Level

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by booster

I had one of the apps for leveling on my phone for a while just to see how it worked. It did tell the amount per wheel once you put in wheelbase and track information.


In a weird bit of fate, or physics more likely, we found it seemed to give us the wrong amount of lift per wheel, making for numerous cycles of adding or subtracting as it zeroed in on level (which we would mean within 1" approximately which puts the bubble all within the circle on our bullseye). The issue appears to be because the vans are sitting on springs of various rates and then if you put sway bars into the picture it gets even worse. We have a very large rear bar in our Chevy with lower rear spring rate and a slightly reduced size bar with higher rate than stock in the front. Springs allow a wheel to move up without moving the van body as much depending on how the weight changes as you lift by unloading other wheels. The sway bar makes an axle end pair of them so one wheel can't move by itself which helps the issue of spring compression on one end but seems to worsen the side to side prediction.



I think that with practice it could be learned how much to allow from what was given, or perhaps some can be programmed with a fudge factor by wheel, but we found it to not be a one shot block add on our van.

My experience with phone app was also variable. I think the algorithm is reasonably accurate at low slopes. It most likely assumes wheels with a vehicle is a rigid body but it is not.

Finding a good flat and level place for the phone was an issue except floor and galley’s countertop.

In addition, my phone is not the best one for this app. I often use auxiliary battery on the back of the phone to extend battery charge and this battery pack is not perfectly flat. Without the battery pack camera lenses housing slightly protrude so the phone can’t lay flat on a flat surface. In summary, headache.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by DUTCH in Atlanta

Yes, you can. The suspension has enough travel for most situations. I do it all the time.

I know a Sprinter cannot be adjusted for three of those lego type blocks which I most commonly employ in pads that drain toward the driving road on a 170” WB and with my VB Air Suspension I can adjust up or down about 3-1/2” in the back which only saves me about one lego block in height. Jacks might level somewhat but I am talking about the four built-in levelers ARV installs that will jack a wheel off the ground and they are designed for that purpose. Guaranteed the concrete pad I was on in Desert Springs that sloped severely to the drive could not be adjusted without the wheels off the ground as I seen in a Unity.

When severe and three blocks don’t do it, I can fall back on my electric articulating beds to adjust to a comfortable sleeping position.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by DUTCH in Atlanta

I guess the contractor who put in a concrete parking pad for my RV lied to me. PS - It was nowhere near any of my buildings.

He probably didn’t lie. Most contractors use common sense to drain water off a slab lest they get grief from the owner if it ponds. As I said it is good common sense to drain surfaces positively as it is a skill to make them dead level. However, I am camping on my third in a row dead level concrete slab Show Low, AZ and Santa Fe, NM. I’m in Black Mesa State Park in Oklahoma at the very northwest end of the panhandle. We are the only campers in this 29 RV site campground so parked in the handicap site. Dead level concrete. I doubt many would travel 20 miles off the main highway to verify it but you can verify at the Indiana Dunes State Park campground near Chicago. They upgraded with deal level concrete pads a few years ago.

National Park campgrounds are notorious for sloping sites especially in the west. I think most go back to when tent camping was the norm.

[Nspekter]

A pad can be crowned, higher in the center, and level around all 4 sides. You get drainage and if you park in the center, roughly, you’ll be nearly level. Minor adjustments like others have mentioned and you’re good to go. Not saying the pad will stay like that over time.

[jon]

I took everyone's advice and hot glued a Bullseye Level so I can try to park as level as possible before I break out the leveling blocks.

[Jpetzrick]

Just get the Truma app. It’s free and doesn’t require you to have any Truma equipment. Input the wheelbase dimensions of your MH then run the app, select tools and then leveling. Set phone on the counter top. It tells you how low each wheel is. Stack blocks, drive on and done. Works almost every time first time.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Jpetzrick

Just get the Truma app. It’s free and doesn’t require you to have any Truma equipment. Input the wheelbase dimensions of your MH then run the app, select tools and then leveling. Set phone on the counter top. It tells you how low each wheel is. Stack blocks, drive on and done. Works almost every time first time.

Lots of reasons we don't like that option, see above. I would guess with real time feedback as we move about a site we can get so we need blocks considerably less than 10% of the time, depending on where we are. If we just pull in and read the level and add blocks, it is closer to 50% of the time, and I prefer to leave the blocks in the storage than use them.

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by jon

I took everyone's advice and hot glued a Bullseye Level so I can try to park as level as possible before I break out the leveling blocks.

We also use a bubble level, on the floor for now, but I'll probably glue it in a front cup holder too, for easier viewing.

Is a bubble level accurate? Not perfectly so, but good enough for our comfort, so long as we keep most of the bubble inside the middle ring.

[Davydd]

We have the bubble level at the bottom of our dash ash tray holder (took out the ash tray) and use it for preliminary jockeying around and then check it again on the galley counter. If bubble is centered it is generally OK to go. But checking on the counter is for fine tuning if necessary. I have the most trouble with side to side as I can feel the sensation I am falling out of bed with our twin beds with the slightest unlevel deviation.

Frustratingly my Sprinter is not exactly level as it slopes down toward the front ever so slightly and in back in sites usually the slope is down toward the roadway for drainage especially on gravel sites to compound the situation. The VB Air Suspension adjustment takes most of that out.

We block probably 5% of the time. The last night out on our recent 6 week outing we stopped at a Walmart on the way home. Walmarts slope parking lots to internal drains, but jockeying I found probably the most level spot of our trip and managed to stay in one parking stall.