LCI Self Leveling System Stuck Down / Extended

Joined
Dec 9, 2023
Messages
16
Location
Live Oak
Possible causes:
Hydraulic motor is run off the house battery, Only use with engine on and shore cord plugged in when possible. Do not unplug your shore cord until you have lifted your hydraulic jacks.
Low battery voltage will cause the 100 amp breaker to trip, located in the battery compartment located next to inside coach step. Once cooled off you can reset the breaker by pushing in the popped out side lever mounted on the side of the breaker.
Note: Hydraulic pump works off the house battery, but the LCI level control panel is powered by the chassis battery system.
Resetting control panel by turning off and back on again the ignition on the chassis motor and then push in the FRONT, REAR, LEFT, RIGHT button all at the same time.
How to lift up a stuck LCI hydraulic system if the above comments to do resolve your issue.
Option 1: Use a set a jumper cables to go from the positive post on the house battery direct to the motor side post on the hydraulic motor. (I have not tried this but my RV has a sticker on the side of the hydraulic fluid reservoir stating this is possible. With all jacks down fluid level should be 75% full, with jacks up you should be 95% full.
Option 2. See owners manual. Use a Allen wrench to rotate hydraulic valve from automatic to manual. Remove rubber plug off hydraulic motor end cap. Use a cordless drill in reverse with a socket to manually turn motor to lift up hydraulic feet. Reset hydraulic valve back to automatic. Reset control panel and turn on and off again the engine, use control panel to auto retract all jacks to clear the error on the control panel screen. You might have to try this several times between turning the engine on and off, resetting the control panel and attempting to lift the feet again.
Option 3. See Owners manual. Use a wrench to loosen the hose off each lowered feet to let the fluid poor out of the piston. Manually lift each foot as fluid leaks all out of the loosened joints. You will have to refill the hydraulic fluid and reset the control panel (see above), as well as turn the engine on and off again a few more times until you can use the control panel to auto retract all feet.
 
Turns out with the shore cord plugged in the Firefly control panel states the house battery is 13.7 volt, as soon as it is un-plugged the shore cord voltage drops to 11.5 and also turns the main power rocker switch to the off position. So trying to use the Lipper self leveling hydraulic system made the amp draw shot to over 100 amps and trip the breaker by the battery box. This means the Firefly control panel does not really show the correct voltage of the battery unless you unplug it from the shore cord.
 
Turns out with the shore cord plugged in the Firefly control panel states the house battery is 13.7 volt, as soon as it is un-plugged the shore cord voltage drops to 11.5 and also turns the main power rocker switch to the off position. So trying to use the Lipper self leveling hydraulic system made the amp draw shot to over 100 amps and trip the breaker by the battery box. This means the Firefly control panel does not really show the correct voltage of the battery unless you unplug it from the shore cord.

Or any of the other house battery status displays. At 11.5 VDC your house batteries are DEAD and may not be able to be revived. Especially if the converter was charging them for any period of time and once the charge was removed, 11.5 VDC was all you had.

Also, doesn't your leveling system require the RV engine to be running in order to operate? Most Lippert leveling systems do.
 
Factory requires Engine was ON and emergency brake ON or the unit will not work. Turns out that since the 2021 Thor Delano only had a single group 31 battery that was 2 years old, instead of dual battery bank, and the shore cord was unplugged but engine ON this caused the 100 amp fuse to trip in the battery box. New replacement batteries on order. From now on I will use the Lipper Leveler with both the engine ON and shore cord plugged in just to minimize this happening again and upgrade to dual group 24 battery bank (since all that will fit)
 
I had that problem on a motorhome with a Blackfoot automatic leveler system. I replenished [it was low] the fluid in the pump resevoir and it worked fine.
JC
 
Upgrading the house battery from a single group 31 to a dual group 24 Lithium Phosphate battery bank has also improved this situation, as when the shore cord is unplugged and the engine ON, there is plenty of power now to keep the voltage up which has lowered the amp draw.
 

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top