Miffy levelers

[LHaven]

Returned home today after a frustrating day of failure-to-camp, only to have my Lippert levelers go on strike in my eight-month-old Cougar:

** ERROR ** LF Jack †
Manually Retract all jacks
or hold RETRACT to AUTO RETRACT

When I hold "retract," it flashes:

AUTO RETRACT
Retracting Rear

just fast enough for a video camera to capture it, then the whole unit powers off (crashes).

The jacks are in fact already fully retracted. I can use the keypad to manually extend or retract them as I please, and they seem to work just fine. And I will probably level the rig tonight by hand just because I have to. But no matter what position I leave the jacks in, the moment I press "Auto Level," I immediately get the above song and dance, sometimes with the "LF" replaced by some other jack position, but (unspecified) failure nonetheless.

I remembered that this unit gets miffy if the battery isn't up to charge (and indeed, I taxed the battery hard running the tongue jack during today's events), but I'm currently plugged into shore power and inCommand tells me the battery is at 13.8V, no doubt thanks to the converter, and the jacks should be more than happy with that.

Has anyone seen this? Is it easily resolved?

† (This error message is stunningly uninformative. It calls to mind the Dave Barry column with the instructions advising that "taking the (something) earth section may cause a large occurrence!")

[CaptnJohn]

When I had electric jacks LF error was always low voltage. Never noticed in the past but now see the control panel is connected directly to the battery. If it reads the battery I’m not sure connected to the pedestal would make a difference ~~~ at least on my hydraulic system.

[LHaven]

So in the process of using the jacks to diagnose my brake/controller problem, I manually grounded all the jacks. That seemed to wake up the controller and make it happy -- next time I pushed Auto Level, it immediately went into the "raising all jacks" step and did everything by the numbers from then on. So I've learned that when I get that silly error, I should take the jacks down a fair amount and tell it to start over.

[Roscommon48]

I recommend to keep Lippert's telephone near by.

[Racebug]

sounds like a bad connection or breaker.

[MarkEHansen]

The 13.8 volts you read on the control panel was not the battery voltage, but the voltage being applied to the battery by the on-board charger. When using the levelers, the battery needs to have a reasonable charge on it to handle the extra load imposed when the motors start running. To see the actual state of charge on the battery, disconnect the shore power and check the battery with a volt meter - (this isn't really the best way, but it is way better than checking with the charger running).

My guess is that the levers started working better because by that time, the battery had a better charge on it.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by MarkEHansen

When using the levelers, the battery needs to have a reasonable charge on it to handle the extra load imposed when the motors start running... My guess is that the levers started working better because by that time, the battery had a better charge on it.

What's extra confusing is that it didn't have any complaint about me working the motors with the manual buttons. Of course, the panel lets me run only one or two motors at a time by hand, while the auto mode was probably trying to start all four at once, which would make a difference.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by Racebug

sounds like a bad connection or breaker.

By "grounding" the jacks, I meant bringing them down to the ground (the unit's term), not attaching a ground wire to them.

The power-off crash on reset does square with a weak battery.

[MarkEHansen]

The automatic system only runs 2 jacks at a time (to try to reduce load, I assume) - FYI

[Racebug]

Originally Posted by LHaven

By "grounding" the jacks, I meant bringing them down to the ground (the unit's term), not attaching a ground wire to them.

The power-off crash on reset does square with a weak battery.

I had the same issue and found that the circuit breaker was tripping much quicker and with less amperage than it should have.

[Larrystegall]

If you were lucky enough to get a Lippert manual with the unit, there is a reset procedure for the keypad (and it is in the manual). It is a series of buttons to push x number of times, than manually raise all jacks, and on and on. It does work, I had the issue 3 times on my Cougar, the dealer could never figure it out. Replaced the OE battery with a real one, and have not had the issue since.

[LHaven]

I didn't get much of squat in terms of manuals with my new rig. Luckily, every manual I've needed so far has been on the web, so I just keep them on my laptop (helps my tongue weight). Looks like I haven't fetched the levelers one yet, so I'll get on that.

[ctbruce]

You might need a higher capacity resettable breaker. I have read they come with 50 amp but 80 amp is needed.

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by ctbruce

You might need a higher capacity resettable breaker. I have read they come with 50 amp but 80 amp is needed.

GC 3.0 (electric) is voltage sensitive. The 50A circuit breaker applies to LevelUp (hydraulic). Lippert has advised Grand Design to change them to 80A, I have done plenty.

[pdaniel]

Originally Posted by ctbruce

You might need a higher capacity resettable breaker. I have read they come with 50 amp but 80 amp is needed.

Grand Design RV has been installing the 80 amp on newer units.

[itat]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

GC 3.0 (electric) is voltage sensitive. The 50A circuit breaker applies to LevelUp (hydraulic). Lippert has advised Grand Design to change them to 80A, I have done plenty.

Are they switching to the 80A breaker for the electric Ground Control 3.0 system or the hydraulic Level Up system? I have the GC 3.0.

If I should switch to the 80A, what does the 50A look like so I can identify it in the 5er?

[PDitty]

I had the same issue, read the manual and grounded the jacks, that is dropped all at least 9 inches and hit retract. All retracted and the LF error was reset. The have been working great after that for 2 years now

[SR71 Jet Mech]

So I had a similar issue, not low voltage but forgot to unhook my pin on my Anderson hitch and lifted the rear of my pickup off the ground(almost), yep, stupid. Anyway the jacks went into a fault and acted like yours. So stuck with my pickup hooked up and only being able to move them a micro inch at a time I resorted to YouTube and found that anytime they fault, they must first ALL be run completely out to reset the controller. This in turn re homes the jacks and then they go right up and work fine.
At least in my situation. But it sounded like the fix when the controller says “fault”. Pretty sure mine said LF jack something fault.

[PDitty]

I also have the Andersen hitch, love it.