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Liberty and Vantare H3 Levelling Question
On my 97 Country Coach Allure I have a “Raise” button on the HWH levelling panel. You can hold this button in when going slow and it will inflate the bags to max capacity raising the whole coach approximately 4″ higher than normal ride height. When you quit pushing the button it slowly returns to normal ride height. Useful when the ground is “rough” getting to where you want to set up.
Do the 98-04 or so Liberty and/or Vantare H3s have anything like this?
Thank you,
Kurt
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17 Replies
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Hi Kurt. I don’t know the answer to your question, but I will note that “High Ride” and “Low Ride” settings are standard on the MCI chassis, independent of the HWH leveling. I have a dash switchy that raises or lowers the bus about 6 inches from ride height at speeds up to 15mph. I hope I never have to use low ride, but High Ride is helpful for entering and exiting driveways with steep aprons so I don’t drag my trailer hitch. As you noted, it is a really useful tool for rough terrain as well. I’m interested to know if the answer to your question.
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Your setup sounds nice Bryan. Thanks,
Kurt
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Liberty has a manual switch and then individual switches for the front, left rear and right rear. You can put the main switch to manual, then turn all three of the other switches to raise, therefore raising the coach to max. Once completing your need for raising the coach you can then flip your control switch back to road position and go back to road/travel height.
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The feature Jeff described is invaluable because when entering or exiting areas with a sharp transition the use of the ability to raise or lower the front, rear, or the whole coach as needed prevents dragging or high centering the coach, such as at a steep driveway transition or a high crowned railroad crossing.
The Liberty system does not require you to hold any buttons down leaving your hands free, plus the ability to change the geometry at whatever position you need can prevent damage to the undercarriage.
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What Jon & Jeff said. Our coach garage at our CO home is 11′ 10″ so I lower the coach 3-4 inches with the Liberty/Prevost manual switches and drive her in.
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Is this feature available on 2000 H3 Marathon? Thks
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Your Marathon has plain level low, you can adjust height at anytime while in manual mode and not in travel position.
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Using Jeff’s description, for our coach if needed to clear road / gas station entrances for example, I need to stop the coach, flip switch to manual, raise the coach then flip the switch back to drive position and drive or leave the manual switch to raise position?
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In a case like you describe you have to stop, select what you want to lower or raise with the switch in the manual position. When the bus has reached the desired height proceed to cross the point in question, and when you are past the point where clearances are a concern, put the main switch from the maual position to the road or driving position. This applies to not only the Liberty system, but the Prevost Level Low system. As long as the main control is not in the road or driving position the coach will remain at the height you selected.
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Thank you Jon!
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I just want to make it clear that what I described above applies to the Liberty leveling system and an unmodified Prevost Level Low system only.
It may also apply to other systems such as a conversion with the HWH but that would require some means of disabling the feature that restores the coach automatically to the driving height. Liberty has automatic leveling, but not for leveling while driving. The only acceptable position on the Liberty coach main switch for the suspension is the road position when driving except to make a steep transition.
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Thank you all. I noticed a picture of a 2000 Vantare dash and it had the same HWH panel as I currently have so would assume it would work the same way. The Liberty configurations sounds nice.
Kurt
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Kurt,
I would not assume anything. It is more than likely it will operate the same, but every converter seems to have their own way of doing things, and what they did on one coach may not be what they did on the next coach in line.
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Some of the systems using the HWH control, automatically go into the drive/travel position once the park brake is released. You might be able to raise the coach with the HWH control and then have to turn the Prevost control off of the road position to hold it there during your transition over obstical….
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Regardless of the type of leveling system that the converter has installed on the coach, it is important you know and understand exactly how to operate it, and understand fully what you have to do to place the coach in a specific position and keep it in that position until you want to revert back to the normal driving height.
Many of us have used the Level Low system to get us safely across and obstacle, or to lower the coach so we clear a low opening. The failure to understand the system can result in dragging the belly across a hump over railroad tracks or worse, getting hung up on the tracks, to damaging an air conditioner or satellite dish.
As Jeff has pointed out some systems might require you to keep your finger on a control or have a means of locking the coach into a specific position. Some operate only with the key on, others with the key off. I had one that when in the automatic mode would keep the coach level with the key off. I have had 2 other coaches that disabled the entire leveling system when the key was off.
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