Level up overnight question

[hosssmith]

Do y'all unhook from your pickups when you level up for the night with a self leveling trailer? When we travel we are often lucky enough to land in a fairly level site and when that happens I have historically stayed hooked to the pick up in order to make a faster and easier getaway in the morning. The trailer might have had blocks under one side or I might have put the landing gear down to raise the nose slightly but I did all this while hooked to the pick up. This is the first RV I have had with the self leveling system on it and I am not knowing its limitations or full capabilities. We are setting off on our first adventure with the Montana 3725 and there will be a number of overnight stops along the way. Your advice will certainly be appreciated.

[1retired06]

With the LCI system there is an auto level and manual level capability. You must unhook to use the auto level function. If remaining hooked up, use the system manually per the instruction guide.

[Irlpguy]

In order for the self leveling to operate properly the unit will drop in the front lower than would be possible while still hooked to the truck, therefore you would have to disconnect to employ the self leveling option.

If you are level or very close to level do what you have always done and don't unhook. You can use the manual mode and if needed you can put all the jacks down to stabilize the unit for the night, if one side needs to be raised slightly you can do that manually as well, just don't do it to the extent you are lifting on the hitch and pin.

When we are driving from our home in Canada we stop overnight for up to five nights and only unhook if we need the truck that evening to get groceries or go out for supper, we use the manual mode however to stabilize the unit for the night.

Best thing since sliced bread in my opinion, you will love it when you have used it a few times. If you do unhook make sure the truck is well out from under the front of the trailer or you will not be pleased with damage to either or both units.

Enjoy your new unit and the benefits of the self/manual leveling system.

[Mudchief]

In the beginning I used the manual leveling and stayed hooked up. I now find it is faster to unhook pull forward a little and hit the auto level button.

[K0LCB]

I used the auto level feature many times without unhooking, I never had a problem, I always made sure the trailer was near level when I started

[jfaberna]

Unhooking and moving the TV forward 3' and pressing the Auto level is quicker than remembering how the manual level procedure works.

[JandC]

It is much faster for me to unhook and use auto level than to attempt to stay hooked up and try to manual level. But I was never a big fan of staying hooked up anyway. Even though it has not happened very often, there has been times in the middle of the night that you may need to have your TV available. For example, needing some type of medicine from a drug store due to sudden illness, tornado/storm sirens going off and no immediate shelter available at CG, etc....

[DQDick]

We don't even put the feet down if we're overnighting at a truck stop or rest area (it's bad manners to do so) unless, as at Sayre, OK this trip, we're getting 70mph wind gusts and then I do it manually.

[rmthelen]

We unhook, autolevel, put sliders out and enjoy our home.

[jlb27537]

On a couple of times we were off level side to side OK front to back. connected to the truck. Used the manual feature and extended the rear jacks to level. Worked fine. Next morning raised jacks on low side first and went to raise other side and got the message not level and jacks would not retract. After much messing with it finally took it out of manual mode and hit retract all in the auto mode. That worked.

It kinda has a mind of it's own some time and manual will always get them down. Manual will not always get them up.

Remember, all Poodles are dogs, all Dogs are not Poodles.

[Recumbent]

When traveling as you have stated we stay hooked up and do Manual leveling. Have not yet read other replies, but I recommend being careful to only slightly lift the truck bed after the trailer load is lifted off. Just watch your minus and plus read out for all directions while lifting the rig manually and you can get very near or maybe even exactly level by doing so. We unplug from truck and hang the pig-tail out over the tailgate. All this works great for us with the added benefit of slightly less movement of trailer if doing laundry. In the morning you can do Auto Retract and plug up and after visually checking you are good to go.