How flat for loading and unloading?

Thanks for the feedback. It does sound like things need to be quite flat for 40 feet or so. I go to some hilly places where 40 flat feet can be hard to come by....

Personally, unless I am on concrete, or very firm and almost perfectly level ground, I do not attempt to get the truck out. On concrete I can lift the camper up to the max on the jacks, and I have about two inches or a bit less to get the truck out without taking air off the air bags.

On level ground, I put down my jacking pads under the jack feet, and raise to about one inch short of full extension, then take out the truck.

On uncertain or unlevel ground the opportunity for something to go extremely wrong is much more likely. Using jacking blocks under your jack feet really help, but again, those blocks must be perfectly level and non slip. Once you have your camper up and the jack pads slip or are not level, the stress on your camper frame is huge. Many collapses occur at the worst possible time.

Buzzcut1 wrote:

diver110 wrote:
First of all, happy holidays! In a lot of respects, a TC would fit many of my needs. In some places I go, I will want to offload it, and there may not be tons of room to pull that off. How much level area do you need, and how level does it have to be?

level enough so that you can pull out and back in without the bed hitting the tc or jacks, I forgot about front to back dips once and had to let the air out of my airbags to avoid disaster. side to side can get nasty.

And with me that is less than 3" in 11 feet.

Merry Christmas,
My driveway slopes from passenger side of truck to drivers side about 3" and from front to back a little more. What i have found is the left ( passenger ) to right is more critical than the front to back which can be adjusted with the jacks. I know some will say that you can use the jacks to adjust the left-right but the jacks don't affect the truck so that when raising or lowering the camper the truck is always going to be at a slight tilt because of the angle of the driveway. With some campers or trucks this may not be a problem. But with mine it is. For one the clearance between the camper and the truck is minimal,2 the bed on newer trucks is tapered,greater in the front than the back. Now 3" is not a great amount but there is no way to load the first time without making adjustments and there is no way to unload without it hitting (minor)Picture 2 boxes 1 slightly bigger than the other, hold one level and twist one a slight amount and try to slide one into the other. So to answer your question you will have to try as I have many many times before you will know.

diver110 wrote:
First of all, happy holidays! In a lot of respects, a TC would fit many of my needs. In some places I go, I will want to offload it, and there may not be tons of room to pull that off. How much level area do you need, and how level does it have to be?

level enough so that you can pull out and back in without the bed hitting the tc or jacks, I forgot about front to back dips once and had to let the air out of my airbags to avoid disaster. side to side can get nasty.