Dolly towing and leveling jacks

[5thhand]

Will you damage anything when you use your leveling jacks with towed vehicle still attached? 2015 Allegro Bus 37 Ft

[Waiter21]

If the rear of the MH is lifted so far that it starts to lift the front of the toad by the tow bar, Yah, Thats to much.

Normally, no problem, We do it all the time.

[wa8yxm]

I will go with "Generally now"
There are some extreme conditions where anything is possible but "Generally NO"

or in other words any place I'd even consider parking.. I'd not worry about it.

[crawford]

If you have a real tow bar system not one made by someone in his junk pile welded together you don't have a problem. And I have seen a few people who tried to save a few bucks by doing this not a good idear LOL.

[Rick_Jay]

I'm in the camp that as long as you're mostly level, then it shouldn't be a problem. If you're in a spot that is not very level and if you can control them manually, perhaps you could put them down just enough to take out most of the movement, without necessarily leveling the motorhome.

Along those lines, though....

That said, I've taken a bit of a more cautious approach to our overnight parking. I rarely put the jacks down anyway. I know you're towing on a dolly, so this probably isn't relevant for your situation, but I used to put our Honda Odyssey in "Park" when we arrived at the spot. (Honda's of our era can be towed four-down and require a shift through the gears, leave in neutral for 3 minute procedure before towing, repeating every 8 hours or so.) We've never had an incident and the areas we have chosen have apparently been pretty safe (commonly, Walmart's, occasionally Flying J's & Rest Areas). BUT...I keep hearing stories about RV'ers having overnight security issues which got me thinking. If our Odyssey is in "Park", and the jacks are down, I can't just turn the ignition switch and GO! I'd have to get out of the RV to get the car ready, while also taking the time to raise the jacks. This could easily take 5 minutes or more, and puts me OUTSIDE the moho.

So NOW what I do is keep the jacks up and when we arrive at our spot, I run the minivan through it's "pre-tow procedure", leave it in neutral, and then lock the minivan up with our other key. It's ready to tow if NEED be.

With this method, IF we see or hear something we don't like, I can just slip behind the wheel, open the front curtain, start it up and roll on outta there until we get someplace which seems safer.

Is that all necessary? Probably not, but it does add a bit of a feeling of security when we have to park overnight in a strange area. Don't get me wrong, it's not something we lose sleep over, either. By the way, we usually feel most secure at Walmarts and usually do some morning "breakfast shopping" when we pull in and pick up any other supplies we might need.

Safe Travels!

~Rick

[kemer]

Probably not....but why take a chance.....

[Sandia_Man]

We have done it few times when stopping overnight somewhere to catch a few winks of sleep. The pull through sites were relatively flat, we use power levelers to just take bounce/movement out of the coach since my DW is sensitive to the motion.

It is common practice for those only staying a handful of hours to get some rest, sometimes they never exit their coaches, then leave early to get back on the road. Anything more extreme than that and we would detach, takes just a couple of minutes.

[dodge_guy]

I would say no. As long as the dolly is level when being towed. If its high in the front like I have seen some, then it may be in a bind when you level and the ground is really in level!

[Executive45]

Kinda, sorta, depends. If the rear is level as it should be, and the leveling isn't too severe, then you'd most likely be ok. Remember you'll have this big honking machine attached to the rear of the coach. It's designed to swivel as you hit bumps and dips in the road. Furthermore your coach's suspension lessens the stress on the hitch. That said, your stabilizing jacks are only designed to level the coach and only to a certain degree. You're going to add additional stress to your jacks by not unhitching. How much stress is too much? Can't answer that. Depends on your tow system, depends on how severe the out of level site is, depends on the jack system you're using and how well you've maintained it. I had one blow on me once...what an ugly mess. Scared the **** out of me and two of my neighbors too. I wouldn't do it as a matter of practice, but once in awhile and you might get away with it. Just remember, you're adding extra stress on your system by being lazy. You only have to "release" the hitch....Dennis

[way2roll]

Would do it on occasion while having to stop overnight en'route to a destination. Never had an issue.

[CA_Traveler]

Like any trailer the hitch is designed to pivot as needed.

[Lwiddis]

Within reason, no.

[IB853347201]

No.