Another Level Up question

[krhyde]

When we hook up to the truck and press the "auto retract" button, the front and middle legs retract and then the error message, "low voltage" appears. I press "manual" and press the rear retract butrtons and the legs retract. The battery shows 14.5 volts and the battery charger shows "full charge". Any ideas before I contact Level Up?? Ken

 

[Jimmy]

Are you plugged into "Shore power" or the Tow vehicle when you do this, if not, try that, it is a "bulk" load when you are not plugged in.

 

[krhyde]

We're plugged into the tow vehicle because we were in the storage lot and preparing to pull out. No shore power available at that point. Ken

 

[cookie]

If you scroll up through the menu there is a screen that says 'Battery'. Here it will show your voltage.
Next time you get the error, check the voltage on the display.

Peace
Dave

 

[krhyde]

We're under a tornado warning right now, but I'll check it as soon as I can go outside. Thanks, Ken

 

[porthole]

We're plugged into the tow vehicle because we were in the storage lot and preparing to pull out. No shore power available at that point. Ken

Is the truck running when you are doing this? The new trucks have switched power to the trailer connecter., e.g. truck off- no power at connector.
And if the truck is running, perhaps you have a bad fuse going to the 7 pin connector.

Here is the 7 pin wiring

 

[krhyde]

Duane, I thought the Level Up system got it's power from the onboard 5th wheel battery. I'll check it both ways when this storm passes. Thanks, Ken

 

[danemayer]

The battery reading of 14.5V might reflect the tow vehicle's voltage. You need a pretty good charge on the RV battery to operate the hydraulics motor. Looking at the thick wires to the hydraulics pump, and the much thinner wires on the trailer connector, they can't possibly conduct the same amperage. So if there's a marginal charge on your RV battery, you might get these symptoms.

If you look at the voltage reading with the trailer connector disconnected, you'll probably see a lower voltage. If you connect it and run at a high idle for a while, you can probably put enough power into the RV battery to operate everything.

 

[porthole]

Ken, it does get power from the battery. But if your battery is not up to the task then you need some auxiliary either by having shore power and the convertor running or plugged into the truck and that running.


It is not a question of your battery having enough juice to run the jacks up, rather the electronics in the LevelUp need to see a certain voltage to operate correctly (as far as the brain is concerned).
Even if the system will not operate automatically it will still operate in the manual mode, overriding the system need for "X" amount of voltage.
Personally, I think the LevelUp's required voltage reading may be a bit high. But, it may be that way because of the electronic sensitivities.

That all said, the battery in your trailer did not come from Heartland, it was installed by the selling dealer. Odds are it is a rather inexpensive battery with a low reserve capacity.

Something to keep in mind, the batteries we use are capable of having a proper voltage reading but could in fact have no reserve capacity.
An example would be that you read with a digital multi-meter 12.6 volts across the battery terminals (typical fully charged wet cell battery).
But when you turn on a draw, say all the trailer lights, the voltage drops down to 10 or 11 volts.

 

[porthole]

The battery reading of 14.5V might reflect the tow vehicle's voltage. You need a pretty good charge on the RV battery to operate the hydraulics motor.

Something to ponder here - you never get low voltage readings when operating the slides. But you also are not using a computer for that task. Same pump for the slides or the LevelUp.

and the much thinner wires on the trailer connector............

At least with the 2011 and newer Fords, the auxiliary line and the one that should be connected to the trailer battery, is a 30 amp circuit

I still think the issue is a parameter issue with the LevelUp. Maybe under a load the computer will freeze if the voltage it sees is set at "X".
Although at "X" and below the pump is still quite capable of running. so because of this we get a ""low battery" error when th esystem is still quite capable of operating.


I use a separate volt meter to watch the batteries, but something to try is have someone operate the slides manually and have the LevelUp in the "display voltage" mode and monitor the voltage. I don't know where the LevelUp is getting the voltage input, but if we found out, maybe a new wire directly to the battery would minimize errors.