Stabilizing a Class C

[Gjac]

I notice that many Class C's do not have automatic levelers and many just use blocks under the tires. My question is with the MH just being supported by the suspension how do you keep the MH from moving when you walk inside? Is the movement less in a shorter class C say 24 ft vs 30 ft? Is the movement less with a heavier suspension say 450 vs 350? Been looking at 24 ft MH's with a full wall slide. In my Class A I notice a lot of movement when the levelers are not extended.

[camperdave]

Gjac wrote:
Sounds like several on here have the Bigfoot levelers and are very happy with them. What is the approximate cost to purchase and install the levelers?

When they were on sale last year (they are often on sale) I got a quote from a local shop. $1988 for the Platinum levelers, and 10 hours labor at $145/hr for a total of ~$3600 with tax and everything. If you are local, I believe they do free installs at times of the year which would be a massive savings!

In my particular case, the black tank is in the way so there was an additional $500 for a custom black tank, and another 3 hours for that. Add in a few miscellaneous parts for the plumbing, and the complete out the door install cost was going to be $4848.53

[Gjac]

jcsb wrote:
Started out using the commercial leveling blocks and 2x8's. Have the level indicators. Generally worked ok especially on paved sites. A real pain while setting up in rain.

Added Bigfoot later. Found on sale and made the trip to the Mich. facility.

Now can set up without leaving coach except to make sure slides will extend without hitting anything. Can reset if the coach settles after a day or two when on sandy sites.

Don't get soaked during a rain store while setting up.

Sounds like several on here have the Bigfoot levelers and are very happy with them. What is the approximate cost to purchase and install the levelers?

[jcsb]

Started out using the commercial leveling blocks and 2x8's. Have the level indicators. Generally worked ok especially on paved sites. A real pain while setting up in rain.

Added Bigfoot later. Found on sale and made the trip to the Mich. facility.

Now can set up without leaving coach except to make sure slides will extend without hitting anything. Can reset if the coach settles after a day or two when on sandy sites.

Don't get soaked during a rain store while setting up.

[bobm253]

I dont level or stabilize my 28 foot class c. I pull into the spot, eyeball the levelness, plug in the electric and I'm good to go. Never rolled out of bed.

[ron_dittmer]

I am not saying every class C has suspension deficiencies, only that if your rig rocks significantly when walking around inside it, then you likely also have issues with handling, either known or unrealized.

[Gjac]

ron.dittmer wrote:

Gjac wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
If your rig significantly moves with you walking around inside it, that indicates a lot more movement is happening when you drive it, noticed as poor handling. It is a very common condition. A reasonably easy improvement are heavy duty front and rear stabilizer bars and shock absorbers. Heavy duty Helwig bars and heavy duty Bistein shocks are most popular for affordability without sacrifice to effectiveness.

To the original poster, a short 21 footer on an E350 to a long 32 footer on an E450, unwanted movement is common-place. Adding a full-length slide-out will amplify the situation. Plan on getting the heavy duty upgrades. Plan on spending roughly $1500-$2000 to have a shop give you full service. Finding internet deals and installing everything yourself will save you around two/third that cost.

For $2000 wouldn't one be better off just to add the Big foot leveling system and eliminate the movement from the suspension?

I think you missed my point of addressng two completely different issues with one solution.

I think I did also. Are you saying a new Class C would have a bad suspension from the factory and will have also have poor handling? I never drove one but walked through a few new ones at shows and noticed some movement. They seemed to move more than my Class A when I rocked it back and forth with just my body.

[Expyinflight]

blownstang01 wrote:
I installed Bigfoot Levelers on our 31' Winnebago C, Love Them ! Previously,without jacks my 14 year old son who sleeps in the over the cab bunk who rock the whole RV while turning over in his sleep. Now, it's quite solid. Obviously, the leggo blocks worked fine, but Bigfoot had a sale and I'm very happy I did them.

We installed BigFoot Levelers also. Very happy with the results.

[ron_dittmer]

Gjac wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
If your rig significantly moves with you walking around inside it, that indicates a lot more movement is happening when you drive it, noticed as poor handling. It is a very common condition. A reasonably easy improvement are heavy duty front and rear stabilizer bars and shock absorbers. Heavy duty Helwig bars and heavy duty Bistein shocks are most popular for affordability without sacrifice to effectiveness.

To the original poster, a short 21 footer on an E350 to a long 32 footer on an E450, unwanted movement is common-place. Adding a full-length slide-out will amplify the situation. Plan on getting the heavy duty upgrades. Plan on spending roughly $1500-$2000 to have a shop give you full service. Finding internet deals and installing everything yourself will save you around two/third that cost.

For $2000 wouldn't one be better off just to add the Big foot leveling system and eliminate the movement from the suspension?

I think you missed my point of addressng two completely different issues with one solution.

[mgirardo]

Our 32' Class C had 2 slides, one of which had the kids' bunks. Our Greyhawk did not come with levelers and it would have side to side movement when the kids moved around in the bunk or when someone stepped into or out of the Motorhome. We purchased a set of stabilizers made by Camco. I first used them on the frame of the Motorhome and they had no effect. I then moved them to the corners of the body of the Motorhome and that made a huge difference.

I think with our Motorhome, it was the slides on opposite sides that caused most of the rocking. We really only had side to side rocking. I don't think auto-levelers would have helped much in our case.

-Michael

[Gjac]

ron.dittmer wrote:
If your rig significantly moves with you walking around inside it, that indicates a lot more movement is happening when you drive it, noticed as poor handling. It is a very common condition. A reasonably easy improvement are heavy duty front and rear stabilizer bars and shock absorbers. Heavy duty Helwig bars and heavy duty Bistein shocks are most popular for affordability without sacrifice to effectiveness.

To the original poster, a short 21 footer on an E350 to a long 32 footer on an E450, unwanted movement is common-place. Adding a full-length slide-out will amplify the situation. Plan on getting the heavy duty upgrades. Plan on spending roughly $1500-$2000 to have a shop give you full service. Finding internet deals and installing everything yourself will save you around two/third that cost.

For $2000 wouldn't one be better off just to add the Big foot leveling system and eliminate the movement from the suspension?

[ron_dittmer]

If your rig significantly moves with you walking around inside it, that indicates a lot more movement is happening when you drive it, noticed as poor handling. It is a very common condition. A reasonably easy improvement are heavy duty front and rear stabilizer bars and shock absorbers. Heavy duty Helwig bars and heavy duty Bistein shocks are most popular for affordability without sacrifice to effectiveness.

To the original poster, a short 21 footer on an E350 to a long 32 footer on an E450, unwanted movement is common-place. Adding a full-length slide-out will amplify the situation. Plan on getting the heavy duty upgrades. Plan on spending roughly $1500-$2000 to have a shop give you full service. Finding internet deals and installing everything yourself will save you around two/third that cost.

[blownstang01]

I installed Bigfoot Levelers on our 31' Winnebago C, Love Them ! Previously,without jacks my 14 year old son who sleeps in the over the cab bunk who rock the whole RV while turning over in his sleep. Now, it's quite solid. Obviously, the leggo blocks worked fine, but Bigfoot had a sale and I'm very happy I did them.

[camperdave]

DrewE wrote:

camperdave wrote:

I did install A Levelmate Pro though, which tells you exactly how many inches each wheel needs to be raised. I really like it, level first shot every time

When I first got my class C, I used some math to make a little leveling ruler calibrated in the number of ramps (2x wooden ones, in my case) needed to achieve leveling, one side for left-to-right leveling and the other for front-to-back leveling. I'd take my level and special ruler, set the level on the floor, and lift whichever end was low and measure how many ramps were needed. It worked very nicely indeed.

Pretty soon, I was able to eyeball the distance from the raised level end and didn't really need the ruler. Not long after that the level got lost and was replaced with one that's a different length, which of course throws the ruler calibration all off, and I haven't made a new one.

one cool thing about the Levelmate is you can turn it on when driving (it displays on a phone). Meaning it will give you real-time level info as you slowly drive around the Walmart looking for the most level spot.

My buttometer is not yet as finely calibrated as yours. :B

[DrewE]

camperdave wrote:

I did install A Levelmate Pro though, which tells you exactly how many inches each wheel needs to be raised. I really like it, level first shot every time

When I first got my class C, I used some math to make a little leveling ruler calibrated in the number of ramps (2x wooden ones, in my case) needed to achieve leveling, one side for left-to-right leveling and the other for front-to-back leveling. I'd take my level and special ruler, set the level on the floor, and lift whichever end was low and measure how many ramps were needed. It worked very nicely indeed.

Pretty soon, I was able to eyeball the distance from the raised level end and didn't really need the ruler. Not long after that the level got lost and was replaced with one that's a different length, which of course throws the ruler calibration all off, and I haven't made a new one.