Jack Leveler Question

[wbwood]

The Class C we just purchased didn't come with jack levelers. It was somethign we were thinking we would eventually get at $3000+. We were thinking, man, it would be great. Just pull in, hit a button and be done with it. We used 3 sets of Lynx Levelers this weekend on a what appeared to be level campsite, just to get the front wheels up enough to get it level. I didn't have any boards with me, but I see I still need to get some to take with us.

Anyway, I was sitting there at the campsite Saturday night trying to get a campfire started when a brand new Class A pulled in next to us. I sat there for the better part of an hour cursing at my fire and watching the guy trying to level his motorhome. First he got the motorhome where he wanted it and hit a button. The levelers came down and did their thing. After a minute of so, he hit another button and they came up. He gets out and grabs some wood. I though he was going to stick them in underneath the jacks, but he puts them in front of the wheels. Drives up on them and pushes the button again. Still no good. Jacks back up and then drives off the boards, reconfigure and then jacks down again. He did numerous times until I guess he was ok with it. It took an hour.

I thought the idea of the levelers were not to have to use boards to drive up on. If you do, then it might be something we will avoid spending the money on. The only use I would see them (levelers) serving us (if you still have to use wood) would be to stabilize the unit more or so.

[lakeside013104]

The DW wanted to level our 5er by herself and that included using her wrist watch. She hit "auto level" button, than 1 minute and 20 seconds later she said, "Now that was pretty slick, wasn't it?" In our case, auto level is a very nice feature. We are spoiled now and hopefully will never be without this handy option. Safe travels.

Lakeside

[Dutch_12078]

wanderingbob wrote:
Three thousand dollars . I believe that I would get some boards , put that money in an IRA , then you can retire one year earlier . I had power levelers on my Allegro Bus and never really needed them , until I traded it in , cost $1800 to fix something that I never used and was selling anyway ! Being perfectly level was never to important to me plus I am a cheap SOB.

$1800 is about what it cost me to install the complete Bigfoot jack system on my coach.

[wanderingbob]

Three thousand dollars . I believe that I would get some boards , put that money in an IRA , then you can retire one year earlier . I had power levelers on my Allegro Bus and never really needed them , until I traded it in , cost $1800 to fix something that I never used and was selling anyway ! Being perfectly level was never to important to me plus I am a cheap SOB.

[wbwood]

WyoTraveler wrote:
These jacks are automatic to a point. You can over extend the jacks. I drove into an RV park on a Friday evening no other parks close. The site sloped to the rear. My jacks did level the MH but my back wheels were 6" off the ground. Not a good thing. I put blocks under the rear wheels. Just because MH goes up doesn't mean it is level. Sometimes you get an error light when the jack just isn't long enough to level the MH. My instruction manual says to use blocks under the jacks to prevent over extending & damage to the jacks.

His wheels never left the ground or at least the boards. The tallest he had was two boards. So maybe 2-3 inches. But the first time he did it without the boards, the wheels never left the ground.

[WyoTraveler]

These jacks are automatic to a point. You can over extend the jacks. I drove into an RV park on a Friday evening no other parks close. The site sloped to the rear. My jacks did level the MH but my back wheels were 6" off the ground. Not a good thing. I put blocks under the rear wheels. Just because MH goes up doesn't mean it is level. Sometimes you get an error light when the jack just isn't long enough to level the MH. My instruction manual says to use blocks under the jacks to prevent over extending & damage to the jacks.

[Dutch_12078]

I don't have automatic levelers, just a Bigfoot manual push button EZE Leveler jack system. It normally takes me no more than two minutes to fully level right from the driver's seat. On occasion on an abnormally unlevel site, I do have to get out and stick some boards in a low spot under a jack or two, or under all of the jacks in particularly soft conditions, but that's pretty rare. I too have seen some rigs with poorly operated/poorly adjusted levelers taking an inordinate amount of time to level up. I generally just attribute it to either inexperience or ineptitude on the part of the operator.

[Trackrig]

I'll bet he hasn't read the User's Manual, but then no self respecting male would do that. One of these days the DW will get tired of it all, read the manual and operate them correctly. I accidently read mine one day and figured out what we were doing wrong.

Bill

[wbwood]

Sorry, menat to post this in the General section....