Silencing the Lippert Jack’s Down Beeper

[Wyatt]

Hey, does anybody know how to disable the “Jack Down” beeper? Not the light, just the sound. I was under the dash for an hour trying to locate where it emanated from. It seems to be under the driver’s area...
Our dog, Wyatt, is going blind and he’s frightened by it so much he shivers uncontrollably, and runs away when we try and depart camp. It’s sad, and I know I’m taking a small risk, but it outweighs his well being...

[BirchyBoy]

Is it integrated into the leveling control box?

[creativepart]

On the top of the hydraulic fluid tank is 1) cap to fill the tank and 2) an electronic float that is the sole method of notifying you when the jacks are down.

There is an automotive type snap connection on the wire a few inches back form the float if you disconnect that snap connector you will kill the beeper. But you will also have no indication that your jack are down.

So, this does what you're looking for. But it also comes at a very high risk.

MORE INFO: Old hydraulic leveling jacks had pins at the top of each jack and when the jacks were retracted the pin would be pressed and the system would register as jacks were up. On the Lippert Power Gear system when the jacks go down the hydraulic fluid is pumped into the lines and the fluid level in the tank falls. The electronic float switch sees that drop in fluid and notifies you that the jacks are down. When the Jacks are up the fluid refills the tank and this raises the float switch and registers that the jacks are up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC_SFJMC0l4

[Winterbagoal]

If you're retracting them according to the manual sequence or order, I'm puzzled as to why the "jacks down" alarm is sounding? It should only sound if you have the engine running, parking brake set, and engage the transmission in Drive or Reverse, if I'm not mistaken?

If I'm wrong, then why not take Wyatt for a short walk away from the motorhome, while retracting them? Do they make doggie earplugs?

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Winterbagoal

I'm puzzled as to why the "jacks down" alarm is sounding?

The engine and parking brake are on and set before leveling the coach. The minute you tap the Auto lever the system flashes a red light and has a loud alarm sound. Same when you retract the jacks until all the jacks are retracted.

[Winterbagoal]

Originally Posted by creativepart

The engine and parking brake are on and set before leveling the coach. The minute you tap the Auto lever the system flashes a red light and has a loud alarm sound. Same when you retract the jacks until all the jacks are retracted.

I don't recall that ever happening with our Sunstar. And we used them more than a few times. Thus the question.
I'll defer to your experience with current coaches.
Walk the dog, and/or get him a set of earplugs then.
It's safer than defeating the warning system.

[BirchyBoy]

Originally Posted by creativepart

The engine and parking brake are on and set before leveling the coach. The minute you tap the Auto lever the system flashes a red light and has a loud alarm sound. Same when you retract the jacks until all the jacks are retracted.

It’s the same with our Vista. Annoying but I haven’t driven off with the jacks down yet

[Boldero]

The jacks down beeper sure is annoying, we had the same kinda problem, the fluid was low so it took ages to go off and was frightening our elderly one eyed cat, for a quick fix I unscrewed the jack control panel and stuck a piece of tape over the hole in the tiny plastic speaker on the back of the panel. Still beeped but not loud enough to freak the cat out. The beeper really shouldnt be going off unless you release the parking brake and they are still down, so I would guess theres a fault somewhere in your jack control system.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Wyatt

Hey, does anybody know how to disable the “Jack Down” beeper? Not the light, just the sound. I was under the dash for an hour trying to locate where it emanated from. It seems to be under the driver’s area...
Our dog, Wyatt, is going blind and he’s frightened by it so much he shivers uncontrollably, and runs away when we try and depart camp. It’s sad, and I know I’m taking a small risk, but it outweighs his well being...

Thank you all for your replies. The sound only occurs when the jacks are down, and I start the engine to raise them up, so they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, just annoyingly so.

If I were deaf, I’d rely on the light to remind me, not that I need to be reminded since I have a pre-flight checklist, but it is a nice safeguard all the same. I like the idea of just muffling it, thank you. I didn’t know that the sound is coming from the control panel itself, so thanks again for all of your suggestions.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Winterbagoal

If you're retracting them according to the manual sequence or order, I'm puzzled as to why the "jacks down" alarm is sounding? It should only sound if you have the engine running, parking brake set, and engage the transmission in Drive or Reverse, if I'm not mistaken?

If I'm wrong, then why not take Wyatt for a short walk away from the motorhome, while retracting them? Do they make doggie earplugs?

The light and sound actually happen when the jacks are down, and I put the key in the ignition to start the engine to retract them. If I were to take it out of park, while down, they auto retract immediately.

[macnut]

Our does the same thing. It beeps when they are going down or up.

On my previous RV, a Sunstar, the alarm sometimes went off after fully retracting and shortly after taking off down the road. It was really annoying! I would stop and confirm the jacks were retracted and that the fluid was topped off. We would just extend the jacks a few inches, bring them back up, and that would usually solve the problem. I had the dealer inspect the system and they never could figure out why they did that either. Oh well! In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a huge issue, just an annoyance.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by creativepart

On the top of the hydraulic fluid tank is 1) cap to fill the tank and 2) an electronic float that is the sole method of notifying you when the jacks are down.

There is an automotive type snap connection on the wire a few inches back form the float if you disconnect that snap connector you will kill the beeper. But you will also have no indication that your jack are down.

So, this does what you're looking for. But it also comes at a very high risk.

MORE INFO: Old hydraulic leveling jacks had pins at the top of each jack and when the jacks were retracted the pin would be pressed and the system would register as jacks were up. On the Lippert Power Gear system when the jacks go down the hydraulic fluid is pumped into the lines and the fluid level in the tank falls. The electronic float switch sees that drop in fluid and notifies you that the jacks are down. When the Jacks are up the fluid refills the tank and this raises the float switch and registers that the jacks are up.

Thank you for that, bot I looked. Ok, mine doesn’t have that “float” on top. I’m frustrated. Been SEARCHING the net, and nobody has a definitive solution—THAT WORKS FOR OURS.

I was under that dash today, for two hours. I took everything apart, and I mean EVERYTHING, still, you can’t locate the high pitch ping, as it seems to come from nowhere, and yet everywhere at once.

So besides my issue with the dog—let’s put that issue to rest—I’d love to also be able to charge my engine battery while at a campground, or start the air engine conditioner if need be, WITHOUT the annoying, high pitched, beeping noise when with the jacks are down.

If nobody knows WHERE that beeper is located, that’s fine.

My alternative is to put in a switch, to disengage that leveling system when I’m parked, and ignition on...

Hope to hear somebody who’s smarter than I...

[Boldero]

Here is what I did to drastically reduce the noise from the jacks down beeper when ours was playing up.


The jack control panel with all the control buttons like the video above on it has four screws, one in each corner,I removed them, eased out the control panel and took a look at the rear of that panel.


There was a small black circular piece of plastic smaller than a dime on the rear of the board with a hole in the center of it, I stuck a bit of electrical tape over the tiny hole in the center and the incredibly annoying beep is reduced by 50% at least.


If you still can't find it, I will remove mine again and take some pictures of the offending tiny speaker for you

[Wyatt]

I’m not giving up on this. Dana, from this forum, was good enough to offer up some solutions, in some PM’s, and that helped. So thanks to her.

So, here’s what I’d did. Called Lippert and asked them about the buzzer (alarm). The tech said my unit doesn’t have one built into it.

So I called Winnebago. That tech said that Winnebago didn’t install one either.

So who did? Still haven’t found it...

Morich, any thoughts on redirecting the power (I assume to a solenoid), that when the engine key turns on, activates the solenoid to allow the converter/charger into the loop for the starter battery, without having to turn on the engine key.?

[Morich]

We may have near the same system so let me do a little looking and thinking before getting too heavy into the idea? Will get back in a bit.
I thought I had answered back last night but I keep falling back into work and had been out to the coast, so I was a bit like a stunned chicken last night!

[Morich]

Possible solution? That depends if we do actually have the same setup on jacks but I see they look very close. One of the first things I notice on looking really close is that HWH and Lippert are not exactly the same, so we can't rely on what one does working for the other.
From there it got into some luck at finding what I think you need. One big thing is that I have my seats out and getting them redone, making lots of space to lay in the floor!
I had to play with things a bit to actually get my beeper to sound off as my first answer was that I had no beeper! But then I woke up that I had to flip the park brake off to get any sound! At that point, I get a beep about three seconds long which repeats after a few seconds. I could not spot it, so had to come up with a high tech tool!
Sticking a funnel in the end of a hose makes it possible to hold the funnel tight over one ear while moving the end around as the beep sounds to get a better direction to move in the search! It comes from the control board for the jacks!
The front cover is only held in with a small tab at the top, so a fingernail and prying at the bottom flipped it out to spot the beep coming from the little grey block at the corner.
If you have the same and just did not spot that small thing as the beeper, maybe try tape, if not enough deadening, maybe a bit of caulk or chewing gum would fill the hole?
Hope it solves the mystery? Got to take care of those pups! Some days they're the only ones who really care!

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Morich

Possible solution? That depends if we do actually have the same setup on jacks but I see they look very close. One of the first things I notice on looking really close is that HWH and Lippert are not exactly the same, so we can't rely on what one does working for the other.
From there it got into some luck at finding what I think you need. One big thing is that I have my seats out and getting them redone, making lots of space to lay in the floor!
I had to play with things a bit to actually get my beeper to sound off as my first answer was that I had no beeper! But then I woke up that I had to flip the park brake off to get any sound! At that point, I get a beep about three seconds long which repeats after a few seconds. I could not spot it, so had to come up with a high tech tool!
Sticking a funnel in the end of a hose makes it possible to hold the funnel tight over one ear while moving the end around as the beep sounds to get a better direction to move in the search! It comes from the control board for the jacks!
The front cover is only held in with a small tab at the top, so a fingernail and prying at the bottom flipped it out to spot the beep coming from the little grey block at the corner.
If you have the same and just did not spot that small thing as the beeper, maybe try tape, if not enough deadening, maybe a bit of caulk or chewing gum would fill the hole?
Hope it solves the mystery? Got to take care of those pups! Some days they're the only ones who really care!

Thank you. Now, I have to turn into Gumby again to get back under there...I’ll let everyone know what happens. Appreciate the help!

[Morich]

Or can you just flip the board out the front? I had thought and looked at taking it out but it seemed to have screws at the four corners and the heads were covered so a fingernail under the bottom edge was enough to flip it out to see the back without laying down! The black plastic trim stayed on the dash without taking screws out.
I did have to watch when putting it back so the wires fit through an opening rather than pinching them,?

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Morich

Or can you just flip the board out the front? I had thought and looked at taking it out but it seemed to have screws at the four corners and the heads were covered so a fingernail under the bottom edge was enough to flip it out to see the back without laying down! The black plastic trim stayed on the dash without taking screws out.
I did have to watch when putting it back so the wires fit through an opening rather than pinching them,?

Thanks, I’ll take another look at that. When you say control board, you’re referring to the actual interface with the leveling buttons I assume?

[Morich]

Yes! I went back to some mod pictures you had posted and spotting your controls in one and it looked just the same as mine. I marked up your picture here to show what I "think" you can do for your board. Rather than the whole thing coming out I believe you can get something sharp and thin like a knife blade in at the bottom corner. There is a thin "plastic film" type thing which acts as the face of the buttons and lights on the board, then a harder material that the board is made of but that all just snaps into the black plastic that has been screwed to the dash. I played with your picture in case you know the thumb!
But I believe the only thing holding that small board in the plastic is the tab I marked on my picture and where I think it is on yours. If I press up slightly on the board while pulling out at the bottom corner, the edge is just kind of resting on the plastic and will tilt straight out from the bottom. All that seems to hold it is the pressure from that little tab (1/8 inch?) at the top center! To put it back, I put the bottom side in, made sure the wire fit into an opening in the plastic and then tilted it back into the hole and pressed down on the tab enough for it to click into place.
I had the beep going and putting my finger over that hole stopped it almost totally !
Just hoping your have the same,cause it sure would be easy!