As the leveling system adjusts the height of the wheels the distance between them changes and the chocks can become loose or too tight - Ive started using wheel chocks because of this
I'm new to the lippert 3.0 system. 2021 Reflection 150 fifth wheel after 20 years of travel trailer/pop-ups. With that being said how much of the level tube should be out of the unit when the unit is leveled? What is if anything recommended to put under the leveling feet while camping? Should you store the camper between camping trips with feet up or down? Thanks for all the info in advance. 😊
Jeffrey, first, congrats on the new camper! Ideal extension is the least amount possible, but that becomes impractical in many situations. Many sites are graded for drainage. The less you run out, in theory the less movement you'll feel in the camper and the cleaner you'll keep the inner seals because the metal that passes through the seals won't be exposed to the elements. In reality, I've never seen factory leveling system that takes all the camper rock / sway out. I plan to make a video on how I do my max stabilizing at a site to prevent kid sway. Before I added supports, even when perfectly leveled, I could feel my kids turn over in their beds while camping. Of course there are many products that help with this (Strong arms, Steadyfast, X Chocks, king pin tripods, etc) For your front jacks, on perfectly flat ground, you run the manual extensions down until there is about 4~6" gap to the ground or your level block, then use to controller for powered extension. Of course when you are unhooking from your vehicle, you have to run out more to get the hitch clearance, then auto-level. I use simple post risers I've made from scrap wood. You can buy the expensive buckets, but they aren't doing anything more than the wood, other than potentially easier to store. I also use the Tri-Lynx blocks w/ caps depending on the site. When storying, the manual officially says to only use the front jacks. Many times when auto leveling, the mid / rear levelers are lifting a significant portion of the axle up and taking on some of that load. Because I store at a farm outside, I use concrete blocks under my front and rear jacks. I manual extend the rear jacks about 1~2" just for stabilizing support, but without lifting the axle up . We've actually had campers blown onto their sides (tri-axle!) during storage in my area. Hope this helps and Happy Camping!
I always lower fronts as low as possible then hit autolevel. It has always worked, first step is always good. I carry 2 - 2" x 8" x 6' pressure treated planks. If my side to side is bad in a spot I use one or two for the side, but just use the front extensions as required and have never been out of stroke or had tires lift off ground. P.S. Westlake tires are crap.
Sorry, just to be clear, once you unhitch and pull the truck away, you manually extend the front legs really really far to make it nose high, and this causes it to pull those legs back in before starting to level? Often, I find that my 311bhs ends up really really high for no reason and i'm wondering if this would defeat that.
Ross, this all depends on the grade of where you are leveling: In general, most spots slope from front to rear, at least in the hilly areas around me. Before I unhitch, I don't extend the manual front legs as far down as I would on a level surface (example leaving 10 inches from ground to pad vs 6 inches on perfectly level, but all depends on the grade), I then use power front extension to extend far enough out to unhitch, this results in my front being fairly high, but because the manual extensions are set shorter, it allows the auto level to lower the front more.
@@rvengineer2300 So this video and your comments are very helpful. On our last trip, I broke the 1st cardinal rule of Onecontrol. Level the trailer first. I ended up all 4 tires in the air! Luckily it was only for 2 nights. Thinking about it, we could have had a windy situation that probably would not turn out well. I have been trying to figure out how to lower the level of the trailer by 2 inches or so. Would that be resetting to zero?
@@johnphillips9418 I've never use the OneControl system as my camper pre-dates that system. For my systems, it's all about understanding the slope and setting the front lifts low if they are on the high side of the slope. Good luck!
I just tried to auto level my new class C RV in my driveway and the jacks lifted the back wheels off the ground! It freaked me out so I cancelled the leveling process and retracted the Jacks … Wouldn’t that have caused a big problem if the brakes are on the back wheels and they lift off the ground?
This can be a bit touchy, so I'd consult your manual, but here is some general thoughts: Travel Trailers and 5th wheels brakes are generally not 'active' while parked at a camp site, which is why we have to chalk the wheels. I've never seen one with a parking brake like a car, although maybe one does exist. I would imagine it is similar on a Class C where as long as front wheels are properly chalked, it shouldn't be a safety issue. Of course there are caveats about how steep of a grade you are on, etc. If it makes you nervous you can always make a step ramp out of wood or buy one premade that gets the unit more level before using the auto feature. Hope this helps!
@@rvengineer2300 How do you know which side needs the "step ramp"? I had this happen to me over the weekend and the jack system lifted both sides up off the ground.
@@Jtmony07 If both sides lifted off the ground then my guess is the pad is a slope front to rear or rear to front. I'm not sure which leveling system you have, but if it's equivalent to the Ground Control 3.0, when you park, you can press the down button on controller and one of the items that comes up on most systems is your Front to Rear and your side to side angles. If you have a side to side angle beyond 0.5 degrees, a step ramp would help. If your side to side is even, but your front to back angle is high, assuming the case where the site slopes to the rear (as in the front is higher), then you need to be strategic about unhitching. In that case, I want the computer to be able to lower front a lot to even it out, so I don't extend the feet slides (manual part w/ the holes) a lot, I instead run the front legs long via the controller to unhitch. This way when I auto level, the computer first drops the front as much as possible before extending out the rear. For the opposite case where the Rear is high, if I have to, I'll run a of the front manual slides out to allow the computer to push up front end via the auto level. This isn't ideal as the more you run out, the more movement you feel in the camper. There are some sites that are so sloped your only option is level blocks on both sides. I really try to avoid these by reading site reviews / studying the best sites when I find a place I like. I do carry a fair amount of Lynx levelers for this reason, but its hard to get 4 tires much more than 4 blocks up without getting creative / being more trouble than it's worth. I hope this helps!
