Bus leveling slowly

[travelingfools]

My bus seems to level very slowly when I'm going down the road. It does level but sometimes will take a minute or two.  Any ideas / things I should check ?

[gus]

John,

The air bags don't level the bus, they just keep the distance between the axles and chassis constant.

This has a built-in time delay so it doesn't constantly keep moving back and forth underway.

This was to keep the bus stable when loading/offloading passengers and cargo, nothing to do with keeping level with the horizon.

But maybe you already know all this?

[Stormcloud]

My MC-7 had a rear corner seemed to take 'forever' to come up first time each day, then it quit filling altogether. The leveling valve was absolutely full of crud.

When I bought the bus, the air system maintenance was performed at a shop in the city where I purchased it, prior to me driving it home. The mechanic said there was a substantial amount of goo came out of the wet and dry tanks. Undoubtedly, some got further along in the air system and was plugging the screen in the leveling valve. The screen can be cleaned and re-used, but I replaced the valve instead.

Mark

[RJ]

John -

MC-8s & 9s are notorious for "cornering on the rub rails" because the factory did not install any anti-roll bars in the suspension system.

So it takes a little bit before the leveling valves respond, and then a little bit more for them to bring everything back.

Mark's comments are valid - may be a cruddy valve on one side.

Leveling valves are relatively (for a bus) inexpensive, once replaced, with good system maintenance you'll probably never have to do it again.

FWIW & HTH. . .

 

[travelingfools]

sounds like I may be operating correctly after all.. Where would I find the leveling valves ?

[bevans6]

Attached to the axles with little struts, two on the rear axle and one in the middle of the front axle.  Not sure if the tags have leveling valves or not.

Brian

[travelingfools]

Gotcha...I assumed that what those were...

[Stormcloud]

Not sure if the tags have leveling valves or not.

No leveling valves on the tags. ( at least, not from the factory. )

Mark