I've just finished reading Jon's comments in another thread in which he stated that he never lifts his tag axle except under extreme circumstances.

Yesterday, I pulled into a campground that had some very sharp turns and I lifted the tag while I got through the last turn, then promptly lowered it while maneuvering at a very slow speed.

After I backed into my parking spot, I had trouble leveling and finally concluded that the rear end was sitting very log with the mud flaps bent. There was clearly a lack of weight on the tag although it was firmly on the ground.

What made the situation odd was that I could not raise the rear end off the mud flaps. With the engine running I tried each side individually and they would not lift more than an inch or two. The front end lifted and lowered just fine. After I shut the engine down, there was a loud hissing sound from the front equipment compartment. I swung the door open and looked inside, but could not identify the source of the air before it stopped. I tried raising the rear again and again, it wouldn't budge and after shutdown, after a minute or so a loud hiss came from the front control valve area. I finally gave up and called it a night, with a poor level condition.

The next morning, I started the engine and within a few minutes tried again. This time it worked! The rear end lifted about 8 inches and once again, we were up. All systems OK.

I know how to prevent the problem, i.e. don't raise the tag. Once before, on pavement when I had used the tag lift prior to parking that the coach sat low in the rear. I remember shutting down and going outside when, after several minutes I heard a creak and saw the tag axle move in the corner of my eye.

So, it seems to me that I have a problem not with lifting but with lowering the tag back to ride height. Not having seen the mechanism I don't know exactly how it works. Do the airbags on the gag depressurize when you lift the tag? Do the lifting bellows simply let the air out to drop the tag? Are the tag suspension air bags supposed to auto-fill as soon as the tag is dropped?

Or, am I simply misusing the tag function?

-fred