HPC self levelling system

[The Artilleryman]

Just had an email from my installer, that they are no longer fitting HPC due to supply problems and also reports of the hydraulic jacks leaking.

Does anybody have any experience of hydraulic leaks on this system?

Had spent a lot of time deciding which system to have and now this. We had come to the conclusion HPC was the best for us, not sure what to do now, as we had already ruled out the suggested alternative (M-Level).

 

[David and Sally]

Who was the installer?

 

[Hettie's Crew]

Had ours for six years with no problems whatsoever. I would suggest contacting AS Suspension in Warrington where we had ours fitted, they’ve been fitting HPC longer than anyone else. Maybe HPC have decided not to supply your installer for some reason.

 

[stewartwebr]

E&P have been around the longest and I have had 5 of their systems. Couple this with Mick at SAP in Doncaster who won’t be beaten on quality of installation and customer service for years to come and you have a great package.

 

[haganap]

I have M-level fitted on mine.

This is my 3rd trip away in it with it on.
I've had 3 vans with E&P and one van with Goldsmitt. I considered the HPC system from a Yorkshire based company but opted not too after some research.

I opted to go with MLevel as Im well aware of the owner. I worked with a well known funster company to get it fitted and help them develop their knowledge of installations. Im sure Ash will provide more details soon.

it works well, slightly slower, slightly more noisey, but not anything i cant live with and barely noticeable.

Its all about the installation, i had one set on a van we bought that had the hydraulic pump fitted in such a way you couldnt get the leisure battery out without having to move the hydraulics!!

I suppose thats why mick at SAP has such a good reputation. One which im sure Ash will emulate over time as Dave really knows his stuff.

Hope that helps if you are considering a change

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[A-Mech]

Has anyone ever made there own leveling system buying cylinders, mountings, power pack, c-top valves and self levelling sensor?

I'm not big on disablement of ECU ignition when rams extented, due to starting issues when microswitch fault. Simple handbrake signal with buzzer would surfice for me.

I'm interested to know, as my fag packet estimate on parts is a maximum of £1500. You would probably find someone who may even sell the HPC or other system in kit form, saving on expensive labour element of installation. Hiring a ramp in garage is £100 / day.

 

[The Artilleryman]

Having a bit of brain fog at the moment, I'm sure that AL-KO bought out a self levelling company last year and we'd looked at that system - slightly more expensive than HPC and too many gimmicks (self weighing) - it was being demonstrated on a Peugeot cab/Alko chassis at the NEC.

We had decided on HPC, having seen it in use and it has a good interface (unlike some others), was booked for fitting next month, but want a system we both like (interface) and a setup where hoses are custom made to fit the vehicle/installation, rather than a set of long hoses just bundled up out of the way.

 

[A-Mech]

Hoses are easiest part of any install as most towns have a hydraulics company or worse scenario is, get mobile service which would be last choice due to rip off charges.

Ports , cylinders are generally BSP threaded so measuring and ordering hoses online are cheapest option. I personally would put a metric thread on cylinder as less surceptopal to vibration and leaks.

Knowing whether some engineers have fitted there own system to their motorhomes.

 

[stevewagner]

We had MA-VE on our previous motorhome which worked very well but I didn’t like the way the excess hydraulic pipes were cable tied out of the way. We had HPC levelling fitted on our current motorhome fitted by LNB Towbars who did an excellent job. It works very well and is the lightest system. The safety wiring is connected to the handbrake so no ECU issues.

 

[haganap]

Like the idea of fitting and building your own.

Not sure about the interface issue? My Goldsmitt system could do a million things when it only needed to do 2, self level and or manually operate each jack.

There's no ecu issue as far as I'm aware, most go from the handbrake. However my current one goes from the d signal in much the same way as a satellite system auto retracts when starting the engine, although this can be overridden if i wanted to run the engine whilst the Jack's were down.

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[Ditcha]

Like the idea of fitting and building your own.

Not sure about the interface issue? My Goldsmitt system could do a million things when it only needed to do 2, self level and or manually operate each jack.

There's no ecu issue as far as I'm aware, most go from the handbrake. However my current one goes from the d signal in much the same way as a satellite system auto retracts when starting the engine, although this can be overridden if i wanted to run the engine whilst the Jack's were down.

Really surprised you can operate one jack at a time on Goldschmidt great chance of twisting the chassis doing that, EP only allows a pair of jacks to operation for this reason.

 

[The Wino]

Really surprised you can operate one jack at a time on Goldschmidt great chance of twisting the chassis doing that, EP only allows a pair of jacks to operation for this reason.

Doesn't only allowing a pair to operate not twist the chassis if the ground is at different levels?

 

[haganap]

Really surprised you can operate one jack at a time on Goldschmidt great chance of twisting the chassis doing that, EP only allows a pair of jacks to operation for this reason.

Well certainly could on mine and that was a factory install. There was a list of things you could do with it.
Change tyre
Empty waste
Storage front
Storage rear
Storage
Level auto
Manual

Some others ive forgotten to. You just scrolled through the panel to find which jack you wanted to operate. Can't be sure but in my 2012 n and b, that could be indivdual as well.

Not tried this one yet but now going to look ..

Edit ..... just checked and the MLevel does 2 at a time, front back left right.

 

[Ditcha]

Doesn't only allowing a pair to operate not twist the chassis if the ground is at different levels?

No because the jacks take up the difference in height.

 

[Ditcha]

Well certainly could on mine and that was a factory install. There was a list of things you could do with it.
Change tyre
Empty waste
Storage front
Storage rear
Storage
Level auto
Manual

Some others ive forgotten to. You just scrolled through the panel to find which jack you wanted to operate. Can't be sure but in my 2012 n and b, that could be indivdual as well.

Not tried this one yet but now going to look ..

Did they have the weight measuring function and can the new ones do weight ?

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[haganap]

Did they have the measure weight function and can the new ones do weight ?

Can you elaborate? Do weight?

They interacted with the air suspension i remember. The weights the weight isn't it? They are just designed to lift up to a certain weight surely?

At the end of the day simplicity is best imv .. turn up level van...empty water, change wheel..stops the rocking... not sure whatelse is needed.

 

[Ditcha]

Can you elaborate? Do weight?

They interacted with the air suspension i remember. The weights the weight isn't it? They are just designed to lift up to a certain weight surely?

At the end of the day simplicity is best imv .. turn up level van...empty water, change wheel..stops the rocking... not sure whatelse is needed.

Sorry thinking of Goldschmidt air suspension it can tell you the weight of the van, not sure if the jacks could do the same.

 

[The Artilleryman]

Did they have the weight measuring function and can the new ones do weight ?

AL-KO do a system that can weigh the vehicle as well, I think they bought out E & P.

 

[Speve]

Having a bit of brain fog at the moment, I'm sure that AL-KO bought out a self levelling company last year and we'd looked at that system - slightly more expensive than HPC and too many gimmicks (self weighing) - it was being demonstrated on a Peugeot cab/Alko chassis at the NEC.

We had decided on HPC, having seen it in use and it has a good interface (unlike some others), was booked for fitting next month, but want a system we both like (interface) and a setup where hoses are custom made to fit the vehicle/installation, rather than a set of long hoses just bundled up out of the way.

We had the Al-ko system fitted and it was virtually same price as EP which is owned by Alko now and it’s a nice system with individual units for each wheel no central reservoir or pipe runs along chassis we are very happy with it.Had it done by A&E Leisure at Northwich. A good experience with a team that knows what they are doing

 

[The Artilleryman]

Well the saga continues!

Phoned our latest installer - well know west country firm - on Monday to confirm all the parts had arrived for next Mondays fitment. Told HPC parts had not arrived yet, but were expecting them that day & would contact me on Wednesday if there were any delays.

Phoned this afternoon to find there were problems - some kits were leaking internally - and they them suggested another make I hadn't heard of, which I declined.

So another 3 week wait to see if they can sort out the problems - sounds like they are taking parts from kits as soon as they arrive to sort the current job if it leaks.

When I first enquired about problems I was told the leaking jacks and supply problems were last year and had all been sorted.
HPC said exactly the same when I emailed them.

The reasons we wanted HPC is the best user interface (in our opinion), reputation and quality.

The former is still the case but as to the other two, who knows.

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[Hettie's Crew]

In the same way that SAP in Doncaster is the place to go for E&P, AS Suspension in Warrington is the place to go for HPC. They’ve both been doing these systems long before they became as popular as they are now. Far longer than other companies. The problem is that they are always fully booked and you have to wait months.

AS Air Suspension

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www.as-airsuspension.co.uk

 

[Roby2008]

Having a bit of brain fog at the moment, I'm sure that AL-KO bought out a self levelling company last year and we'd looked at that system - slightly more expensive than HPC and too many gimmicks (self weighing) - it was being demonstrated on a Peugeot cab/Alko chassis at the NEC.

We had decided on HPC, having seen it in use and it has a good interface (unlike some others), was booked for fitting next month, but want a system we both like (interface) and a setup where hoses are custom made to fit the vehicle/installation, rather than a set of long hoses just bundled up out of the way.

I had the AL-KO (HY4) system fitted 3 weeks ago at the factory in Austria, not cheap (none of the systems are) but very impressed with the components, the service centre and the system as a whole, it was all done in a day, I arrived at 0730 and was on my way home at 1530. I haven´t used it past a few tests as the season hasn´t kicked off for us yet but so far it does everything I wanted .....................including the weighing system which means I can play with weight distribution without running off to a weighbridge.

 

[Roby2008]

We had the Al-ko system fitted and it was virtually same price as EP which is owned by Alko now and it’s a nice system with individual units for each wheel no central reservoir or pipe runs along chassis we are very happy with it.Had it done by A&E Leisure at Northwich. A good experience with a team that knows what they are doing

Me too, I had the system fitted at the Austrian factory......

 

[icantremember]

Another vote here for HPC supplied & fitted by AS Air Suspension in Warrington. We have had oursfor seven years with no problems.
I particularly like the phone app control which was not available in the UK at the time so we went to the HPC factory in the Netherlands for the upgrade.

 

[Marie-Claire]

What is the advice on taking the system off one van and reinstalling on a new one , the cost of a new system, against lowering the original vans value and the charge to swap it over

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[Pixies]

We had HPC fitted by LNB in Bristol to our last van. No problems at all. Will we get self levelling on new van? Probably not, we have better uses for 5 or 6k, and will go back to using levelling wedges.