My auto level education - Montana Owners Club

DonandBonnie · 06-04-2014, 01:33 AM

Our current campsite in Outdoor World in Williamsburg, VA is not level. When the auto level button was pushed the readout said something like angle to steep and would not level. After scratching my so-called head for a few, I figured my only alternative was to level manually, which is almost as easy as the auto level. After manually reducing the angle on both settings, side to side and front to back near level, we pushed the auto level to see what would happen. It worked. Now we know that all we have to do is get near level for the auto level to work.

We didn't realize how uneven the site was until we did a walk around after leveling. The jacks on the high side were extended less than a foot. On the low side they are almost fully extended and the tires are about a half a foot off the ground. We blocked up the tires and settled in.

bullroc3 · 06-04-2014, 02:10 AM

Don - you may have to place blocks under the feet of the low side to "trick" into thinking that it hit solid ground if this ever happens again. Only thing is to be sure that it doesn't raise up too far to take the wheels off the ground. If you need to do that, keep it attached to the truck.

**DQDick** · 06-04-2014, 02:25 AM

I don't know, maybe we were just lucky, but we spent the whole winter of 2012 with the door side wheels completely off the ground and have done it several times in campgrounds. That's how we discovered one of our IS's had failed.

K0LCB · 06-04-2014, 02:27 AM

John, why would attaching the truck help if one side has wheels off the ground?

richfaa · 06-04-2014, 03:48 AM

We still carry a bag of those plastic blocks around and if we note on side is really not level we use the blocks under the leveling legs. It does not happen very often.

Irlpguy · 06-04-2014, 04:57 AM

In uneven campsites, block the pads on low side, block the wheels and chock them front and back... Do not attempt to auto level while hooked up to the truck, even manually I do not see how you could accomplish leveling while hooked up, if it is that out of level.

I am one who would always want some weight on the tires, but as DQDick indicated they can support for longer periods, just not what I would do.

H. John Kohl · 06-04-2014, 05:22 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by DonandBonnie

Our current campsite in Outdoor World in Williamsburg, VA is not level. When the auto level button was pushed the readout said something like angle to steep and would not level. After scratching my so-called head for a few, I figured my only alternative was to level manually, which is almost as easy as the auto level. After manually reducing the angle on both settings, side to side and front to back near level, we pushed the auto level to see what would happen. It worked. Now we know that all we have to do is get near level for the auto level to work.

We didn't realize how uneven the site was until we did a walk around after leveling. The jacks on the high side were extended less than a foot. On the low side they are almost fully extended and the tires are about a half a foot off the ground. We blocked up the tires and settled in.

Don and Bonnie,
Be sure to manually retract the rear legs before you try to raise the nose for hook up. If the side with the wheels off the ground has the cylinders fully extended there is no way the can accept nose raising. One MOC member had to replace a rear cylinder because he bent it under your situation.
Safe travels.

CORattler · 06-04-2014, 05:35 AM

All good info for newbies and experienced Level Up equipped RV owners. We get ours this coming May.

bullroc3 · 06-04-2014, 05:53 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by K0LCB

John, why would attaching the truck help if one side has wheels off the ground?

Safety and stability I would think. Maybe I am just too afraid of something happening. As I think about it, you should not auto-level while attached to the truck. The only time I had this happen was when we were swapping out the tires and we used the system to lift the tires to remove them. It gave me the "tilt" error when raising them MANUALLY not auto level. We placed blocks under the low side and problem solved.

bullroc3 · 06-04-2014, 05:55 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by K0LCB

John, why would attaching the truck help if one side has wheels off the ground?

Safety and stability I would think. Maybe I am just too cautious. I see that others have had the wheels off the ground. Maybe it is ok.

richfaa · 06-04-2014, 06:05 AM

I do not c are for wheels off the ground although Lippert s aid it would cause no problem. I also do not care for the jacks being extended to far.the unit seems more stable if they are not fully extended. We do leave the truck attached to the Montana on overnight stays but do not extend any jacks.

It is wise to get the truck out from under the Montana when doing any auto leveling. Bad things can happen.

bigskyjimmy · 06-04-2014, 06:17 AM

I'm with Rich on that one, being a fulltimer I have had my wheels off the ground on one side many times with no problems but prefer not too as like Rich said the jacks up too high makes for a less stable 5er now I block up the Low side

DonandBonnie · 06-04-2014, 06:38 AM

Once we saw that the wheels were raised, we did block them. When its time to hook up the wheels will remain blocked up, the rear jacks raised, and then the front lowered to match up with the hitch.

DonandBonnie · 06-04-2014, 06:56 AM

Also, you can't auto level with the truck hitched. In most cases the auto level tries to lower the front before starting to level. Hitched up it can't lower and will raise the front jacks off the ground and will give an error message. You also run the risk of falling off the hitch if the front jacks lift off the ground while your jaws are open.

scott-pati · 06-04-2014, 10:20 AM

I would never have the wheel or wheels off the ground for any extended length of time. There's no telling what damage can happen to the suspension and parts over the long haul.

If you had absolutely no choice, I would try and take some of weight off the suspension from hanging down by jacking up the axles and using supports. JMHO

snfexpress · 06-04-2014, 12:56 PM

We have MANUALLY leveled our 5er many, many times while still hooked to our TV. The key is to watch your king pin and how it relates to your hitch. If the king pin started to bind against the hitch, meaning that the 5er was raising the rear of our TV, then I would stop and lower.

As for one side or the other being off the ground, we have been in places where this happened and did not experience negative effects.

As a caution, when we have leveled and were still hooked up to our TV, I put this photo in front of the instrument cluster so I wouldn't pull out with the jacks down.

You may also like: