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Rockycb21's avatar
Rockycb21
Explorer II
Nov 26, 2023

Leveling Question

We have a 2016, 25; Forest River Sabre 5th wheel.  For the sake of this scenerio, let's say the truck and trailer is on perfectly level ground both front  and side to side.  Typically when attached to the truck the front of the trailer is approx. 4-5" higher than the rear.  When we unhook, we have to raise the trailer an additional ~.1.5 - 2.5 inches.  As we lower the front of the trailer to level it front to back, the passenger side "rises" ~.75" for every ~3-4" of downward travel at the front.  We continually have to do math based on the unhitched height of the trailer and "unlevel" the trailer side to side so it becomes "level" once the front is brought down.  On our last trip the front was almos 9" high as we were on a slope so the passenger side roses up ~1.5" once the front was level.  Soometimes we have to rehood up the trailer and adjust the "unlevelness" a second tiime just tto get it level both ways.  There doesn't seem to be any broken welds or issues that we've noticed.  The landing gear seems to touch the ground at the same time and we've recently had the wheels aligned and new suspensiion hardware installed (problem existed before and after that work was done.  Is this normal?  Anyone else have this issue?

  • There are hitches made to raise the height of the ball. If it rides okay the only problem may be running the refrigerator while towing.

    • dedmiston's avatar
      dedmiston
      Moderator

      MNtundraRet wrote:

      There are hitches made to raise the height of the ball. If it rides okay the only problem may be running the refrigerator while towing.


      No ball. It's a fifth wheel. 😎

      • MNtundraRet's avatar
        MNtundraRet
        Navigator

        Sorry.  I missed that. Someone else will need to help here.

  • Is this an Autolevel system, or are you dealing with just front legs? Hydraulic, or electric?

  • Maybe hard to diagnose from your description, but it is possible that your front landing gear legs have become out of sync, meaning, one leg is higher/lower than the other.  Really common for that to happen, and very easy to fix.  To check, just measure from the frame down to the bottom of each leg (the powered leg, not the pinned portion) and hopefully they are equally set.  

  • You never mentioned your pick-up truck.  It sounds like you have a 4-wheel drive. Your trailer is rather short and would end up with your current situation.

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