Clearance in 2014 Berkshire Bh390-Urgent

[Tallcotton4]

Question. Is there a way to gain more clearance to avoid hitting our tail pipe. We need more clearance to remove our RV from the inlaws driveway. Can you manually raise the suspension?
Thanks!

[jtstromsburg]

I would pull the front wheels out on the street and place boards under the rear wheels as they pull out. stack until you have enough clearance.

[Emptypockets]

Is your unit on air ride - my son in-law can raise his Monico mh by using the air ride controls.

[Tallcotton4]

Yes it's on air ride...we were in nose first...then filled the water tanks, and prob added to our weight. We had clearance coming in..but not out. We did drive over some boards eventually, but we majorly damaged the pebble-tec type driveway. Not sure about damage to the tail pipe..but it looks good so far. We need to do some further research because our smaller class C had an option to raise 3-4 inches for clearance issues. Sure could have used it today.

[Tallcotton4]

Originally Posted by jtstromsburg

I would pull the front wheels out on the street and place boards under the rear wheels as they pull out. stack until you have enough clearance.

We were nose first on wayyyy too much of a slope and then we "think" the full tanks we now have from water, didn't help us out. Hoping to find a way to raise the air ride suspension.

[NO3putt]

Think boards are your best bet. Don't know of a way to raise the tail, also would drain the water, can alway refill it later.

[ernest917]

Remember: liquid weighs a tad over 8 lbs per gallon do do the math to get how much additional weight you added to your coach... Will definitely change the dynamics of going in/out of driveway.... Maybe should have drained H2O and filled it later....

[Tallcotton4]

Originally Posted by ernest917

Remember: liquid weighs a tad over 8 lbs per gallon do do the math to get how much additional weight you added to your coach... Will definitely change the dynamics of going in/out of driveway.... Maybe should have drained H2O and filled it later....

Lesson well learned. Had kids sleeping in it, drained grey before we got here, but then filled water for nighttime. Live and learn. Thanks for the info on water weight though. I'm so surprised we cannot raise the coach to get clearance. In our much less fancy class c, we had the option. :-(

[Campin Cajun]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but do you guys think our coach will ride lower with full water than with empty water? If it does it can't be much difference.

[Tallcotton4]

Originally Posted by Campin Cajun

I don't want to hijack this thread, but do you guys think our coach will ride lower with full water than with empty water? If it does it can't be much difference.

Not sure if I totally understand, but when we pulled in dry..we had clearance. When we filled the tanks, and kids used the bathrooms etc minimally..after 7 days...my father in law has majorrrr damage to his driveway from where our tailpipe literally dug it out. Something had to be different. :-(

[Campin Cajun]

II'm trying to picture the scenario in my head. Is the driveway higher or lower than the street? Is the driveway on a steep grade?

I didn't think the tailpipe would be strong enough to gouge a driveway. What's the driveway made of?

[Tallcotton4]

The driveway has a definite slope that we should have avoided. Their driveway is overlaid with a small pebble material. The only thing I can think of to relate it to, is pebble-tech pool material that we had on a grotto type pool. And I can speak from experience...the tail pipes are wicked strong. I'm surprised we didn't break it, but we had to get it out...so we had to take the chance.

[Tallcotton4]

Ok, so my father in law says that he doesn't think the tailpipe is what gouged the driveway. We aren't sure what did it, but there is no damage to he fiberglass in the back and we had taken the Forest River duster off. So, dunno?

[NO3putt]

If you have a hitch reciever on your Berkshire you will hit it before you hit your tail pipe or fiberglass. Ours has a small skid plate that looks somewhat like a "V" welded on the bottom of the hitch reciever and we have drug ours a few times going into gas stations etc. In fact first time home, pulled into driveway and drug it enough to lift some weight off the back and could not go forwards or backwards. Ended up using the rear jacks to lift and put some boards down under tires. You will have to hit something pretty darn hard to hurt the frightliner frame. Happy Holidays

Willing to bet the gouge is about 2 inches wide in the pavement. Let me know if I'm wrong.

[Tallcotton4]

Originally Posted by NO3putt

If you have a hitch reciever on your Berkshire you will hit it before you hit your tail pipe or fiberglass. Ours has a small skid plate that looks somewhat like a "V" welded on the bottom of the hitch reciever and we have drug ours a few times going into gas stations etc. In fact first time home, pulled into driveway and drug it enough to lift some weight off the back and could not go forwards or backwards. Ended up using the rear jacks to lift and put some boards down under tires. You will have to hit something pretty darn hard to hurt the frightliner frame. Happy Holidays

Willing to bet the gouge is about 2 inches wide in the pavement. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Yes...I'm going to try to take a pic of it before we leave tomorrow morning, just as a word of caution to people in the future. I saw the tail pipe hitting and dragging so I assumed that's what we hit. I think you are correct, as we tow a Jeep Sahara behind and have a lift on it. It's a blue ox but beyond that I wouldn't know the technical terms of what it is.
Thanks for the reply!

[NO3putt]

See your from up the road from us, Pueblo here. Drive safe.

[Tallcotton4]

Yes! Monument/Black Forest area. Heading home tomorrow from Arkansas. Maybe we will see you out there some time!

[NO3putt]

Don't know where you purchased your Berkshire from, but Transwest in Fountian does excellent service and is an authorized service location for Cummings and Frightliner. We take ours there every year for service and they even have a lift so they can inspect the entire frame of the MH at reasonable cost and do our oil changes to include the generator. We are heading out on Friday for the warm weather of AZ. We have stopped in Amarillo several times and winterized the motorhome there if it's going to be real cold up here.

[Tallcotton4]

Originally Posted by NO3putt

Don't know where you purchased your Berkshire from, but Transwest in Fountian does excellent service and is an authorized service location for Cummings and Frightliner. We take ours there every year for service and they even have a lift so they can inspect the entire frame of the MH at reasonable cost and do our oil changes to include the generator. We are heading out on Friday for the warm weather of AZ. We have stopped in Amarillo several times and winterized the motorhome there if it's going to be real cold up here.

So far we have gotten it winterized:de winterized just at Camping World. Thank you for the recommendation. Sounds like a much better option. We have only had this MH for a few months and we are in the process of building an RV garage at our house. Will be nice. We are from Arizona..have a great time! Definitely. Beautiful place to be this time of year. I'm going to inbox you on a recommendation as to wether or not we should winterize before we get home in the next few days. We are new to this class of RV.

[NO3putt]

We winterize ourself since it's really easy and takes only about 30 minutes to do. It takes about 3 gallons of the RV antifreeze and don't have to drive any place or pay their rates. There is a leaning curve on the MH but we have our since 2010 so we have learned along the way. Would be nice to have a indoor place to store the MH but we have been lucky that we travel about 6-7 months of the year, but we do have a 50 amp RV outlet at home to plug into when here. Safe travels, might see you down the road.