Air suspension, Air leveling system question

[PeterH]

Yesterday an owner demonstrated how high he cold lift the coach with the air suspension system. My question: can you safely drive the coach for any distance at all, with the suspension extended like that? Asking because that would eliminate a concern I have about getting the coach onto my property across a incline at the entrance. I'm afraid I might high-center, or drag the rear end when using the driveway entrance.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[sightseers]

as far as I know the coach can raise up high in an effort to level itself,  but that will only happen on an incline.

 

[bill dane]

    My 99 Allure can be raised or lowered with the control buttons with the engine running.  If one wants to move in the raised position, the raise button must be held down while moving.  As soon as the rise button is released, the coach goes back to ride height.  Be aware that moving the coach in raised or lowered put the drive shaft at a bad angle.

Bill Dane
99 Country Coach

 

[Larry N.]

In addition to the replies above, it depends on the coach and the specific system. My Beaver was like Bill described, but controls and designs vary to some degree. And pay particular attention to Bill's comment about drive shaft angle. Also, if you do that you are using a manual control and you have to be sure you don't put in a command or two that twists the coach body (my Beaver had a twist warning and would stop the operation 'til corrected).

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The general answer is NO, the raised coach should only be driven very short distances at low speeds.  As others have described, the controls are usually set up to make it difficult to do while driving (continuous driver action req'd) or impossible (only works while parked.

Note that air suspension systems are semi-active and auto-adjust the ride height on the fly to keep the chassis at a fixed distance above the axles. The basic chassis ride height system is rudimentary, but "motion control" upgrades are available to provide more sophisticated control that a wider variety of situations.

The most common coach ground-contact problem is departure angle, where the rear overhang grounds out as the rear axle comes down an incline. This is mostly a problem with gas chassis, front engine coaches because they have a longer overhang than diesel pushers.

 

[dkreuzen]

If the terrain is flat (not necessary level) so the suspension doesn't have to articulate then the front could be raised as far as it will go but the rear can only go within the limits of the drive shaft which should be more than the limits of the suspension. With my air leveling system the manual mode is exited automatically when the parking brake is released but I can punch the manual button again and it will stay in manual mode. An alarm will sound if I go more that a couple of miles and hour.

 

[PeterH]

Ok, really glad I asked!

Sounds like the best solution for me is to re-grade the entrance to my pasture where I'd like to be able to park. That should be just a matter of anther load of gravel from the local quarry and making a longer approach. I did the original work myself, this past summer.... just didn't consider this issue when I did the work.

Thanks,
Peer