[Jesse]

It happend, going through South Dakota right after Wall Drug headed to South Carolina from Alaska - blamo! Out of no where my Firestone 400 315 blew. Kept it on the highway but flat spotted my tags slowing us to a stop without going into a ditch. They were 5 years old and the tire monitor didnt alert for heat or pressure. It pretty much took out all the hwh electronics in the bay under the driver's seat, broke off the front sway bar mount, popped out both windshilds on the top corners, and tore out a hydraulic line. I was able to apply 12 volts directly to the travel solenoids in the front and back to get travel mode back and got a new 315 steer installed from a highway wreaker to get us to Kansas City where Pomps, great shop by the way, installed 2 new steers and replaced the flat spotted tags with the old steers. During the install they noticed the tie rod assemblies needed replaced which they did along with a new alignment. I found the hydraulic line was the return line for the front slide lock which was disabled anyhow and I removed it from the manifold and capped it. Made it to Shaw Afb tonight where I'll be with my family for the next 6 months. Called hwh and they are willing to rebuild the brain box but I will need to remove it and mail to to them and wait about 2 to 3 months- good thing insurance said they are going to cover the damages caused by the blow out. Tomorrow I'll be manually extending the slides by applying 12 volts to the specific seliniods and manually activating the hydraulic pump. Once the brain box is rebuilt I'll have them send it directly to Newell where Ill bring the rig in 6 months to rebuild the bay this time with reinforcement in the the wheel well and reinstall the hwh electronics. 

Jesse and Sara White
2001 Newell Coach 582
Wasilla Alaska

[folivier]

Wow! glad yall were ok and got safely off the road. Good luck with your repairs and welcome to the lower 48.
Last year we spent a couple weeks at a friends farm at Big Lake. Beautiful area.

[Ernie]

How will you get it to ride height without the HWH box?

[Richard]

He hot wired the travel solenoids

[Jack Houpe]

Good save Jesse! My hat if off to you many would have be wearing out the credit card just trying to get on the road. Hope HWH comes through for you in a quick manner.

[[email protected]]

Wow steer tire blow outs are no fun. Unfortunately I have had one as well on my Wanderlodge, luckily the Wanderlodge took it well since it’s mostly steel. Glad you were able to get somewhere safe and good thinking on overriding the travel solenoids.

[Jesse]

Thanks guys, got the slides out today manually- no problem. Yep- between the $7 plus a gallon diesel in Canada and the no notice repairs - took a pretty big hit financially but we made it on time and no one is hurt. The more I look at the hwh electronics the more I think I could design a simplistic/ reliable system myself and remove most of the non required limit, and sequence switches and use my own logic instead. Ie step 1 - turn switch deflate slide, step 2- select setting 1 then activate pump slide goes out, step 3 select setting 2 then activate pump floor goes up, step 4 - turn switch off slide inflates. 

KISS principle in action. Just a thought...

Jesse and Sara White
Coach 582
Wasilla Alaska

[Jack Houpe]

Jesse you're speaking my language. I had a not so good experience with HWH and they told me there are no spare parts and everything must be repaired. I ended up repairing my own after half a year of very poor communications. I have heard very good things about them if you go there and have it fixed at their facility.

This topic has come up more than once here about these old electronic boards and what is going to happen when they fail or fry. The system is really a analog system with a series of switches and relays that proceed to the next sequence of the operation. There are some 555 timers that delay the immediate reaction of a next step so you don't rip out air seals or jam something up but it's pretty simple. Richard who is more versed in raspberry pi and open source prototyping had some ideas, Gordon and I hashed this out and discussed just using a Personal Logic Control. It can be done! You might be the guinea pig.

Got any pictures of the HWH?

[[email protected]]

Yea some years are better than others when it comes to coach budgets. 

I think your idea for a simpler system is definitely great, one thing I will note though is if you sell your coach that you will have to train the new buyers on the operation. I think like Jack mentioned, maybe some relay logic or a programmable logic controller would be great for this. There are lots of new products on the market that could replace the HWH brain. I have a PLC at home that I was planning on using to automate some things on the coach, along with touchscreen HMI, mainly just for fun. It came from EZ Automation, I chose this because it’s American made. It was just a little more money than the offshore PLCs. One day maybe I will actually get it set up.

https://www.ezautomation.net/PLC-Program...ler/ezplc/

[Richard]

I have a 12v based PLC at home in Florida that I bought when I thought Jack and I would have to replace his HWH box. I will be home end of OCT. It’s yours if you want it.

I have read enough of your posts to know you have the skills to retrofit this.

Let me know and PM me an address when you get to Shaw.