Same here Kellyvtec, we don't own one either yet but we really enjoy learning everything that goes into operating and maintaining these RV's, and in our opinion these guys make the best videos
Thanks again! You saved me hours of worry and work! I typed in ' leveling a Fleetwood flair' and you guys were right there. The first thing you said about 'ignition key in accessory position', well I was trying to level with everything off. My old ('98 model) Flair does not have information books that probably came with it when new, but after 6 months of updates, this rolling 30'condo will be so sweet. I'm new to RVing, and it's folks like you that have encouraged me to achieve my full-time dream!
I can't express how much you geeks have been an encouraging influence to me. After working a job for 40 years, I feet like it's my time now (to borrow from the Goonies). Have a great holiday and thanks for the videos!
OMG!!! I’ve followed your channel for some time and I apparently missed this instruction video. Following your step by step instruction it certainly simplified my process to level!! My wife and I even got the level out and checked... it was not directly in the middle but maybe a half bubble off of center!! I call that good enough!! THANK YOU!!!
Hello RVGEEKS, I use your tips in this video and have discovered some added actions people may need after being parked for awhile, I've been staying Texas the past month and there's been a great deal of rain, After being set yp for a few days my rig "felt" unlevel and I noticed the water left in the shower after using it had run to one side of the drain. I'd fire up my rig . turn on the leveling system and discover it was unbalanced again. So I re-adjusted, When I first started my RVing adventure I used the doors as a test for level, Not good, Doors aren't always hung straight, Thanks for all the great tips, vin
i know Im randomly asking but does anybody know of a way to log back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb lost my account password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Otis Luciano Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm trying it out atm. I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I believe what you are suggesting: The concern on my part was saying +IF ITS A DIESEL PUSHER !" :) I believe ours does dump "before" leveling. So I will be more to listening more the next time we level. thanx for the asap responses....ed hass reno, nevada
If you have an "Auto" button for leveling, I will bet that it does dump as the very first step in the process. You shouldn't have any trouble noticing it if you're looking for it. There's a big WHHHOOOOOSH and it drops noticeably and fast. Just like we show in the video. Let us know how you make out Ed!
for some of you with issues. there are some units, gas rigs ussually where the parking brake has to be set before the slides and leveling Jack's will activate.
Good video, with great information. Thanks, again. Our new 23' travel trailer does not have it's own jack system. There is only the tongue jack, which makes front-to-back leveling pretty easy. Side-to-side leveling requires pulling into the position you want to park, checking the side-to-side level, then, if needed, pulling up or back and laying down the appropriate thickness of leveling blocks, and rolling the RV up on to them. A bit tedious, but not too bad, especially if you'll be staying there more than one night. I've thought about just getting a small hydraulic floor jack, and jacking up one of the axles until the RV is level, but am worried about damaging the RV somehow.
We're not travel trailer experts, but we would guess your thought about possible damage from jacking is right on the money. We'd just roll forward or backward, place the pads and roll up onto them.
2013 Tiffin Phaeton 40 footer. We were told to extend first and extract last. My question is, after auto leveler dumped air bags bags, my auto level finished leveling coach, but now it seems like the rear tires are low. Should I raise them manually to take pressure off the rear tires?
You guys are so helpful! I have a 1998 Class A with leveling jacks but I don't have indicators that tell me what's down so I play it by ear or shall I say feel. I've grown to respect you guys so I wanted to ask a question that seems to be controversial in the RV world so here it is. When you store your RV do you do it with the jacks up or down???
+QLF Productions Thanks so much for the nice comment. :) Taking substantial weight off the tires while they're stored is beneficial for them. However, leaving the jacks down to take weight off the tires may stretch the jack springs. Here's our take: stretched out jack springs are cheaper to replace than tires. We'd store with the jacks down, taking a good percentage of the weight of the RV off the tires (but not all... don't go raising the tires off the ground)! That said, 50% of the population will disagree. LOL
Morning guys, have you ever had your leveling system say your level but clearly not?? If I follow the lights we are way off level. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
Hi Steve! Our HWH levelling system has a little circuit board inside it that can be adjusted to fine-tune the readings that indicate when we’re leveled. But we actually gave up on the system of little lights years ago when we got our LevelMatePRO. It is so accurate, and so amazing, we couldn’t care less what our HWH system says anymore! If you haven’t seen it, here’s the video: ua-cam.com/video/Jh_5Nwu9T8E/v-deo.html
Hi! Love learning from you all. We’re full time in our Newmar Ventana but still somewhat newbies. When we’re staying at a site that is not level and we put down the auto level jacks, but it raises the wheels, should we put blocks under the wheels too? We put them under the jacks, but do we need something under the tires? Fortunately, most of our sites have been fairly level, but I want to make sure we’re doing things as best we can.
Always great to hear from a fellow Newmar owner! Although we’ve heard people say you shouldn’t leave a wheel hanging when you level, we have been doing that on our RV the entire 16+ years we’ve owned it without any problem. There have been times when our front tires are both 6 inches or more off the ground, and we’ve never had a problem. One thing we will mention… The rear tires are the ones with parking brakes. We would strongly recommend not lifting all of the rear wheels off the ground at the same time, as that would basically negate the effect of the parking brake. We have lifted one side or the other off the ground before, but never both at the same time.
@@RVgeeks thank you! So, you’re not necessarily putting anything under the raised wheels, just being very cautious not to have the rear wheels off (all sides) due to the braking system.
Hello RVGEEKS. We love your videos. We recently purchased our third and biggest RV, a 42 ft. DP. When we backed it on to our parking pad at home (which has a slope) and leveled it (we have airbags, not jack stands) the windshield popped out of the seal and cracked from top to bottom on the curved side. We would like to know what your suggestion is at campsites with excessive slopes? Do you check out your campsites before committing to one to avoid slopes? Thank you in advance for your advice.
Sorry to hear, Melissa. We assume your warranty took care of it. We are lucky in one regard, in that we have the older style two piece windshield versus the single windshields that are so common today. We do try to avoid extremely sloped campsites, and if your RV is prone to this sort of problem we highly recommend installing and using a LevelMatePRO, which will let you know how off-level a site is before you even try to level.
Sorry to hear, Melissa. We assume your warranty took care of it. We are lucky in one regard, in that we have the older style two piece windshield versus the single windshields that are so common today. We do try to avoid extremely sloped campsites, and if your RV is prone to this sort of problem we highly recommend installing and using a LevelMatePRO, which will let you know how off-level a site is before you even try to level.
This happened to me as well. With a two piece windshield on a '99 Fleetwood Southwind. Had to have windshield replaced, of course, and after that never lifted front wheels off the ground again, because we were told that's what caused it to happen.
+Michael Potts Hi Michael. Unfortunately our only first-hand experience is with the hydraulic systems in the two motorhomes we've owned, and we only have access to our current one. If we get the opportunity to learn about and video an older system on a friend's rig at some point, we sure will. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hey Michael, the joystick operation is done In almost the same way. The front and rear levers 'activate' system .....then that leaves you with the middle joystick.....and you hold it to the appropriate side until jacks go down or light goes out if your system has the lights. So just remember the jacks operate in pairs only so forward is front pair and left is left side pair etc....... then when you are done just shut system off. When it's time to leave just turn on the system and take the front and rear levers and put them back in the middle......these systems take the pressure off jacks very fast but are very reliable. In my last 15 years of being in the RV biz the most common thing with those systems is spring breaking...... So just inspect springs at least twice a year.
My husband took care of the Winnebago Journey RV . He passed away last fall. My leveling system looks like yours but It doesn’t have a button for dumping the air to lower the coach. My book says to see the HWH operator manual. I cant find it or I dont have one. How do I dump the air?
So sorry to hear about your loss!! We're not 100% sure about this, but as we understand it... on your system, the air bags likely dump the air when you turn the power on to the HWH leveling control panel (if the air bags are inflated, you'll know they're deflating when you turn the HWH on, because you'll hear it AND the RV will drop down about 4-6"). Then, when you break camp and hit the "Store" button, the air bags will re-inflate when you start the RV. If that's not the case, you may have a separate, dedicated switch somewhere on the dash that dumps the air bags. But we're not sure where it would be (or what it would be labeled), so you may want to ask on the Winnebago Owner's group over on iRV2.com (it's free to join and post): www.irv2.com/forums/f101/ Someone who owns the same year Journey should be able to direct you. Hope this helps!
Great videos! There's so much to learn! My question for you is what do you do when your automatic leveler decides to raise your rear wheels and/or front wheels off the ground? I know particularly it is unsafe for the rears as the parking break is engaged and located there. Also I assume there's too much weight when raised so high. I am guessing that your manual method in that situation should find some kind of lower but level position most of the time, right? Thanks and keep up the great work! :-)
Hi Preston! Thanks so much for the nice comment, and great question! We have heard that you're not supposed to lift any tire off the ground, but we have lifted our front tires up in the air so many times over the years we've lost count. In 13 years in this RV, it's never seemed to affect the suspension, or cause any problem at all with leveling. We suppose that some mechanics might think we're damaging our suspension, but we've never seen the slightest sign of that. As far as the rears go, we agree.... don't life them up, since the parking brakes only work on the drive axle. For some reason, it seems like the vast majority of campsite are nose low, which of course means raising the front, so we don't find it to be much of a problem. In the event that we are tail low, we lift as needed, but not so far as to raise the rear tires off the ground, and if we're a little off-level occasionally as a result, no biggie. One big help has been the LevelMatePRO ( ua-cam.com/video/Jh_5Nwu9T8E/v-deo.html ). Since we installed it, we never use the automatic leveling feature, but only use manual leveling instead. Not only does it tell us in advance if we're too off-level to get perfectly level at all (since we know the approximate length of our jack struts), but using manual level also allows us complete control over the process. If a wheel were to come close to lifting, we'd see that, and stop before it did, where the computer would just keep going.
I am looking at purchasing a Thor Vegas. The problem..... this motor home does not come with a jack system. Since this motor home is so low to the ground and has a double axial it is purported by Thor that jacks are not needed. I can have them factory installed for $9000. I do not think I will be comfortable in even a slight tilt or unstable motor home and the thought makes want to spend the $9000 on a jack system or buy a different coach with a jack system already installed. I like the Vegas because it is narrow, low to the ground and really easy to drive. Should I spend the $9000 on a jack system? help! I will be by myself and physically not that agile to climb around under the coach.
Hi Linda. You might consider renting a smaller RV (most of which do not have jacks) to see how much being off-level bothers you. $9,000 does sound like a lot, buy you can always use stacker blocks (jack pads) under the tires to level instead. They're a whole lot less expensive. ;-)
That's a hot topic, Dana! LOL The "official" word is that you're never supposed to do that. Whenever possible we try to avoid it, but off the record... nobody's reading this, right. ;-) ..... we've had both front tires hanging in the air more times than we can count and never had a problem. That said, we would never lift all of the rear tires off the ground because they are the only ones with parking brakes on them (we've had one side or the other up before, but not both. So even though we would never suggest to anyone else that they ignore cautions about not lifting tires, we do it all the time. Don't tell anyone, because we'd surely get a raft of s**t about it! LOL
We have a DIESEL PUSHER w/Lippert Levelers, and this is the first time I have heard that we need to "dump all air" before starting a leveling process. BUT I DO NOT see ANY DUMP button. But i do see there is a RV "bowing" ;ever that is silver left side of steering wheel on interior cab wall that does seem to dump and "bow" or reduce rv height more by less air. Can you clarify any additional info as to why all air needs to be removed, especially as you suggest in this video on a Diesel Pusher. Ours is a 2006 Damon Astoria DP 36ft. ed hass reno, nevada .
Hi Ed! Not sure how the Lippert system works, but the HWH systems have a "dump" button. Even if you have the computerized HWH system (which we do... but we were demonstrating the manual mode in the video), the very first thing the computer does when you push "LEVEL" is dump the airbags. The purpose of this is so that the RV will not already be higher than necessary before jacking begins. If the entire coach is already up on the airbags, it will require that much more jack extension to get it level. The higher it is on jacks, the less stable things are and the more movement is felt when people walk around inside the rig. Again, not sure how the Lippert system works, but curious if you have a one-touch computerized system like ours? If so, can't imagine why it wouldn't first take the air out of the bags before leveling. If you have a the manual system, I'm guessing there's a dump button somewhere... maybe the silver lever you mentioned. Might check in the Lippert owner's manual to be sure, or contact Lippert, or post a question on the iRV2 forums. There must be someone out there with Lippert levelers who knows for sure.
RVgeeks Lippert on ours has both "AUTO AND MANUAL" ...so next email / call is to Damon / Thor which I have an email and then to Lippert leveling in South bend, Indiana tomorrow. Just changed our Leveling Feet/Pads from 9" to big 12" diameter steel feet/pads.
ECRVS Videos Hi Ed. I just searched the HWH website for the manuals for non-automatic leveling systems, and found the following text, copied here directly out of the manual: "If the vehicle is equipped with an air suspension, the air must be dumped from the vehicle suspension before leveling the vehicle. The vehicle will be equipped with a Manual Pilot Dump. Refer to the vehicle owner’ s manual for the proper operation of the air dump equipment." As I said, our automatic system dumps the air automatically before leveling, so we don't need to dump manually first. I'm guessing that if the Lippert system doesn't dump automatically, it requires the air to be dumped with a manual air dump first.... probably that silver knob you've got. After my first reply, it occurred to me another reason why dumping the air bags is important. Beginning the process with the suspension already extended (up on the air bags) would make it more likely that a tire would have to be lifted of the ground to get the RV level, which is something that chassis manufacturers recommend avoiding if possible. That would be especially true on a very unlevel campsite. Great that you have larger pads now. Our first RV had much smaller landing gear and we love the big ones. They sink in a lot less.
First time I have become aware that HWH has manuals. We are new to Class A after a stint with Class C Rialta. Is www.hwh.com where we can locate more manuals since we have few provided after the purchase of our RV ?
FOLLOWUP EXTRA AIR DUMP ON 2006 DAMON CLASS An email from Thor/Damon today suggest that I should dump air-bag air by using the silver side-to-side air lever nexxt to driver side in order to get RV closer to ground for stability and less height when using levelers. Thor Reply says: "That Silver side-to-side throw handle is to dump air bags. Dumping air bags prior to leveling is to get coach lower to ground. Leveling jacks don’t normally have to extend as far, if air bags are dumped". Have a great day Customer Service Warranty. edit by ed hass
+Brian Duprey We did contact the manufacturer a couple of months ago, but haven't landed on anything firm yet. We'll touch base with them again sometime soon to see what we can find out. Be sure to subscribe to our website to hear if about any upcoming giveaways! thervgeeks.com/subscribe/
+Walt Doyle If you could figure out a way to do it so they couldn't fall off on the highway, it might be okay. Not sure how to guarantee one wouldn't come off and go through someone's windshield. 😳
+RVgeeks I'll let you know. I'm thinking of (4) Ea counter-sunk on the bottom and through bolted thru the steel pad, using nylon ringed stainless nuts and bolts...
Officially, you’re supposedly not supposed to do that, but we can’t count the number of times we’ve had a tire off the ground and don’t worry about it. The only time we avoid it is in a tail low situation, which would mean lifting all rear tires off the ground. We avoid that because our drive wheels are the only ones with parking brakes on them, so lifting all of them in the air would mean that no tires with brakes are on the ground.
Hello RV Geeks !! I realize you put this video together some time ago however, I just purchased my very first DP motorhome.. and after getting it home I took time to view this video several times to become more familiar with how to do it right. My coach does not have "Automatic leveling" but it does have the HWH leveling system. The question I have is this..After pulling into your camping spot and If your coach is already level side to side and the front or rear is showing unlevel do you level the front or rear first or do you drop the jacks on both sides first then level front or rear? Thanks.. Motorhome Newbie
Hi Jim. No worries... even though this video was from a while ago, we still monitor all comments and reply as we can. In the situation you describe, after dumping the air (which may show that you're not actually level side-to-side, since the air bags could be skewing things a bit and making it SEEM level), we'd likely put all of the jacks down until they touched (and JUST started to lift a bit, so we know they were pressed down firmly), then raise the nose until it was level. That way, the jacks are being used as the pivot points for lifting and you know the chassis is being firmly supported at all four corners, so we could be certain the chassis wasn't getting torqued (which could pop/crack the windshield). That said... if we were solidly level from side-to-side... and only needed a slight lifting of the front to be level front-to-rear (which we'd know since we always use our LevelMatePRO, LOL!)... and were on a nice solid surface like a concrete pad... we might just lift the nose the little bit it needed, then put the rears down until they were firm and call it a day. But the former technique is definitely the safer one if you have any doubts.
If you dump an air suspensioned vehicle you have to release the brakes for a second. Because without releasing there is unneccessary tension on the vehicle.
Hi Klaus. We've never heard anything like that. We've had both Freightliner (our Bounder Diesel) and Spartan (our current Newmar) chassis, both on air bags, and neither recommends releasing the brakes when dumping. The chassis simply rolls forward about 4 inches (that's with the brakes set), allowing the suspension and driveline components to move along with the change in height, making releasing the brakes unnecessary, and possibly even dangerous.
You say it the wheels are going forward and what do the brakepads do? They want to keep the wheel in the position before dumping. Without releasing you may damage the brake system and shocks and all components around.
Hi Klaus. Not meaning to be argumentative here, but the manufacturer disagrees. Spartan designed the system to make it impossible to do what you're suggesting: the dump button will not activate unless the parking brake is set. They seem to have thought this through pretty well, and we're suggesting that there's no problem using it the way it was designed. We've been dumping with the parking brake set (again, there's no choice in the matter due to the lock-out that prevents doing otherwise) for 13+ years with zero effect on our chassis. We're diligent about having our chassis professionally inspected, including ride height adjustment, every year at an authorized Spartan shop, and our system is in top shape, having never required anything other than routine maintenance.
We bought a 1994 GM Georgie Boy RV as our first RV. We do not have electronic or hydraulic leveling. We are not sure how to manually level the RV. Any help would be appreciated. THANK YOU! #cluelessRVowner
Whats the crush limits.. No one shows that..?? Your RV is in the 40k... so lets say each has to hold 10k... are they rate at 15k?? Other wise they will crush in the summer sun.. Always happens.. They get hot and melt and the RV drops on one side..
We weight 19 tons - 38,000 lbs, with approximately 14,000 lbs of that weight on the front axle, and 24,000 at the rear.... so about 12,000 lbs on each rear jack. We have used these jack pads in summer sun and heat for years and they absolutely do not soften, crush, or deform in any way. We don't know what they're made of, but they still are like new after many years of fairly hard use (we're full-time... for nearly 17 years).
Leveling sure has its ups and downs and takes practice to perfect with or without jacks. Thanks for sharing those great tips!
Ups and downs. i see what you did there. :D
I dont have an RV and snd probably wont have one in the next 5 years, but i like learning about all kinds of stuff.
Same here Kellyvtec, we don't own one either yet but we really enjoy learning everything that goes into operating and maintaining these RV's, and in our opinion these guys make the best videos
Awww. Thanks! :D So glad we've been able to help you prepare.
Kellyvtech same here, I don't have a camper/RV yet, but, I'm the same way. :D :)
Very nice I just purchased mine and I didn't know how to level it but now I do. Thanks
Thanks again! You saved me hours of worry and work! I typed in ' leveling a Fleetwood flair' and you guys were right there. The first thing you said about 'ignition key in accessory position', well I was trying to level with everything off. My old ('98 model) Flair does not have information books that probably came with it when new, but after 6 months of updates, this rolling 30'condo will be so sweet. I'm new to RVing, and it's folks like you that have encouraged me to achieve my full-time dream!
+steamyb2 Thanks so much for letting us know we were helpful! And congratulations on your new-to-you RV!
I can't express how much you geeks have been an encouraging influence to me. After working a job for 40 years, I feet like it's my time now (to borrow from the Goonies). Have a great holiday and thanks for the videos!
OMG!!! I’ve followed your channel for some time and I apparently missed this instruction video. Following your step by step instruction it certainly simplified my process to level!! My wife and I even got the level out and checked... it was not directly in the middle but maybe a half bubble off of center!! I call that good enough!! THANK YOU!!!
Awesome! Thanks for letting us know. Always good to hear we’ve been helpful.
Hello RVGEEKS,
I use your tips in this video and have discovered some added actions people may need after being parked for awhile, I've been staying Texas the past month and there's been a great deal of rain, After being set yp for a few days my rig "felt" unlevel and I noticed the water left in the shower after using it had run to one side of the drain. I'd fire up my rig . turn on the leveling system and discover it was unbalanced again. So I re-adjusted, When I first started my RVing adventure I used the doors as a test for level, Not good, Doors aren't always hung straight, Thanks for all the great tips,
vin
i know Im randomly asking but does anybody know of a way to log back into an Instagram account..?
I was dumb lost my account password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Otis Luciano Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm trying it out atm.
I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Otis Luciano it did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thanks so much, you really help me out!
We just aquired a 40B Mandalay and the generator instruction brought a point I was not aware of. Great instruction
Thanks Al! Congrats on your new rig! :)
Some leveling systems such as Equalizer require the front jacks to be planted and then the rears BEFORE leveling side to side.
I believe what you are suggesting:
The concern on my part was saying +IF ITS A DIESEL PUSHER !" :)
I believe ours does dump "before" leveling. So I will be more to listening more the next time we level. thanx for the asap responses....ed hass reno, nevada
If you have an "Auto" button for leveling, I will bet that it does dump as the very first step in the process. You shouldn't have any trouble noticing it if you're looking for it. There's a big WHHHOOOOOSH and it drops noticeably and fast. Just like we show in the video. Let us know how you make out Ed!
for some of you with issues.
there are some units, gas rigs ussually where the parking brake has to be set before the slides and leveling Jack's will activate.
Great video! A reminder to folks that they need to be sure their electronics system is calibrated to level before use
Good video, with great information. Thanks, again. Our new 23' travel trailer does not have it's own jack system. There is only the tongue jack, which makes front-to-back leveling pretty easy. Side-to-side leveling requires pulling into the position you want to park, checking the side-to-side level, then, if needed, pulling up or back and laying down the appropriate thickness of leveling blocks, and rolling the RV up on to them. A bit tedious, but not too bad, especially if you'll be staying there more than one night. I've thought about just getting a small hydraulic floor jack, and jacking up one of the axles until the RV is level, but am worried about damaging the RV somehow.
We're not travel trailer experts, but we would guess your thought about possible damage from jacking is right on the money. We'd just roll forward or backward, place the pads and roll up onto them.
2013 Tiffin Phaeton 40 footer. We were told to extend first and extract last. My question is, after auto leveler dumped air bags bags, my auto level finished leveling coach, but now it seems like the rear tires are low. Should I raise them manually to take pressure off the rear tires?
Hi Ron! It shouldn't make any difference how much pressure is pressing down on your tires. As long as your rig is level, you should be fine.
You guys are so helpful! I have a 1998 Class A with leveling jacks but I don't have indicators that tell me what's down so I play it by ear or shall I say feel. I've grown to respect you guys so I wanted to ask a question that seems to be controversial in the RV world so here it is. When you store your RV do you do it with the jacks up or down???
+QLF Productions Thanks so much for the nice comment. :) Taking substantial weight off the tires while they're stored is beneficial for them. However, leaving the jacks down to take weight off the tires may stretch the jack springs. Here's our take: stretched out jack springs are cheaper to replace than tires. We'd store with the jacks down, taking a good percentage of the weight of the RV off the tires (but not all... don't go raising the tires off the ground)! That said, 50% of the population will disagree. LOL
This is true. I see 50% yes and 50% no. Thanks for the info!
Morning guys, have you ever had your leveling system say your level but clearly not?? If I follow the lights we are way off level. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
Hi Steve! Our HWH levelling system has a little circuit board inside it that can be adjusted to fine-tune the readings that indicate when we’re leveled. But we actually gave up on the system of little lights years ago when we got our LevelMatePRO. It is so accurate, and so amazing, we couldn’t care less what our HWH system says anymore! If you haven’t seen it, here’s the video: ua-cam.com/video/Jh_5Nwu9T8E/v-deo.html
Excellent work gentlemen. Thanks again! :-)
Hi! Love learning from you all. We’re full time in our Newmar Ventana but still somewhat newbies. When we’re staying at a site that is not level and we put down the auto level jacks, but it raises the wheels, should we put blocks under the wheels too? We put them under the jacks, but do we need something under the tires? Fortunately, most of our sites have been fairly level, but I want to make sure we’re doing things as best we can.
Always great to hear from a fellow Newmar owner! Although we’ve heard people say you shouldn’t leave a wheel hanging when you level, we have been doing that on our RV the entire 16+ years we’ve owned it without any problem. There have been times when our front tires are both 6 inches or more off the ground, and we’ve never had a problem. One thing we will mention… The rear tires are the ones with parking brakes. We would strongly recommend not lifting all of the rear wheels off the ground at the same time, as that would basically negate the effect of the parking brake. We have lifted one side or the other off the ground before, but never both at the same time.
@@RVgeeks thank you! So, you’re not necessarily putting anything under the raised wheels, just being very cautious not to have the rear wheels off (all sides) due to the braking system.
Correct. One side or the other… or front only. We never let both rear wheels leave the ground.
Hello RVGEEKS. We love your videos. We recently purchased our third and biggest RV, a 42 ft. DP. When we backed it on to our parking pad at home (which has a slope) and leveled it (we have airbags, not jack stands) the windshield popped out of the seal and cracked from top to bottom on the curved side. We would like to know what your suggestion is at campsites with excessive slopes? Do you check out your campsites before committing to one to avoid slopes? Thank you in advance for your advice.
Sorry to hear, Melissa. We assume your warranty took care of it. We are lucky in one regard, in that we have the older style two piece windshield versus the single windshields that are so common today. We do try to avoid extremely sloped campsites, and if your RV is prone to this sort of problem we highly recommend installing and using a LevelMatePRO, which will let you know how off-level a site is before you even try to level.
Sorry to hear, Melissa. We assume your warranty took care of it. We are lucky in one regard, in that we have the older style two piece windshield versus the single windshields that are so common today. We do try to avoid extremely sloped campsites, and if your RV is prone to this sort of problem we highly recommend installing and using a LevelMatePRO, which will let you know how off-level a site is before you even try to level.
This happened to me as well. With a two piece windshield on a '99 Fleetwood Southwind. Had to have windshield replaced, of course, and after that never lifted front wheels off the ground again, because we were told that's what caused it to happen.
I need to find the springs that are on the hwh leveling system jacks. The common ones I have found are not the right ones!
Hi Jackie! We’d suggest the best thing to do is go right to the manufacturer. They should have what you’re looking for on their website - hwhcorp.com
Excellent content. Thx.
Can you guys do a video on the older systems. My 1988 Komfort Class A has the system with the levers, not the buttons. Thanks
+Michael Potts Hi Michael. Unfortunately our only first-hand experience is with the hydraulic systems in the two motorhomes we've owned, and we only have access to our current one. If we get the opportunity to learn about and video an older system on a friend's rig at some point, we sure will. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hey Michael, the joystick operation is done In almost the same way. The front and rear levers 'activate' system .....then that leaves you with the middle joystick.....and you hold it to the appropriate side until jacks go down or light goes out if your system has the lights. So just remember the jacks operate in pairs only so forward is front pair and left is left side pair etc....... then when you are done just shut system off. When it's time to leave just turn on the system and take the front and rear levers and put them back in the middle......these systems take the pressure off jacks very fast but are very reliable. In my last 15 years of being in the RV biz the most common thing with those systems is spring breaking...... So just inspect springs at least twice a year.
Another great video guys. Thanks again
My husband took care of the Winnebago Journey RV . He passed away last fall. My leveling system looks like yours but It doesn’t have a button for dumping the air to lower the coach. My book says to see the HWH operator manual. I cant find it or I dont have one. How do I dump the air?
So sorry to hear about your loss!! We're not 100% sure about this, but as we understand it... on your system, the air bags likely dump the air when you turn the power on to the HWH leveling control panel (if the air bags are inflated, you'll know they're deflating when you turn the HWH on, because you'll hear it AND the RV will drop down about 4-6"). Then, when you break camp and hit the "Store" button, the air bags will re-inflate when you start the RV.
If that's not the case, you may have a separate, dedicated switch somewhere on the dash that dumps the air bags. But we're not sure where it would be (or what it would be labeled), so you may want to ask on the Winnebago Owner's group over on iRV2.com (it's free to join and post): www.irv2.com/forums/f101/ Someone who owns the same year Journey should be able to direct you.
Hope this helps!
GREAT VIDEO!
Great videos! There's so much to learn! My question for you is what do you do when your automatic leveler decides to raise your rear wheels and/or front wheels off the ground? I know particularly it is unsafe for the rears as the parking break is engaged and located there. Also I assume there's too much weight when raised so high. I am guessing that your manual method in that situation should find some kind of lower but level position most of the time, right? Thanks and keep up the great work! :-)
Hi Preston! Thanks so much for the nice comment, and great question! We have heard that you're not supposed to lift any tire off the ground, but we have lifted our front tires up in the air so many times over the years we've lost count. In 13 years in this RV, it's never seemed to affect the suspension, or cause any problem at all with leveling. We suppose that some mechanics might think we're damaging our suspension, but we've never seen the slightest sign of that. As far as the rears go, we agree.... don't life them up, since the parking brakes only work on the drive axle. For some reason, it seems like the vast majority of campsite are nose low, which of course means raising the front, so we don't find it to be much of a problem. In the event that we are tail low, we lift as needed, but not so far as to raise the rear tires off the ground, and if we're a little off-level occasionally as a result, no biggie. One big help has been the LevelMatePRO ( ua-cam.com/video/Jh_5Nwu9T8E/v-deo.html ). Since we installed it, we never use the automatic leveling feature, but only use manual leveling instead. Not only does it tell us in advance if we're too off-level to get perfectly level at all (since we know the approximate length of our jack struts), but using manual level also allows us complete control over the process. If a wheel were to come close to lifting, we'd see that, and stop before it did, where the computer would just keep going.
Thanks for the swift reply! You hit on all the points of my question. Thanks for being so thorough! Yet another reason why you are great! :-)
I am looking at purchasing a Thor Vegas. The problem..... this motor home does not come with a jack system. Since this motor home is so low to the ground and has a double axial it is purported by Thor that jacks are not needed. I can have them factory installed for $9000. I do not think I will be comfortable in even a slight tilt or unstable motor home and the thought makes want to spend the $9000 on a jack system or buy a different coach with a jack system already installed. I like the Vegas because it is narrow, low to the ground and really easy to drive. Should I spend the $9000 on a jack system? help! I will be by myself and physically not that agile to climb around under the coach.
Hi Linda. You might consider renting a smaller RV (most of which do not have jacks) to see how much being off-level bothers you. $9,000 does sound like a lot, buy you can always use stacker blocks (jack pads) under the tires to level instead. They're a whole lot less expensive. ;-)
OK thanks
Question... what is your position on leveling to the point the front tires are off the ground? OK or not?
That's a hot topic, Dana! LOL The "official" word is that you're never supposed to do that. Whenever possible we try to avoid it, but off the record... nobody's reading this, right. ;-) ..... we've had both front tires hanging in the air more times than we can count and never had a problem. That said, we would never lift all of the rear tires off the ground because they are the only ones with parking brakes on them (we've had one side or the other up before, but not both. So even though we would never suggest to anyone else that they ignore cautions about not lifting tires, we do it all the time. Don't tell anyone, because we'd surely get a raft of s**t about it! LOL
With the Anderson levelers are they only specifically designed for small RV’s and not large motor homes like a newmar?
Yes. Smaller tires only.
RVgeeks ah thanks RVgeeks
I cant find any instructions on stowing... do I just start the RV amd hit "stow" or is there more to the process?
Thanks
Hi Joshua! If you have a similar system to ours, you are right on. Just start the RV and hit stow and that should do the trick.
@@RVgeeks appreciate the response! Yea the one I'm getting tomorrow looks identical
We have a DIESEL PUSHER w/Lippert Levelers, and this is the first time I have heard that we need to "dump all air" before starting a leveling process. BUT I DO NOT see ANY DUMP button. But i do see there is a RV "bowing" ;ever that is silver left side of steering wheel on interior cab wall that does seem to dump and "bow" or reduce rv height more by less air. Can you clarify any additional info as to why all air needs to be removed, especially as you suggest in this video on a Diesel Pusher.
Ours is a 2006 Damon Astoria DP 36ft.
ed hass reno, nevada .
Hi Ed! Not sure how the Lippert system works, but the HWH systems have a "dump" button. Even if you have the computerized HWH system (which we do... but we were demonstrating the manual mode in the video), the very first thing the computer does when you push "LEVEL" is dump the airbags. The purpose of this is so that the RV will not already be higher than necessary before jacking begins. If the entire coach is already up on the airbags, it will require that much more jack extension to get it level. The higher it is on jacks, the less stable things are and the more movement is felt when people walk around inside the rig.
Again, not sure how the Lippert system works, but curious if you have a one-touch computerized system like ours? If so, can't imagine why it wouldn't first take the air out of the bags before leveling. If you have a the manual system, I'm guessing there's a dump button somewhere... maybe the silver lever you mentioned. Might check in the Lippert owner's manual to be sure, or contact Lippert, or post a question on the iRV2 forums. There must be someone out there with Lippert levelers who knows for sure.
RVgeeks
Actually its the info I heard on video which says.
"IF YOU HAVE A DIESEL PUSHER with AIR SUSPENSION, DUMP MORE AIR"
RVgeeks
Lippert on ours has both "AUTO AND MANUAL" ...so next email / call is to Damon / Thor which I have an email and then to Lippert leveling in South bend, Indiana tomorrow. Just changed our Leveling Feet/Pads from 9" to big 12" diameter steel feet/pads.
ECRVS Videos
Hi Ed. I just searched the HWH website for the manuals for non-automatic leveling systems, and found the following text, copied here directly out of the manual: "If the vehicle is equipped with an air suspension, the air must be dumped from the vehicle suspension before leveling the vehicle. The vehicle will be equipped with a Manual Pilot Dump. Refer to the vehicle owner’ s manual for the proper operation of the air dump equipment."
As I said, our automatic system dumps the air automatically before leveling, so we don't need to dump manually first. I'm guessing that if the Lippert system doesn't dump automatically, it requires the air to be dumped with a manual air dump first.... probably that silver knob you've got.
After my first reply, it occurred to me another reason why dumping the air bags is important. Beginning the process with the suspension already extended (up on the air bags) would make it more likely that a tire would have to be lifted of the ground to get the RV level, which is something that chassis manufacturers recommend avoiding if possible. That would be especially true on a very unlevel campsite.
Great that you have larger pads now. Our first RV had much smaller landing gear and we love the big ones. They sink in a lot less.
First time I have become aware that HWH has manuals. We are new to Class A after a stint with Class C Rialta. Is www.hwh.com where we can locate more manuals since we have few provided after the purchase of our RV ?
BTW.......Really have enjoyed your Videos.
Have pasted your links to several other RV FaceBook Blogs that I follow. thanx for replies....ed
Very good information.
FOLLOWUP EXTRA AIR DUMP ON 2006 DAMON CLASS An email from Thor/Damon today suggest that I should dump air-bag air by using the silver side-to-side air lever nexxt to driver side in order to get RV closer to ground for stability and less height when using levelers. Thor Reply says: "That Silver side-to-side throw handle is to dump air bags. Dumping air bags prior to leveling is to get coach lower to ground. Leveling jacks don’t normally have to extend as far, if air bags are dumped". Have a great day Customer Service Warranty. edit by ed hass
Yessss!! I was hoping that the silver knob was the answer! Thanks for the follow-up.
RVgeeks javierbarajas
Giving out any of these this year?
+Brian Duprey We did contact the manufacturer a couple of months ago, but haven't landed on anything firm yet. We'll touch base with them again sometime soon to see what we can find out. Be sure to subscribe to our website to hear if about any upcoming giveaways! thervgeeks.com/subscribe/
No
Why cant jack pads be permanently attached to hyd jacks?
They're just not made to be permanently attached, and they're not always needed (hard surfaces and mostly-level sites).
+RVgeeks would it be a bad idea to permanently mount them? Pretty good place to store them, right?
+Walt Doyle If you could figure out a way to do it so they couldn't fall off on the highway, it might be okay. Not sure how to guarantee one wouldn't come off and go through someone's windshield. 😳
+RVgeeks I'll let you know. I'm thinking of (4) Ea counter-sunk on the bottom and through bolted thru the steel pad, using nylon ringed stainless nuts and bolts...
+Walt Doyle btw you guys are great!
what if after leveling one of my tires is off the ground what do we do
Officially, you’re supposedly not supposed to do that, but we can’t count the number of times we’ve had a tire off the ground and don’t worry about it. The only time we avoid it is in a tail low situation, which would mean lifting all rear tires off the ground. We avoid that because our drive wheels are the only ones with parking brakes on them, so lifting all of them in the air would mean that no tires with brakes are on the ground.
Hello RV Geeks !! I realize you put this video together some time ago however, I just purchased my very first DP motorhome.. and after getting it home I took time to view this video several times to become more familiar with how to do it right. My coach does not have "Automatic leveling" but it does have the HWH leveling system. The question I have is this..After pulling into your camping spot and If your coach is already level side to side and the front or rear is showing unlevel do you level the front or rear first or do you drop the jacks on both sides first then level front or rear? Thanks.. Motorhome Newbie
Hi Jim. No worries... even though this video was from a while ago, we still monitor all comments and reply as we can. In the situation you describe, after dumping the air (which may show that you're not actually level side-to-side, since the air bags could be skewing things a bit and making it SEEM level), we'd likely put all of the jacks down until they touched (and JUST started to lift a bit, so we know they were pressed down firmly), then raise the nose until it was level. That way, the jacks are being used as the pivot points for lifting and you know the chassis is being firmly supported at all four corners, so we could be certain the chassis wasn't getting torqued (which could pop/crack the windshield). That said... if we were solidly level from side-to-side... and only needed a slight lifting of the front to be level front-to-rear (which we'd know since we always use our LevelMatePRO, LOL!)... and were on a nice solid surface like a concrete pad... we might just lift the nose the little bit it needed, then put the rears down until they were firm and call it a day. But the former technique is definitely the safer one if you have any doubts.
If you dump an air suspensioned vehicle you have to release the brakes for a second. Because without releasing there is unneccessary tension on the vehicle.
Hi Klaus. We've never heard anything like that. We've had both Freightliner (our Bounder Diesel) and Spartan (our current Newmar) chassis, both on air bags, and neither recommends releasing the brakes when dumping. The chassis simply rolls forward about 4 inches (that's with the brakes set), allowing the suspension and driveline components to move along with the change in height, making releasing the brakes unnecessary, and possibly even dangerous.
You say it the wheels are going forward and what do the brakepads do? They want to keep the wheel in the position before dumping. Without releasing you may damage the brake system and shocks and all components around.
Hi Klaus. Not meaning to be argumentative here, but the manufacturer disagrees. Spartan designed the system to make it impossible to do what you're suggesting: the dump button will not activate unless the parking brake is set. They seem to have thought this through pretty well, and we're suggesting that there's no problem using it the way it was designed. We've been dumping with the parking brake set (again, there's no choice in the matter due to the lock-out that prevents doing otherwise) for 13+ years with zero effect on our chassis. We're diligent about having our chassis professionally inspected, including ride height adjustment, every year at an authorized Spartan shop, and our system is in top shape, having never required anything other than routine maintenance.
May be my English is to bad to explain what I mean.
If you do not have had bad experiences the way you do then keep on doing it.
We bought a 1994 GM Georgie Boy RV as our first RV. We do not have electronic or hydraulic leveling. We are not sure how to manually level the RV. Any help would be appreciated. THANK YOU! #cluelessRVowner
Congrats on your new-to-you RV! Check out this video for info on leveling without jacks: ua-cam.com/video/dnH3ZQEEyWY/v-deo.html
Really like your channel, please keep the vids coming, have learned a lot from watching your channel.
great video for a noob
Once you serv on a us warship who need leveling.
I'm going to be so ready . . . . not . . LOL
Perfect!
James Taylor’s song
Whats the crush limits.. No one shows that..??
Your RV is in the 40k... so lets say each has to hold 10k... are they rate at 15k?? Other wise they will crush in the summer sun.. Always happens.. They get hot and melt and the RV drops on one side..
We weight 19 tons - 38,000 lbs, with approximately 14,000 lbs of that weight on the front axle, and 24,000 at the rear.... so about 12,000 lbs on each rear jack. We have used these jack pads in summer sun and heat for years and they absolutely do not soften, crush, or deform in any way. We don't know what they're made of, but they still are like new after many years of fairly hard use (we're full-time... for nearly 17 years).
earth is flat and level
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