Do you find yourself sliding out of bed every night during a vacation in your camper? Many people are intimidated by the idea of levelling a travel trailer, but it’s really a simple process that’ll make a huge difference in your camping comfort. This guide from Wisconsin RV world will help you out, but if you have any other questions, feel free to stop by our dealership, serving the areas of Deforest, madison, Green Bay, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Pick your Spot Carefully
You don’t want to make your life more difficult by parking on bumpy, sloped ground. If there are plenty of sites to choose from, pick one that has the flattest parking spot, and find the perfect area on that campsite where you only have to do minimal levelling.
Lateral Levelling
The first step in getting your trailer even is getting it balanced from side-to-side. To measure this, take your level and aim it laterally, so it’s facing the right and left sides of your camper. Whichever way the bubble leans shows which side is too low, so all tires on that side need to be raised. To do this, you’ll need some boards or, preferably, levelling blocks. First, park in the exact area you want your travel trailer to rest, and set a marker by the tires that need to be raised. Then, back your RV up, set the blocks in place, and move the trailer back into position. At this point, check your level again, and if the side’s still too low, repeat the process with subsequent blocks until you get it where it needs to be. Once you have the level just right, you don’t want your trailer to slide off the blocks, so put chocks behind the wheels. Then you can unhitch from the trailer, which includes taking off the tow chains and wiring harness. After all this is done, move your tow vehicle out of the way so you can start levelling from front to back.
Front to Back Balance
Now for the easy part: levelling front to back. To do this, all you need to do is put your level on the trailer’s tongue and aim it towards the front. Once again, whichever way the bubble moves indicate which side needs to be raise, and you can lift each side by simply raising or lowering your trailer’s jack until the bubble centers on the bar.
Securing your Position
Now that the trailer level from front to back and side-to-side, you’re ready for comfortable vacationing, right? Not quite. You still have to secure everything in place with your landing gear, also known as stabilizers, to ensure the jack won’t give out while someone’s inside the camper. These stabilizers are in each corner of the RV, and can be extended down to the ground with a hand crank after everything’s in place. Note: do not attempt to get the travel trailer level by simply using the hand crank and landing gear. These stabilizers are designed to hold an RV in place, not to lift thousands of pounds off the ground. Attempting to level this way is dangerous and will seriously damage your RV, so please take the extra time to level your trailer properly.
This guide will help anyone out who doesn’t have a hydraulic levelling system in their trailer. Sure it’s a little extra work to do it yourself, but you’ll feel pretty gratified the first time you level your trailer properly. The family will appreciate it too, since nobody likes strapping up with hiking gear just to walk from the kitchen to the bathroom. If you have any other questions, or just want to look at our new models of travel trailers, campers or other RVs, stop by Wisconsin RV World, serving Northern Wisconsin, Western Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Rapids. We also help RV enthusiasts from Milwaukee, so don’t hesitate to stop by!
