[Richard]

Ok, thanks for the info.

First, look inside the front bottom of the fender well and you will see a 1 inch square piece of tubing that the fender skirts mounts onto. Newell measures the ride height from the bottom of that tubing to the ground. I run 11.5 inches from the bottom of the tubing to the ground.

Second we need to separate in your head, any height issues with the coach sitting and the coach engine running in travel mode. They may or may not be related.

For now let’s focus on the coach running, or or shop air, and in travel mode. Your coach is likely equipped with a park brake setup that can make setting the travel height a booger if you are not aware of it. When setting your travel height or leveling the coach, chock the wheels and RELEASE the park brake. It’s windy explanation, but in short the park brake on your coach is applied to both the drive and the tag axles. Because the suspension swing arms rotate in the opposite directions, the park brake will try to hold the coach from raising or lowering. So, chock the wheels and release the park brake.

Now, lower the coach below travel height. Put the coach in travel mode and allow it to settle out. Measure all four corners as discussed above. The side to side discrepancy is adjusted using the ride height valves on the rear axles. The relationship between adjustment on the vertical arm and movement you want to achieve is pretty close to 1 to 1. Move the arm 1/2 inch, you get 1/2 inch on the ride height.

If you need to adjust the front ride height, you should be aware of two critical concepts. One, the ride height adjustment in the front is driven from the rotation of the sway bar. It is NOT a 1:1 adjustment. It is super sensitive. 1/16 adjustment on the rod gives me almost a 1/2 inch at the ride height. Secondly, anytime you adjust the front ride height, the toe in will change. Be aware of that.

As discussed in another post, each time you change an adjustment on a ride height valve, you must lower the coach below ride height and allow the travel function to raise it to ride height. If you do it any other way you WILL NOT get repeatable results.

Here is how I adjust ride height. There are other ways, but they require you to reach over the tires and my arms aren’t that long. I chock the coach so it cannot crush me. I crawl between the drive and axle tires head first. At the top of the drive axle you will see the vertical arm of the HCV is attached to a stud on the top of the axle. I lube the stud with grease (or spit) and slip the arm off. I then can pull the arm toward me enough to reach the clamp on the rubber “P”. I loosen it, make the adjustment I want, retighten, and slip the arm back over the stud. Remove the cribbing, lower the coach, and let it return to travel. Then I take my measurements. I remind you again on your era coach, the parking brake must be released to get a correct reading.

On the second issue of the coach dropping as it sits, that is an issue that could be caused by leaking air bags, leaking connections to air bags, or faulty valves in the leveling six pack.