How do you stabilize your Class C when parked for camping?

[Baja_Man]

My previous rigs (5er, TT) all had front and rear jacks that cranked down. Worked great at stabilizing al four corners when camped.

What is used on Class Cs? My rig has none in front or rear.

[ron_dittmer]

j-d wrote:
Tell you what really helps: Heavy Duty Front and Rear Sway Bars! They improve handling on the road, but that extra roll stiffness shows up big time on the campsite. There are two major brands: Roadmaster and Hellwig. They are the SAME Steel and the SAME specs. Both use hard poly bushings. Difference is you can buy Hellwig for about half the price of Roadmaster.

Cousin_Eddie93 wrote:
.....the Hellwig sway stablizers make the rig nearly unshakable, even when cleaning the pipes with DW.

I am in full agreement with these two comments. The solution is best addressed by replacing the original/stock front and rear stabilizer bars with heavy duty versions (also referred to as anti-sway or sway bars) which greatly improve the handling of the rig when driving as well as stabilizing the rig when parked. You can perform THIS SIMPLE TEST to determine if your rig will benefit from heavy duty front and rear stabilizers bars. If so, I'd surely go with the Hellwig brand to save some serious money.

If you are determined to bolt-on scissor jacks near the rear of your class C frame, be careful they don't hang down so far that they get damaged when pulling out of gas stations and such where the road has a big dip in it.

[RE_Todd]

I use my hydraulic jacks!

[klutchdust]

Claybe wrote:

klutchdust wrote:
I camp in the desert, on the dry lake bed especially, and the stabilizers make a huge difference when the wind kicks up. Last trip I put my slides in because of the wind.

What kind of stabilizers do you have?

Hydraulic, operates from a box mounted next to the drivers seat. original owner had them installed as the coach didn't come with any. I use them even on level ground.

[Claybe]

klutchdust wrote:
I camp in the desert, on the dry lake bed especially, and the stabilizers make a huge difference when the wind kicks up. Last trip I put my slides in because of the wind.

What kind of stabilizers do you have?

[klutchdust]

I camp in the desert, on the dry lake bed especially, and the stabilizers make a huge difference when the wind kicks up. Last trip I put my slides in because of the wind.

[MacZulu]

I guess I should get my suspension checked out, I found my unit rocks quite a bit moving about. Rolling over in bed can even be felt, I'm about 210lbs. The rv seems to handle well on the highway so far, I've only done about 1000 miles. Been full and empty, driving at 50 full, and 55 empty. So I hadn't suspected it may be big contributor to body movement when camped.

So I first bought two 24" 2 1/2 T scissor jacks for the back, and it was alot better. Since then, I now have two 17" 6 T bottle jacks for the front end. Still enough rocking we wanted to stabilize the front. I just the bottle jacks so I haven't tried them, I only bought the high capacity because they were on sale. They're not for leveling, just stabilizing. We will try them in mid July for 7 nights.

[Claybe]

Man it would be awesome to have automatic levelers as I think those would level and stabilize the rig. That would be on the top of my list for the next rig. I feel like ours moves quite a bit and I wish it were more stable. I have the front sway bar, but not the rear. Maybe I need to get 4 scissor jacks and weld in plates to stabilize the rig. Just another MOD that sounds fun!

[Maestro402]

DrewE wrote:

Maestro402 wrote:
I'm glad I searched for this topic. Last weekend my family bought our first RV a Class C. We didn't opt to spend the extra money for the auto leveling feature. We instead decided we'd just use the blocks.

I was looking at scissor jacks and what not for ideas to stabilize. Sounds like it might be best to just try w/o anything first. Ya'll Agree?

Along those same lines. Is it a good idea to buy the slide supports or step support? I guess my concern from a mechanical standpoint is that if I don't stabilize the main chassis well then putting slide support in is pointless if not dangerous to slide rods.

Thanks

Definitely try without any stabilizers. It's generally easier and cheaper to not add stuff than to add stuff, and when the stuff is unneeded, it's wasted effort and money.

If your slide or steps required extra support, surely the factory would have supplied the extra supports gizmos with the RV as standard equipment. Any maker that sold an RV where the very basic features are entirely unusable by design would not last long, I suspect.

I don't use any supports on my steps. I don't have any slides to worry about supporting or not, which makes that decision very simple.

We are going camping this weekend. I'm just going to give it a go as is. I'd much rather not ahve to buy the extra equipment. I'd rather spend it on camping gear. 😉

[DrewE]

Maestro402 wrote:
I'm glad I searched for this topic. Last weekend my family bought our first RV a Class C. We didn't opt to spend the extra money for the auto leveling feature. We instead decided we'd just use the blocks.

I was looking at scissor jacks and what not for ideas to stabilize. Sounds like it might be best to just try w/o anything first. Ya'll Agree?

Along those same lines. Is it a good idea to buy the slide supports or step support? I guess my concern from a mechanical standpoint is that if I don't stabilize the main chassis well then putting slide support in is pointless if not dangerous to slide rods.

Thanks

Definitely try without any stabilizers. It's generally easier and cheaper to not add stuff than to add stuff, and when the stuff is unneeded, it's wasted effort and money.

If your slide or steps required extra support, surely the factory would have supplied the extra supports gizmos with the RV as standard equipment. Any maker that sold an RV where the very basic features are entirely unusable by design would not last long, I suspect.

I don't use any supports on my steps. I don't have any slides to worry about supporting or not, which makes that decision very simple.

[Maestro402]

I'm glad I searched for this topic. Last weekend my family bought our first RV a Class C. We didn't opt to spend the extra money for the auto leveling feature. We instead decided we'd just use the blocks.

I was looking at scissor jacks and what not for ideas to stabilize. Sounds like it might be best to just try w/o anything first. Ya'll Agree?

Along those same lines. Is it a good idea to buy the slide supports or step support? I guess my concern from a mechanical standpoint is that if I don't stabilize the main chassis well then putting slide support in is pointless if not dangerous to slide rods.

Thanks

[EMD360]

Kind of funny you ask. When we first got our RV, the advice I read was to buy a set of scissor jacks and use them under the rear frame when parked in camp. Some folks even soldered them to the frame and used a drill and bit that fits the crank to raise and lower them more easily.
I bought a set and brought them along and used them a time or two, but they were too much trouble to set up and take down and we don't mind the motion inside our small C. Rocking is most noticeable for us when someone is using the stairs to get in the door which is in the rear of our rig. Just walking around inside does not create enough motion to bother us.
Try nothing and if you can't get used to the parked motion of your rig, you can buy the scissor jacks pretty reasonably.

[Pathfinder75]

Agree my E450 is very solid and do not use any stabilizer jacks. Like Sam says different people may feel motion others miss. I have noticed setting parking brake eliminates some motion front to back. There is always a little roll in drivetrain if in Park so parking brake helps this.
Will Notice a little motion when we have had two teenagers sleeping in the bunk but again the parking brake dampens most of that.
Suggest you try it and see how sensitive you are. The motion is Nothing like a trailer shakes. Have only wanted leveling jacks when more than 3 boards are needed under tires to level unit.

[Sam_Spade]

pnichols wrote:

That's what you get with a small Class C on the E450's rear leaf spring and front/rear torsion bar chassis .... unfortunately right along with a stiff ride when going down the road.

Do different manufacturers use different suspensions ?
Because my 28' Winnebago is just the opposite.
Really good ride going down the road but rocks a little when sitting.
Or maybe it is mostly different perception by the owners.

[tatest]

I don't. I can life with what little movement I feel. Compared to a similar size TT, a C motorhome is built on a much sturdier frame, and has much more mass compared to the mass of people moving around inside. 200-300 pound guy rolling around in the overhead bunk can make things move, probably still would if you put down scissor jackes at the corners or used leveling jacks to lift the frame off the wheels.