Howdy all.I'm hitting a dead end on some research and thought perhaps some of you may have some answers I'm looking for.I have a 15k lb 39' 5th wheel. The front landing gear are hydrolic and work wonderfully - they self balance, meaning I do not have independent control of each leg. For now, I am manually leveling side to side on blocks. I've looked into many(all) of the leveling systems and am having a hard time deciding how to proceed. Specifically, I keep coming back to the question "Why can't I just add two electric jacks right behind my rear axle and use them to level side to side, then use the existing hydrolic landing gear to level front/back?" It doesn't seem like it would put any more torque on the frame than any of the self-leveling systems that want me to replace my landing gear. Have any of you set something like this up? Do you have a reccomended jack? I'd like to find some that could support about 7k or 8k pounds each that I can activate with a manual switch. Thanks, in advance, for any suggestions.

Call the folks at Equalizer Systems in Elkhart, Ia. They installed their 6pt hydraulic system on our rv. I bet they can add 2or 4 more jacks & a controller to make system "autolevel ". Bullfrog makes some electric levelors you could add to the frame at the back.

How do you know you won’t bend the frame when you start to lift the 5er from some point not designed for that purpose?

Thanks sayoung. I did reach out to them and got the response below. If I can't integrate into their auto-level system, I'd prefer to go electric instead of adding another hydrolic system.From their support:I have a question first, are you wanting to integrate the rear jacks and the front jacks and run them all from one control system? If so then you will have to purchase a full 4 point leveling system from us. We can’t integrate with jacks from another system. If you are good with what you have and only want to replace the rear 2 jacks and are ok with just running those off of a control system, then we do have 2 point systems that we could sell you.

My opinion, stick with hydraulic. More than enough power to autolevel front to back, and side to side, and the controller make them all operate in sync, IOW, if it calls to level side to side, all 3 jacks on that side operate together. What you describe would torque the frame if not all operating in unison. As for electric jacks, my buddy had them on his prior 5th. They didnt have enough lift capacity to level, only to stabilize.It is odd to me, that a RV builder wouldnt go to 6 point hydraulic leveling if they already had front hydraulic jacks and presumably hydraulic slides as well. Might check out lippert's system.

nedhead8233 wrote:Thanks sayoung. I did reach out to them and got the response below. If I can't integrate into their auto-level system, I'd prefer to go electric instead of adding another hydrolic system.From their support:I have a question first, are you wanting to integrate the rear jacks and the front jacks and run them all from one control system? If so then you will have to purchase a full 4 point leveling system from us. We can’t integrate with jacks from another system. If you are good with what you have and only want to replace the rear 2 jacks and are ok with just running those off of a control system, then we do have 2 point systems that we could sell you.It maybe the travel length of your existing piston . Your or their shop can change the existing jacks and go a complete 4 or 6 pt. System. Our rv is 35 ft and I went with 6pt and glad I spent the difference. We drove from Tx to Elkhart and they installed in their shop. We r retired so it was a nice trip.I can pick the entire rv off the ground. You can raise/lower front individually and control side to side or front to back.

Add leveling jacks | Good Sam Community

sayoung
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
Call the folks at Equalizer Systems in Elkhart, Ia. They installed their 6pt hydraulic system on our rv. I bet they can add 2or 4 more jacks & a controller to make system "autolevel ". Bullfrog makes some electric levelors you could add to the frame at the back.
nickthehunter
Nomad II
Jul 09, 2019
How do you know you won’t bend the frame when you start to lift the 5er from some point not designed for that purpose?
nedhead8233
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
Thanks sayoung. I did reach out to them and got the response below. If I can't integrate into their auto-level system, I'd prefer to go electric instead of adding another hydrolic system.
From their support:
I have a question first, are you wanting to integrate the rear jacks and the front jacks and run them all from one control system? If so then you will have to purchase a full 4 point leveling system from us. We can’t integrate with jacks from another system. If you are good with what you have and only want to replace the rear 2 jacks and are ok with just running those off of a control system, then we do have 2 point systems that we could sell you.
djousma
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
My opinion, stick with hydraulic. More than enough power to autolevel front to back, and side to side, and the controller make them all operate in sync, IOW, if it calls to level side to side, all 3 jacks on that side operate together. What you describe would torque the frame if not all operating in unison.

As for electric jacks, my buddy had them on his prior 5th. They didnt have enough lift capacity to level, only to stabilize.

It is odd to me, that a RV builder wouldnt go to 6 point hydraulic leveling if they already had front hydraulic jacks and presumably hydraulic slides as well.

Might check out lippert's system.
sayoung
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
nedhead8233 wrote:
Thanks sayoung. I did reach out to them and got the response below. If I can't integrate into their auto-level system, I'd prefer to go electric instead of adding another hydrolic system.
From their support:
I have a question first, are you wanting to integrate the rear jacks and the front jacks and run them all from one control system? If so then you will have to purchase a full 4 point leveling system from us. We can’t integrate with jacks from another system. If you are good with what you have and only want to replace the rear 2 jacks and are ok with just running those off of a control system, then we do have 2 point systems that we could sell you.

It maybe the travel length of your existing piston . Your or their shop can change the existing jacks and go a complete 4 or 6 pt. System. Our rv is 35 ft and I went with 6pt and glad I spent the difference. We drove from Tx to Elkhart and they installed in their shop. We r retired so it was a nice trip.
I can pick the entire rv off the ground. You can raise/lower front individually and control side to side or front to back.
laknox
Nomad
Jul 09, 2019
djousma wrote:
My opinion, stick with hydraulic. More than enough power to autolevel front to back, and side to side, and the controller make them all operate in sync, IOW, if it calls to level side to side, all 3 jacks on that side operate together. What you describe would torque the frame if not all operating in unison.

As for electric jacks, my buddy had them on his prior 5th. They didnt have enough lift capacity to level, only to stabilize.

It is odd to me, that a RV builder wouldnt go to 6 point hydraulic leveling if they already had front hydraulic jacks and presumably hydraulic slides as well.

Might check out lippert's system.

That's because your buddy had electric =stabilizers=, not electric =jacks=. Basically, he had what amounts to the old scissor jacks, but with an electric motor on them to save cranking them down. Electric jacks, OTOH, are true jacks, with plenty of lifting power. My 10.5GVW KZ can be lifted completely off the ground with the 4 jacks of the 4-point leveling system.

Lyle
dpgllg
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
I would add a complete auto level system if it all possible. I just push the auto level button and the system does all the work. Couldn't be easier.

If you add separate rear jacks then it will be difficult to level side to side. If you can't adjust each front jack by itself you will get the rear level side to side but never the front. I think that this might put unwanted stress on the frame.

Dave
twinstick
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
You can buy the Lippert 3.0 compete system from etrailer. It doesn't look too bad to install. I've looked at it, just can't quite pull the trigger on it yet.
djousma
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
laknox wrote:
djousma wrote:
My opinion, stick with hydraulic. More than enough power to autolevel front to back, and side to side, and the controller make them all operate in sync, IOW, if it calls to level side to side, all 3 jacks on that side operate together. What you describe would torque the frame if not all operating in unison.

As for electric jacks, my buddy had them on his prior 5th. They didnt have enough lift capacity to level, only to stabilize.

It is odd to me, that a RV builder wouldnt go to 6 point hydraulic leveling if they already had front hydraulic jacks and presumably hydraulic slides as well.

Might check out lippert's system.

That's because your buddy had electric =stabilizers=, not electric =jacks=. Basically, he had what amounts to the old scissor jacks, but with an electric motor on them to save cranking them down. Electric jacks, OTOH, are true jacks, with plenty of lifting power. My 10.5GVW KZ can be lifted completely off the ground with the 4 jacks of the 4-point leveling system.

Lyle

Lyle,

It was the lippert 3.0 ground control 4 point leveling system. IOW, the front legs, plus 2 additional behind the wheels. And I know what lippert publishes (20K capacity), but for whatever reason on his KZ Durango Gold(weighed in at about 16K) they just were not up to the task.

$3500 for GC 3.0 6-point vs about $6000 for 6-point hydraulic. Quite a price to pay after the fact.
sayoung
Explorer
Jul 09, 2019
I paid just under 4500 installed in the factory shop for the 6pt hydraulic Equalizer System . That was 3yrs ago this Septemberso probably a bit more today.
A lot of $ yes but for the setup ease and when I had a blowout & just raised it up, worth it to me, we had decided to hang on to this rv but if I was thinking upgrading that would be the way to go.

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