how to level a trailer

campingman55 wrote:
i cant remember the best place to put a level when leveling a trailer is it the floor right by the door or on the a frame of the hitch or where

Only thing I care about is that my head is not lower than my feet when I crawl into bed. I setup and leveled to the fridge and put those stick on things on the front and side of the trailer. the numbers on them seem to correlate well with how many blocks I'll need under the wheels. If I'm off half a bubble I don't really worry about it. If you travel down the road with your fridge on it's never very level anyway so being off a bit when parked is not going to be much trouble.

Wherever I put the level, it's different in our camper... I check several places, then check how the shower and bathroom doors are when open. If they swing one way or the other, I adjust.

Mich upnorth wrote:
Cooktop

THIS is the most important thing to be level. If it is level your fridge is already happy.

The cook likes the eggs to be even in the pan, not running to one side.

My floor, table, frig, frame and tongue all show some variations of level.

For us the frame and the stove top are the most important points to be level.

CFerguson wrote:

campigloo wrote:
The reason for leveling at all is to protect the fridge. Use the stick ons like said above and get it close. Rule of thumb is if you’re comfortable inside you’re close enough.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Keep this in mind regardless of which of the good methods folks in this thread are describing.

Haven't seen it mentioned, but a reasonably level trailer is probably good for the slideouts as well.

campigloo wrote:
The reason for leveling at all is to protect the fridge. Use the stick ons like said above and get it close. Rule of thumb is if you’re comfortable inside you’re close enough.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Keep this in mind regardless of which of the good methods folks in this thread are describing.

I leveled using the fridge as a base. Then put on 2 small bubble levels: 1 on front driver’s side, the other just around the corner. I can see the front level in my mirror which helps when setting up with Andersen type levelers.

Got a round stick on bubble level with the new trailer pack. Stuck it on the A frame part of the tongue.

Tells me the side to side level before I unhitch. If it's more than a full bubble off, I'll put some boards under the low side tires.

Once side to side is determined, unhitch and then deal with the front to back.

I like to give the trailer a slight nose high attitude of about half a bubble.

This allows any rain drainage to go off the back of the rig and if the AC is running, it also drains off the rear.

Never any issue with the fridge. Been leveling this way for over 17 years.

But, in the end, it's whatever works for you and if it's level enough for you, that's all that matters.

Good luck!

Mitch

I had one TT in the past, that no matter where I put a carpenter's level, it was always something different. Even the floor.

I finally figured it out the floor was actually arched, low on both ends, high in the middle. No matter where you walked, we always felt like we were walking on a hill.

Trying to find a spot that was true left-right, and end-to-end level was a real challenge, until I realized one day that a few things in the camper (and ever camper) are always "straight". Notice I said "straight", not necessarily "level". The walls and the door frame is always "straight" and parallel or perpendicular to the trailer frame.

I also realized when the trailer was "straight" the outside door, and the bathroom door, and the cabinet doors, and the refrigerator doors did not swing open or closed. If the trailer is "straight" the doors should not swing open or closed, but stay wherever you put them.

At that point, I realized the outside door frame was "straight" to the frame also, straight to the roof, and straight to everything else. So I used the carpenter's square on the door frame, up and down to so the side-to-side direction was "perfect". And it worked! Then with the tongue jack, turned the carpenter's level the other direction (up and down) until the small perpendicular bubble was centered. Worked every time after that. No doors ever swung again. No cabinet doors swung open or closed. And the refrigerator door did not swing. It stayed where I put it.

After that, I was able to attach a small bubble on the electric tongue jack.

Next trailer I tried something different. The outside door method worked just as well, but I wanted something that I could use while backing into a site. Being a non-professional (paid) carpenter, I used my carpentry skills and came up with a rather ingenious way to indicate if the trailer was level, or at least close enough, the stablizer jacks would let me make minor adjustments.

Here is what I did.

I used the principle of gravity and the plumb bob. I put a piece of tape on the front cap of the trailer, a piece of tape on the inside of the rear truck window, and hung a hanging stick near the rear of the truck (since I had shell).

When the stick, which swung by gravity, was parallel to the vertical tape on the trailer, the trailer was level side-to-side. And this worked very, very well. The only draw back, I had to give the stick a bit of time to quit swinging. I always followed up using the carpenter's square at the door, and I was always dead on!

goducks10 wrote:
I guaranty that if you stick a level in more than one place on your RV that you'll have more than one different readings.
When I set mine up for the Levelmate Pro that I installed I just used the floor in front of the sink. No matter where I stick the level I get a different reading.

This and also why I level to the counter that is above the fridge. If it's level so is the fridge and everything else doesn't matter.

Yes I checked to make sure the counter is square to the refrigerator.