Remove fast guns to level camper?

brholt wrote:
I'm one who doesn't always remove the fastguns. The jacks can be deployed and lift, especially the rear, a fair amount and all that is happening is you are unloading the camper weight from the truck. There is no additional stress in the fastguns. .....

This is what I do if only a slight amount of leveling is needed. I watch the truck suspension very carefully while doing this. I have on occasion disconnected the jacks. I try to position the truck so no leveling is needed but sometimes that doesn't get close enough.

If we need more leveling than I feel can be done by truck position or with the jacks, I leave them alone and use the stack of boards I carry on the camper bumper.

Absolutely or you'll bend or break something.

We never use the camper jacks to level by lifting part of the truck's weight ...

We deflate the rear air suspension, then drive on leveling lego if necessary.

We used to fiddle around touching the jack legs down to stop the bit of movement that occured after parking but mostly don't bother any more - figure a little movement of the rig is good for the fridge

If we are being extra fussy or parked in a windy location we would touch the jacks down...

I'm one who doesn't always remove the fastguns. The jacks can be deployed and lift, especially the rear, a fair amount and all that is happening is you are unloading the camper weight from the truck. There is no additional stress in the fastguns. What I do:

Site close to level: lower the jacks with the fastguns attached to stabilize and provide some leveling. I can tell either just by just "pulling" on the hooked up Fastgun and feeling their spring tension or just looking at the rear suspension to see if the overload spring is about to disengage from the Stableloads. While learning how far I could go with the jacks I would unlatch the fastguns and then relatch them checking to see if they were at the same tension (tension starting at the point where 1/2 of the whole was covered). Now I have a pretty good sense of how far I can go.

Site unlevel: I'll use the "Lego" blocks and drive up on them. Final stabilization and leveling done like above.

Site really bad: Use Leveling blocks as well as the jacks with the fast guns removed. It's surprising how level you can get things when you use both the blocks and jacks.

jimh425 wrote:
I rarely put my jacks down and never to just level. I use blocks for that. I've put my jacks down a few times to stabilize the camper in strong winds, but that's really rare.

X2

I rarely put my jacks down and never to just level. I use blocks for that. I've put my jacks down a few times to stabilize the camper in strong winds, but that's really rare.

Yup, absolutely.
Fastguns can be quite strong - and I mean that in a good way.... Problem is, if you start running your jacks down to level out our TC on the truck, you're now causing unnecessary, and risky stress to the camper's frame.

Well Yah,
I might be misunderstanding the question, but I'm not going to even try to lift the truck up too while leveling using the jacks.

Also, just a heads up on flatbeds with a side rail, I now take the fast guns off, not dangling as they get hung up and catch on something going up and going down...

But, yep, wouldn't even think about not releasing them to level..

does that make sense?

Absolutely if raising the camper. If just leveling, stabilizing usually not or just release handle. If lifting at all pull bottoms out of the T/L arms & they hang loose or go in truck. One of the benefits of the fast guns-just easy to remove.

Seemed smart to do. Thanks.