.  Apparently, if you shut the system down before it's completely done and has shut itself off, a jack can extend slightly (probably due to vibrations while traveling down the road).  So it's always best to wait and let the system shut itself off rather than you shutting it off when you THINK it's done.

But hitting the store button doesn't result in filling the airbags on our coach.  That is initiated only when the engine is started or is running.

rsalhus said:

So it's always best to wait and let the system shut itself off rather than you shutting it off when you THINK it's done.

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Exactly so!