# Levelling Jacks on our RV



## thewaltons (Aug 21, 2006)

Hmmmmmmmm

If we use our 'big foot' on automatic to level the RV the front wheels lift off the ground and neither of us feel comfortable like that even though some people have said it is o.k.............. but others have said it is not (could twist the chassis etc).

We have bought ramps which we drove onto yesterday, then auto leveled, but the wheels although still touching the ramps are not really loadbearing (I don't think?)

What's the answer to the leveling problem - Should we ......

1.lower the jacks and the slight lower front end shouldn't make much difference to fridge etc. :? 
2. stay slightly raised and the wheels are fine raised a little.  
3 Try and find a more level pitch :wink: (but the level ones are boggy when it rains) :roll:


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## zaskar (Jun 6, 2005)

Do you HAVE to auto level?

is there not a manual override with the ability to raise/lower each jack indiviadually?

Bit of a faff I know, but NO WAY would i leave a rig in the condition (wheels off) you describe. It really is asking for trouble.


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## thewaltons (Aug 21, 2006)

Hi Zaskar

We can manually level which is what we have done before, but we are not level even with the ramps. Aren't we supposed to be level before we put the slides out? Will the fridge be affected?

So much to learn - is there an RV'ers bible that we can buy? (my head hurts!!)


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## loddy (Feb 12, 2007)

Much safer to have the wheels in contact with the ground, stops any sideway movement.

Loddy


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## zaskar (Jun 6, 2005)

thewaltons said:


> Hi Zaskar
> We can manually level which is what we have done before, but we are not level even with the ramps. Aren't we supposed to be level before we put the slides out? Will the fridge be affected?
> So much to learn - is there an RV'ers bible that we can buy? (my head hurts!!)


Right, I get the impression from what you've said that your on a fair old slope and the jacks cannot extend far enough to level the coach without lifting the front wheels. This really isn't an ideal situation and your two choices are a/find a more level pitch or b/ if you MUST stay where you are, try and get the bus as level as poss' using ramps (wood/brick etc) FIRST, and then fine tune it with the jacks. I use this method even on the most gentle of slopes as I believe its far "kinder" on the structure of the coach.
DEFINALY level the coach BEFORE extending the slides and ALWAYS pull the slide in BEFORE you come off the blocks/jacks.
The fridge in RV's is, I believe, tilt tolerant to an angle of 3 degrees (they're not as advanced as the new european models which i believe will cope with between 5 and 10 degrees.
Believe me, even in an RV, your gonna feel it if your 3 degrees out, it's not very comfortable. Some people cope with it better than others and I've seen van/RV's at some incrdible angles, personally I'm a levelling fanatic


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

hi mine is manual level only, I am supposed to chase the lights on the panel as i extend the jacks, but its easier to use a small bubble level which sits in my door tray.

Unless the ground is really bad you should be able to level without lifting the front wheels off the ground, however I have on occasion done this without any ill effects. Their used to be a danger of popping the front screen due to the chassis drooping, but I believe that the chassis are so much stronger nowadays thats no longer a concern. But don't take my word for it.  

Always face down the slope when you jack, and never lift either or the rears clear of the ground with a transmission brake. Level front to back first, then sideways. 

Olley


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## colossus (Apr 17, 2007)

*jacks*

i dream of jacks as my rv dont have any


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## zaskar (Jun 6, 2005)

olley said:


> but I believe that the chassis are so much stronger nowadays thats no longer a concern.
> Olley


True.......to a point. You still have tto think about all the seals and joints on the coach work. Overstress them and eventually they WILL start to leak. Is it worth it for the sake of a bit of poncing about with some levelling blocks? Not for me 

For The Waltons, with a Trek..........

Assuming a standard width of 2550mm and wheel base of 7620mm (25ft)
Side to side, your looking at maximum blocking of 133mm (5.2")
Front to back......................................................399mm (15")

That'll level you at 3 degrees, bearing mind all these figures are approx and can depend on soil conditions (sinking of the blocks)

edit = Oye Nuke!!!!!! 8O That's a bit cheeky mate  I posted "levelling blocks" in my tesxt and it's automatically formed a link to Outdoor Bits!!!!! What a sales technique! 8) What's me commision then?


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

hi Zaskar as soon as you start to lift with the jacks you are stressing the frame, with the wheels still just on the ground 90% of the weight could have been transferred to the jacks, with only the axle and wheels to add. 

Not inconsiderable but looking at my chassis not a problem. Its been designed by workhorse to have jacks fitted. I believe yours is a P32, which were never designed with jacks in mind. The W series are much stronger. 

Olley


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## zaskar (Jun 6, 2005)

olley said:


> I believe yours is a P32, which were never designed with jacks in mind. The W series are much stronger.
> Olley


Correct. P32. Oh boy did I want a Workhorse after my first, early Chevy but I'm afraid it wasn't to be. Coach was too good to turn down on this point. I knew about the "widetrack" but hadn't realised they'd "beefed" it as well ?


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi Zaskar they increased the strength of the frame rail steel from I believe 35,000psi to 50,000psi and I think the depth as well. 

I believe all P32's are wide track, which is what workhorse did to the chassis as soon as they took over. (in 1999?)

As a matter of interest mine are approx. 9.5" in depth
Olley


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## 103356 (Mar 11, 2007)

zaskar said:


> DEFINALY level the coach BEFORE extending the slides and ALWAYS pull the slide in BEFORE you come off the blocks/jacks.


I note that the advice you give above is the same as that in the Coachmen manual. HOWEVER, the dealers I bought my RV from were most adamant that the reverse is the least stressful way to extend the slide(s) - i.e. slides out first, then level the coach. The reason - when the jacks go down, depending on the slope, and whether it is a compound slope (i.e. falls away in two directions), then raising the coach on the jacks WILL slightly distort the chassis. If you then try to extend the slide with a slightly twisted chassis, it will rapidly wear the electric motor, as the slide will bind slightly (or more than slightly) as it tries to extend. By deploying the slide first, the suspension copes with any unevenness, and allows the slide to extend freely. The reverse when departing - jacks first, then slide. I present this for what its worth, and this may not be good advice if you have the very large extending slides. However, if you have the shorter slides, then just check how freely your slide goes in and out when you do it before or after extending the jacks on a slight slope.


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## zaskar (Jun 6, 2005)

[quote="Chrisdy I note that the ....................[/quote]

this ones been going on since the first slides came out!
yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice.
I'm happy with mine.  
your milage may vary


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## 101276 (Oct 6, 2006)

*levelling*

i hardly ever use my jacks i lower my air suspension on to blocks
which takes the weight of the m/home sometimes i tweak the jacks but not very often

steve


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## wobby (May 1, 2005)

)

edit = Oye Nuke!!!!!! 8O That's a bit cheeky mate  I posted "Levelling Blocks" in my text and it's automatically formed a link to Outdoor Bits!!!!! What a sales technique! 8) What's me commision then?[/quote]

Can't blame im can ya?


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi Chrisdy if you have HWH jacks you cannot twist the chassis deploying the jacks, in actual fact they will automatically take any twist out.

The reason is that the jacks are deployed in pairs, assume you are on a compound slope, deploy the rears and as they contact the ground because they have a common hydraulic feed the jack with the least weight on it will raise the chassis until the weight on both jacks is equal. 

Your now just leaning to one side, take the weight with the front jacks, the side angle will stay the same. Now when you level the side, both side jacks again have a common feed so will lift the coach evenly.

This is all controlled by the electric solenoids in the hydraulic power pack. The only thing which could cause a twist would be if one corner of the coach was a lot heavier than the other due to poor design by the RV builders.

I would think extending the slides especally if you only have one could cause this to happen, as it extends it will twist the chassis slightly, and the jacks will not take that out. So IMHO you should always deploy the jacks before operating the slides.

Olley


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## Bryan (Aug 9, 2006)

*Re: levelling*



monacosteve said:


> i hardly ever use my jacks i lower my Air Suspension on to blocks
> which takes the weight of the m/home sometimes i tweak the jacks but not very often
> 
> steve


Hi Steve,

Do you mean that you have four stacks of blocks under your axles and then drop your air?

How do you cope with a pitch that has a slope or even a compund slope?

Don't you then have a problem getting the four stacks level?

Bryan


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## Bryan (Aug 9, 2006)

olley said:


> Hi Chrisdy if you have HWH jacks you cannot twist the chassis deploying the jacks, in actual fact they will automatically take any twist out.
> 
> The reason is that the jacks are deployed in pairs, assume you are on a compound slope, deploy the rears and as they contact the ground because they have a common hydraulic feed the jack with the least weight on it will raise the chassis until the weight on both jacks is equal.
> 
> ...


Thanks for this post Olley.

We have HWH jacks with a superslide.

The manual says the RV MUST be level before deploying or retracting the slide.

Your explanation re: the common feeds is excellent and helps me feel more confident that we are doing the best for our RV.

When we were at Teversal last weekend we were on a VERY sloping pitch. After levelling we had one front wheel off the ground and noticed no ill effects. We were very wary but there was no way we were going to have the slide out whilst unlevel . And there was of course the fridge to consider.

Great comment about not lifting back wheels off the ground, makes a lot of sense with transmission brakes 8O

I am concerned about having wheels off the ground though, what do people reckon about this?

Bryan


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## gromett (May 9, 2005)

I saw an RV once that had what looked like 18" long bits of railway sleepers under the jacks. I think they placed these on the ground under the jacks before lowering so the jacks had less work to do?

Think is may solve your problem. Also if you are on a front back slope only put them under the front jacks?

Just a thought, not being an RV'er not sure how the whole thing works tbh.

Karl


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

hi Karl as long as you are happy about lifting your front wheels clear of the ground then blocking under the jacks is fine if you are on a very steep slope. 

I always put pads under mine (18"x18"x1") to spread the load especially on grass where without, your pad just disappears into the ground. And even on hardstandings which are not designed to support 2-4 tonnes on the small pads that most jacks have. last thing I want to do is crack the concrete and give us RVer's a bad name.

Hi Bryan I am glad it made sense, not very good with explanations.

Olley


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## damondunc (Feb 14, 2006)

according to nearly all RV manufacturers, the RV should be levelled first before putting the slideouts out. The only RV manufacturer that says the opposite is Monaco, why I don't know. You should never lift any wheels off the ground when levelling if you have to lift any wheels off the ground you should either move to a more level pitch (preferable) or put blocks under the wheels as necessary AND under the jack pads. Under no circumstance should either of the rear wheels be lifted clear of the ground, the park brake on most RV's would then be totatally ineffective(transmission brake on the propshaft) and may damage the jacks, and cause the RV to roll away on it's own. 
Also even being on a slight slope may cause the fridge to become inoperative (norcold fridges now have a safety circuit built in to the control board which will shut the fridge down if it senses an off level situation, you have only one chance to remedy this before the fridge completely locks out and requires resetting) Any one had a NO CO code come up on the fridge display? I have been called out three times in recent weeks to correct this fault. Dometic fridges have not got the same setup but may be damaged permanently by being run off level. 
Dunc.


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## gromett (May 9, 2005)

olley said:


> hi Karl as long as you are happy about lifting your front wheels clear of the ground then blocking under the jacks is fine if you are on a very steep slope.
> Olley


Told you I didn't know what I was on about 

Having said that, could you force the front end high then lower it onto the railway sleepers? That would keep the wheels in contact with the ground?

Karl


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

hi karl you could do, depends on the availability of blocks of wood.  

Olley


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## 103356 (Mar 11, 2007)

Olley, I don't disagree with your logic, and that is also what is stated in the Coachmen manual. I was surprised by the instruction from the service guy at Travelworld, but he was quite specific about the sequence. I can't imagine why he would explain something that way if it was going to cause problems which they would then have to deal with - very odd.

As for 'jack pads' there was an excellent article in one of the RV mags, that recommended carrying a set of 18" x 18" pieces of thick (3/4") marine ply, which you could place under the jacks to spread the load. I made up a set of four 16" x 16" double thickness blocks (my 'spare' timber just happened to be cuttable to that size), plus another four single thickness blocks, all of which fit into a side locker. You can then vary the height of the blocks when on a slope so that the jacks are still relatively level and you don't over-extend the jack on the lowest part of the slope. Another tip from the article was to put metal eye hooks in one side of each of the blocks so that you can pull them out with your awning rod without having to get underneath the RV to remove them, especially when it's wet.


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi Chris good tip about the eye's, I keep meaning to drill mine and fit some rope pulls. 

I used 1" WBP ply for my pads and then varnished them, bit cheaper than marine.

Olley


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## gromett (May 9, 2005)

olley said:


> hi karl you could do, depends on the availability of blocks of wood.
> 
> Olley


Hey Olley 

http://www.floraselect.co.uk/index.php?page=shopping&shop_cat_id=492
£13.50 for a sleeper and they charge £4.00 to cross cut it for you per cut.
So 3 cuts x £4.00 + £13.50 = £25.50 for lumps of wood you will never need to replace 

Karl


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

gromett said:


> ....could you force the front end high then lower it onto the railway sleepers? That would keep the wheels in contact with the ground?


Karl,

That's exactly what we did at La Manga in March, where the van had a nasty nose-down pitch. I went two paranoid nights over the first weekend with the front wheels dangling, and shelled out £35 at a sawmill on around 15 hardwood blocks (18"x12"x1", and 18"x12"x2"). I then let the van back down (after retracting the slide), placed two 2" blocks under each of the jacks - which gave more scope for raising without fully extending the jacks - then jacked the front back up around 6" beyond the level position so it was nose-up, then inserted enough blocks under front wheels to allow me to settle the van back onto the blocks and thus allow the front axle to take most of the weight.

When we left, I raised the front just enough to take out one 2" block, then lowered the front back onto the blocks, then made a three-step staircase (each comprising one 2" & one 1" block) which I drove down with ease. Sounds complicated (it took me two restless nights to figure it out, I'll grant you) but the success was due to having enough good-quality blocks cut, and at two differing thicknesses. They all store nicely in the small belly locker, and I will never need to worry about levelling again.

Dougie.


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

Chrisdy said:


> Another tip from the article was to put metal eye hooks in one side of each of the blocks so that you can pull them out with your awning rod without having to get underneath the RV to remove them, especially when it's wet.


How good is that.  Glad you didn't copyright the idea, 'cos I'll be buying my metal eye hooks in the morning. Cheers.

Dougie.


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## 99702 (Jun 18, 2006)

should i be more careful about my fridge normally leave it on gas, going along, and parked at all sorts of angles allways works ok dometic 1998 and apart from not working how can it be damaged thanks


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## damondunc (Feb 14, 2006)

*Fridges and levelling*

If you run a fridge off level(6% front to rear and 3% side to side)the liquid in the cooling unit will pool in the corners of the tubes and boil dry leaving a solid residue. The more you do this the more the tubes will become blocked eventually blocking the cooling unit tubes completely and rendering the cooling unit unservicable. A new one is very expensive! this damage is cumulative, you may not notice much the first few times apart from the fridge being inefficient but eventually you will wreck it.
Dunc.


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## 99702 (Jun 18, 2006)

thanks for your info dunc, just roll along not really now what im doing, probably rings a bell with lots of people


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi peabug, you must be pretty clever; you bought an RV. :lol: 

Olley


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## 101411 (Oct 15, 2006)

*Re: Fridges and levelling*



damondunc said:


> If you run a fridge off level(6% front to rear and 3% side to side)the liquid in the cooling unit will pool in the corners of the tubes and boil dry leaving a solid residue. The more you do this the more the tubes will become blocked eventually blocking the cooling unit tubes completely and rendering the cooling unit unservicable. A new one is very expensive! this damage is cumulative, you may not notice much the first few times apart from the fridge being inefficient but eventually you will wreck it.
> Dunc.


Hi Dunc

I assume running the fridge out of level when driving isnt a problem as the fluid is constantly moving and cannot pool, is that correct??

Cheers


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## damondunc (Feb 14, 2006)

*Fridges and levelling*

In theory correct, however if it's a later norcold and you get stuck in a traffic jam on a slope it will bring the no co code up. while driving no problem.
Dunc.


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