I am looking for opinions from those who converted from the mercury to electronic level sensor. Is it able to maintain a closer tolerance to dead level? Are there any potential pitfalls with use of a satellite dish?(constant dish realignments).
The current system has so much dead band that at times the rear of the coach is high enough to initiate a natural flow of coolant from the AquaHot, preheating the engine. This condition does not occur when close to level or the front is elevated ,within the dead band.
I have changed mine out and have had absolutely no issues.
John
I do use a level on the countertop to double check sometimes.
You say if the rear is high a flow occurs?
The engine preheat loop will circulate naturally if the back end is high. Hot water, like hot air will seek the highest elevation in a given space. The hoses are angled up, which creates this condition. The return from the Aquahot to the engine is hotter than the return back to the Aquahot. This hydronic action causes the flow. If I lower the rear to a level condition the flow stops.
I tried to "improve" the level,on my mercury sensor. It gets it close, them I go to manual mode and tweak it to my level. Shut the pump off and leave it alone. It will stay put for a week.
I agree. Level it when you park and revisit every week or so. Autolevel causes more problems than it solves, roll the joey bed out and next thing you know it's exhausting air on one side and activating pump for make up air. I use autolevel when I park, tweak as necessary and then turn it off. Stays level on its own just fine.
I always used manual level on our 03 to what my wife wanted to call level and then I would check that the bathroom door and the shower door would not move when in the open position and then turned off the level system and it would stay that way as long as you wanted even more than a month. Like was said earlier auto level causes more problems than solutions.
We converted to the electronic level because we thought it would be more accurate, but while not worse, not much better either. Our new level mounts on a ceiling instead of the floor, so we put it on the ceiling of the big compartment, pretty much centered front to back between the axles.
But mounting it centered side to side did not work at all, because to tweak it, which we have done many times, I had to pull out the Joey bed to crawl in to reach the adjustment screws. With bed slide out, it puts abnormal cantilevered leveraged weight hanging out which leans the coach to the side a little. And my body weight in the bay also affects level.
So now the electronic level is mounted about 5" in from the street side, so I can sit on the ground and tweak the screws with the Joey bed in its normal position.
The new level device says it has a setting that reduces the tolerances that should be used for initial adjustment only. They say if you leave it in the tighter tolerance setting, the automatic level system may have difficulty working. For example, get front to back level and while getting side to side level, we knock the front to back off level, etc. We did not find any difference with tolerance setting.
Both the original level and the electronic level would work the same as to periodic automatic re-leveling. We always turn off the level system after initial level operation, and the coach stays level, so the large Winegard sat dish is not affected.
Electronic level is expensive, and is just a replacement for then no longer available original mercury level.
BTW, we always finalize or verify our level with RV EZ Level on the wood kitchen floor. And then there is shower door to verify if we are truly level.
Thanks Barry & Cindy
That was precisely the information I was looking for. No use spending cash on little to no change. On to the next project.
BnC, it probably says to use the Trav'ler dish with the coach perfectly level. I am not sure is has to anything but about level. We just get it close, if anything tipping slightly forward and a bit to the driver's side. As long as things don't roll out on their own and the bathroom doors stay closed I am OK. PO had 1" squares of velcro on the top edge of the sliding door and the matching piece on the jamb. Acts a bit like a cushion and holds the door closed even when not level. Works pretty well.
My iPhone has a surface level (next to the compass) that is good to about 1°. Turns green when you are level in every direction.
RnS, I like your Velcro shower door idea is practical when out of level with front lower. Good idea.
Here is our hold door closed solution, and it also keeps door open a little for increased ventilation:
Shower door ventilation latch (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=22493.msg171644#msg171644)
I'm normally keen on high-tech solutions, but have found a simple (and inexpensive) bubble level held in place with putty in the bottom of the cup holder next to the driver's window gets us very, very close to level every time. I fine tune through use of the shower door and fridge door checks. We don't leave the HWH on Auto.
Counter tops are level to the chassis.