Leveled with Wheels Off the Ground

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removed....

[Htfiremedic]

Can you drive the low side wheels up on wood or plastic blocks? That is what we have to do with our fiver.
Placing wood under the jacks will only shorten the lift that the jack must make. You must make the tires more level to achieve what you wish.

[JRTJH]

Help.... I have a spot where my Alpine needs to be parked close to a power supply. The problem is that there is a slight grade and when I auto-level inevitably the wheels on the low side always end up 3 inches from the ground. I have tried placing 2x12x12s stacked 3 high under the jacks but it made no difference. I realize I could probably manually bring the jacks down to get the wheels back on the ground if I needed to. My question is what are the ramifications of having the wheels off the ground for any length of time? Thanks in advance for your suggestions and thoughts.

The jacks are extending to level the frame, so placing boards under the jacks will only suffice to cause them to extend less, however your wheels will still be in the same location (3" off the ground) when the frame is level. If you're inclined to want the tires "touching the ground" when you're finally leveled, you might want to back onto a couple of 2x12's on the low side. That way your wheels on the low side will end up probably resting on the 3" of boards rather than being 3" in the air.

The only other way that I can think of would be to get a tractor and level the area. That, however, would easily destroy your drainage if it's around a building and cause big problems with your foundation.

I'd just back onto a couple of 2x12's and see how it does.

The Lippert Owner's Manual for the Autolevel System states this:

NEVER LIFT THE COACH COMPLETELY OFF THE GROUND. LIFTING THE COACH
SO THE WHEELS ARE NOT TOUCHING GROUND WILL CREATE AN UNSTABLE AND
UNSAFE CONDITION.

What I think they are saying is don't go crawling around under the coach with the wheels off the ground because a mechanical failure may cause the coach to drop and damage something or injure you. They do not say anywhere that the 6 point system will cause the frame to warp or cause any problems. In fact, they say the 6 point system eliminates any twisting or possible frame damage. They do, on the 4 point system state that twisting of the frame may cause slides to stick or twist and could cause frame damage. With the 6 point system this is eliminated because there are jacks in front of the forward axle and behind the rear axle, so essentially, you're jacking the coach where the suspension attaches thereby eliminating any extra twisting of the frame that is not already engineered into the flexibility calculations of the frame as it sits on the tires.

As for problems from having the wheels off the ground, I can't think of any significant ones. The frame is designed to carry all the load anyway. Whether it is at the jack points or at the suspension points is pretty much academic. Now if it were a moving load (ie: towing down the road, the frame camber would come into play and the center part of the frame would be the best place to carry the load, but parked, it's a static load and you're not going to hurt anything with one side of your axle's off the ground. (assuming the rig is stable on the jacks and won't slip off or move around on you)

If it's any "consolation" it is easier to change the tires and check brakes/grease the bearings that way, so maybe this is "good fortune" rather than "bad luck" Just don't go crawling around under the coach :D

[Ayotte]

Get yourself some 2x12s long enough for both wheels to set on and back you camper up on them. Use as many as it takes to have the camper level from side to side and then lower your jacks to level front to back and stabalize it.

[LZScout]

I would tend to agree with JRTJH. Whether you lift the coach so that the wheels are still touching or completely off the ground, you have still removed some or most of the load from the low side wheels. The six point system isn't designed as a "stabilizer", it is designed and marketed as a leveler. It takes up the load. If it wasn't designed to do this or if it did damage to the frame, the company would be liable (or one would think so). I wouldn't spend the $$ if I still had to use leveling blocks. Six point lifting spreads the load into smaller amounts.


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[PerryB]

Personally I like to get reasonably close with the wheels before leveling with jacks. Its more work but you'll get a steadier coach when finished and I have concerns (possibly unfounded) about having so much stress focused at one or two jack locations. My opinion.

[sandy43]

Lippert told me not to extend the ram rod's to the max. Use blocks and try to keep all 6 jacks as close to level as possible. Sometimes that's hard to do, but you can get relatively close and be ok. When the ground is really un-level, I use a board on the wheels and then use blocks under the jacks. Usually works pretty good. Best bet is find a level site, but that's not always possible. Thanks

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