"Jacks down" lights come on - excessive temps ?

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Our 2008 Winnebago 39Z has had jacks down light come on. It has power gear system. The light would come on when we hit the brakes hard.
We found the light is turned off by a (probably float) switch in the reservoir tank, when all the fluid it returned. Ours had a dip stick which registered the oil level OK, so we called power gear. He said add 1/2 cup oil at a time till we no longer had the problem. We had to do that twice ( two 1/2 cups) & have not had a problem since.
 
Neal..
Thanks for that insight also.. good obvious think to look at and consider... hopefully dealer will do that tomorrow with what I've asked them to check .. but I'll make sure when I go to pick it up...
As all manuals etc are in the coach at the dealers, I don't have it to look up where the resevoir might be... your rig is step up and larger with Freightliner chassis and mine is the Ford chassis but based on the Kwickee control panel looking the same for all of the "Best level" anyomatic levelers, can you tell me where the resevoir is on yours - dipstick and fill tube ?
Unless the dipstick shows over full already, I might try adding a 1/2 cup or so if dealer finds nothing else..
 
rsalhus said:
I don't think Kwikee is the company to contact about your jacks.  They don't know jacks. :-X  HWH is who you want to contact concerning your jacks.

I think afchap hit the nail on the head here.  I recommended that same solution to another guy in here recently who had shut his HWH system off manually instead of letting it turn off automatically.  It sure solved that same problem for me.  So the bottom line is, if you shut your HWH system down manually, you should expect to see a "Jacks Down" light on in your future.  It's the only reason that I know of why the "Jacks Down" light comes on.

Don't confuse HWH and Kwikee.  Kwikee is a complete hydraulic sytem up and down, no springs.  The manual says that after hitting the "ALL UP" button the system will stow the jacks and turn off on its own.  Don't press the off button, per the manual.
 
Thanks for the input..
The Kwikee manual states .. Quote..
The Directions for RetractingLevelers ..
" When all leveler legs retract to the travel position, the red "ALL UP" LED will turn green, and the pump will shup off. You can now turn off the power switch and the vehicle is ready to travel"
Based on that, I'm thinking I have followed those directions and what's happening is not supposed to.....
Powergear has responded to an email with
"Hello,
they way the Kwikee jacks detect that the jacks are down on striaght acting jacs are the proximity sensor on each jack. if the fluid starts to heat up between the valve and the jack it can move the rod down a little whitch then the sensor sees that and thinks the jacks are down. by stopping and retracting them takes the pressure off the valve and allows the fluid to return to the tank and the jack retracts. hwh has a valve that engerizes and allow the fluid to return also noted as the stow button." .........................
Based on what this Powergear rep states, it is a heat caused incident and requires pushing (in the case of the Kwikee Best Level case) the "All Up" on the panel when ever it happens...
I have sent a follow email question to Powergear asking if there's a remedy or it's uncorrectable...

 
WhiteEagle said:
Neal..
Thanks for that insight also.. good obvious think to look at and consider... hopefully dealer will do that tomorrow with what I've asked them to check .. but I'll make sure when I go to pick it up...
As all manuals etc are in the coach at the dealers, I don't have it to look up where the reservoir might be... your rig is step up and larger with Freightliner chassis and mine is the Ford chassis but based on the Kwickee control panel looking the same for all of the "Best level" anyomatic levelers, can you tell me where the resevoir is on yours - dipstick and fill tube ?
Unless the dipstick shows over full already, I might try adding a 1/2 cup or so if dealer finds nothing else..
From your last description, we must have different jack systems. Mine has spring return & no green lite when jacks are up. We also do not find Kwikee anywhere on the system.   
Our tank is located just behind the Kwikee door step, between the front wheel & the front of the coach. Remove one tread of the indoor step to reach the dipstick & filler plug on top.
 
Ok.. we have different systems... mine is a Kwikee Best Level fully automatic hydraulic system - Kwickee now part of Powergear....
I just got a follow up response from Powergear on the issue...
Quote..
"Hello,
best advice i can give is stopthe coach and turn the touchpad  on and retract the jacks. "

I picked up the MH from dealer today and spoke with two seemingly lnowledgable mechanics....
They had checked all connections, jacks - no leaks - etc... Both said that these Kwickee Best Level systems have been known to occassionally have the "thermal expansion" problem in extreme heat situations .. apparently can happen once / twice / a few times and then is known to  never happen again.... maybe I've now experienced that event... they say the system is fine, they checked out everything and doubt it will happen again.. if it does, just hit the "All Up" swith again and should reset the switches...One of the jacks apparently had this thermal expansion of the fluid between the "up switch and the chamber which forced it down to where it belives it actually wasn't all the way up ..... one comforting thing is that everyone there says there is no chance the jacks will actually come down unless I really and truely set the parking brake and then turn on the system and hit the auto level switch.... can't happen !! ??
I now know where the reservoir is and will check the level of fluid this weekend....they said it was fine...and system has no leaks...
Guess I'll wait and see if that issue has gone away by itself... Didn't happen for last 3 days of driving and last approx 1000 mi.... My cursing at it on the fourth or fifth time it happened must have fixed it.....
Besides that issue... All warranty repairs and adjustments done very well by Kings Camper in Wausau WI - all 9 items done on warranty and my cost in total for these was Zero.....
Also learned that Van Boxtel (Green Bay WI) has apparently discontinued sales of Class A motorhomes and is only dealing in trailers and Class C's ..........
Pleased I had all work done at Kings and established relationship with several there... good folks....
 
I confirmed that the dealer mechanics had tallked to the Powergear techs so that's likely why their diagnosis opinions and responses were same... hoping that's the correct diagnosis and it won't resurface....
Before leaving the dealership, I had mechanic show me where the reservoir was for the jacks hydraulic fluid  ... out of ongoing curiosity yesterday, I checked this fluid level and it was in fact low..... cap was dusty - I believe it had not been removed or level apparently checked ? Not sure what to think of that......
I added almost 8 ounces which brought it up to nearly the top of the "full" segment on dipstick.....
I do not see any leaks and they said they had checked everything and found no leaks......
I will admit I had not checked this fluid level when I bought the coach and up until the incidences 2 weeks ago, I had no reason to question it.....
In any case.... I now know the reservoir is full, see no signs of any leakage on any of the jacks, the valves or lines. Time will tell - don't have any trips scheduled at this point other than to local Ford dealer for oil / filter / lube on Engine - and Oil / filter on generator.....  ( I get these done on the V10 for $29.99 - not complaining about that.)
Expecting this thread is likely over....Everyone's insight, experience, suggestions were interesting.
 
For what it is worth, I have the Kwikee Jacks and when on our first trip with the new to us coach we had a couple of issues with the
Jack system. We got to a site that required us to raise the coach higher then normal due to unlevelness of the site and the jacks
would not fully extend. After extending and retacting a few times I could hear that the hydraulic pump was sucking air mixed with the fluid.
Also the jacks were not fully retracting. I checked the fluid level and it was down so I bought some fluid, filled it -- no problem since
that occurence 3 years ago. The only other issue I had was with the control panel on the door. The panel stopped working when I
shut the door one time so I took the panel out, disconnected the power, reconnected it -- worked and no problem with the panel since.
I have restricted my use of the driver's side door since that happened however.
I really like the Kwikee steps and hopefully your issue will have been solved by adding fluid.
Frank O.
 
Thanks for the input..
Agree... they really do work neat... only issue was the warnings comming on...
And I do have to make sure when I use them that coach is nearly level because they will easily lift wheels off ground to do so..... try not to do that with some extra plank sections along for under the wheels in case....
So far it's been fine again but only used once since then and short 20-40 mi trips...
Fortunately, the control panel on mine is on front dash panel left and lower area under steering wheel below light switches ....
Optimistic ..
Hope yous continues to behave also...
 
Was out to Yellowstone first two weeks of August, from WI, have HWH jacks, but same issue.  Front left jack would start to drop enough to set off the alarm.  Since you only get a loud horn, cannot see the panel while driving, it scares everybody.  Just hit store and went down the road.  Mine is a 1996, and the system probably needs work.  But what fun.

Next, Horn's RV in Sheboygan, WI is picking up the Winnebago line, they have had Itasca for a long time.  I have not used them for service, but have bought parts from them.
 
We bought an 1995 Itasca Spirit from Horn's, in 1995.  It was a low mileage rental and it served us well for 3 years including a trip to CA, a return to WI and back to CA.  We had trailers in Cascade for several years and were well acquainted with the Horn brothers :)
 

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