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Chasing new air leak
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What has to be understood is the ride height valves are outside of the air bag / Norgren system.
The easiest way to picture this is understanding that if the coach is above or below the ride height position the arm on the ride height valve is going to open the path to exhaust air, or to admit air into the air bag. That means if the coach needs to be leveled, when the key is off no air can flow to or from the ride height valves, otherwise the coach will revert from its level position to the ride height position.
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What I found early in my ownership of our 97 CC is that it takes a long time to raise the front, way longer than to drop the rear. And, raising the front requires a lot of air pressure. When we pull in and turn the key off I normally just reach up and flip on the auto level system. If the front needs to be raised, I also flip on the aux air compressor. If all that is required to level is to lower one or more corners the system works quickly. If it needs to raise the front (both bags receive pressure to do so) it can take five or more minutes and the front only comes up slowly.
I had to learn the hard way that when using the Prevost manual level system it is easy to leave it in a position other than auto ride height. When you next start the coach if that knob is anywhere but auto ride height the coach will stay at the attitude it was when you manually leveled. Driving away can be a “jarring” experience (grin)! Pilot error for sure, but it can happen more easily than you might imagine, especially early in your ownership experience.
My standard procedure now is to always use the CC auto level system whenever I can and leave the Prevost manual level system in auto ride height system alone set to auto level.
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First, all our coaches with Level Low should provide a warning light to indicate the suspension controls are not in the driving or road position so if you have a coach without that warning light the coach needs to get fixed.
The speed with which some coaches raise is almost always influenced by the weight of the chassis at that position. Some coaches are not only at the Prevost axle weight limits, but are in excess of them. The air bags are sized for the axle weights and if the weights are exceeded it is going to take longer to lift that part of the coach. Typically that is at the front axle.
If that is the case you can either reduce the weight on that axle by removing your bales of Benjamins from the bays in that area, or if that is not practical in the case of the steer axle, lift the tag axle. Trying to raise the front can be done in a shorter period of time by lifting the tag. Another thing is to do it manually by waiting until the accessory system air pressure is highest, and as it drops, stop trying to lift, do what is necessary to drop accessory air pressure until it is at its maximum again and then continue adding more accessory air pressure to the air bags.
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Spent the weekend under the bus hunting down the front air leak. Still no joy in finding the source. Symptoms seem to change a bit. Last night the acc tank dropped to zero over night but the front only dropped about 1 inch. Other 2 tanks still hold at 120. The previous night the acc pressure dropped about 30psi and the front lowered about 2 inches. Now during the day I aired up the bus, leveled her out and for the last 7 hrs no loss of pressure in the tank and no movement on the front. There must be a valve or valves sticking. I am at a point of stopping the chase and just start replacing valves.
Alex
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You need to stop thinking the accessory tank pressure and your front drooping are somehow related. They are not.
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Jon,
it has become clear that I am chasing more than one issue. Given the age of the bus and the price of the Norgren valves, I figure it is cheaper, and faster, in the long run just to change the ones that affect the front airbags.
thanks again
Alex
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I can fully agree with that. It is often quicker and more economical to replace things like air bags and valves than to spend hours chasing leaks once they get past a certain age.
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Alex:
What are the prices you are getting for the Norgen valves?
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Chuck,
I ended up paying $85 each from Prevost.
Alex
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Gee let me think about that:
$85 each or hours and hours of being under the bus trying to find a leak. $85 each is sounding pretty go.
Chuck
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