6 point hydraulic leveling - worth it?

CJW8 wrote:

ford truck guy wrote:

Txsurfer wrote:
How much value should one add for hydraulic leveling on a 5th wheel? I have all manual jacks on my TH TT and it's not that big a deal to do it. Is it a nice to have or don't buy without type feature?

I WILL NOT have another fiver without it ! ! From pushing a button and doing other things while it levels, to the ease of changing a tire...

I do not do other things while it is leveling. I announce to camp I am leveling and watch in amazement as it does it's thing. :)

:C :C :C

ford truck guy wrote:

Txsurfer wrote:
How much value should one add for hydraulic leveling on a 5th wheel? I have all manual jacks on my TH TT and it's not that big a deal to do it. Is it a nice to have or don't buy without type feature?

I WILL NOT have another fiver without it ! ! From pushing a button and doing other things while it levels, to the ease of changing a tire...

I do not do other things while it is leveling. I announce to camp I am leveling and watch in amazement as it does it's thing. :)

dedmiston wrote:

nayther wrote:
my concern is the rams hanging down too low. They do put them right behind the wheels but I'd be concerned about snagging them on a bush or berm when going off the road. Any concerns there Dave? I know we camp at much of the same places.

Everything seems to hang pretty low on mine. I'm more surprised by the low LP lines than anything else.

I haven't had any trouble with mine so far though.

I've noticed that on some they sit closer to the rear tire and others they are further away. The ones closest to the tire appear to have more clearance. Haven't verified that but just looks that way.

To the OP - I've had 2 toyhaulers. Neither with auto level. Over the last 10 yrs 75% of our camping has been boondocking in the mountain. Trying to find a spot to get level can be a pain in the @ss! Some of the time when we pull into camp it's not always daylight. My parents purchased a new toyhauler this past year. It has the 6-point auto level. My next toyhauler will for sure have that option. His camp set up time is so much quicker than mine. And their old...in their late 60's / early 70's. Haha. Another cool feature is that it remembers the hitch height making hitching up even easier.

Lantley wrote:
Now that I have experienced auto leveling. I would not buy an RV without it.
However, I'm not sure I'd invest the $3K or so to retrofit a unit I already owned

x2. RV's depreciate fast enough. Adding $3,000 for auto level would be throwing away most of it on resale. Unless someone is physically having trouble leveling their non auto level trailer then IMO it's a waste of money to add it after the fact.
You could very easily just get some Andersen Level up ramps and the Level Mate Pro for $1K's less.

once you have it, you can't go back.

dedmiston wrote:

nayther wrote:
my concern is the rams hanging down too low. They do put them right behind the wheels but I'd be concerned about snagging them on a bush or berm when going off the road. Any concerns there Dave? I know we camp at much of the same places.

By the way, one of the reasons I don't sweat it too much is that my 44.5' fifth wheel keeps me from getting too crazy off road.

I was out in the desert this weekend far off the beaten path and there's no way a conventional fifth wheel would have made it in there, especially with the rams hanging down so low. I did not take my TH but my son and a friend took theirs and were OK, mine might have been fine, there were two diesel pushers there so if they could make it I can. And we regularly go racing in Johnson Valley down Bessimer or Camp Rock. Both would be OK as long as you're careful then don't go very far off the road for camping.

nayther wrote:
my concern is the rams hanging down too low. They do put them right behind the wheels but I'd be concerned about snagging them on a bush or berm when going off the road. Any concerns there Dave? I know we camp at much of the same places.

By the way, one of the reasons I don't sweat it too much is that my 44.5' fifth wheel keeps me from getting too crazy off road.

nayther wrote:
my concern is the rams hanging down too low. They do put them right behind the wheels but I'd be concerned about snagging them on a bush or berm when going off the road. Any concerns there Dave? I know we camp at much of the same places.

There is a place I go 4 wheeling every year and a 5th wheel or 2 gets hung on this certain spot every year.

I would like to have them but I go way to far off the beaten path.

We narrowed our search down to two 5th wheels... the Dutchman Triton and the Keystone Impact, which we have now. The major deciding factor (there were other smaller factors too) was that the Triton did not have the auto-leveling available. The Impact was more expensive than the Triton, so we paid a premium to get auto-leveling basically.

So yes, it's totally worth it.

nayther wrote:
my concern is the rams hanging down too low. They do put them right behind the wheels but I'd be concerned about snagging them on a bush or berm when going off the road. Any concerns there Dave? I know we camp at much of the same places.

Everything seems to hang pretty low on mine. I'm more surprised by the low LP lines than anything else.

I haven't had any trouble with mine so far though.