Rear Wheels in the air, is it OK?

[Hansville]

Hello All,
I am at a new camp site here in Austin TX and it is not level. Had to set down the rear levelers so much that it lifted the rear tires on my Diplomat about 6 inches in the air. Is it OK not to have blocking under the rear tires? Will this bend the frame? I set the tires back down until I get some answers to my question as it really makes me nervous to see my rear tires up in the air. Thanks

[arby]

Absolutely NOT OK!. Parking brake is on rear wheels only so once they get off the ground motor home will move and bend the jacks. Also, with that extreme leveling you may pop out or crack windshield.

[ShapeShifter]

You really don't want to lift the rear wheels off of the ground. Those are the wheels that are locked by the parking brake, and are the only things stopping you from rolling. With the rear wheels off the ground, the only thing keeping you in place is the friction between the jacks and the ground -- if the site is so unlevel that you have to raise the wheels that high, then it's unlevel enough for the jacks to slide on the ground. This sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

You really should put some blocking under those rear wheels so that they are still supporting some significant weight, in order to help keep you in position. And when supporting them, it's important that the rubber be fully supported, without having part of the tire hanging over the edge of the blocking.

If it were me, I would try to reposition the coach to make it more level, or ask for another site. Failing that, I would definitely build up some blocking under those rear wheels.

When you set up, did you fully deflate the air bags to get the front as low as possible? Also, if you just hit the automatic level button, maybe you'll have better luck with manual leveling? When I'm faced with very sloped sites, I find I can do much better with the manual controls than with the automatic mode.

[TXiceman]

Like noted above, get some blocks under the rear tires and let them carry a lot of the weight. Your emergency brakes are only on the rear wheels.

Ken

[NLOVNIT]

Can you switch to a level site? If the site is that far off, I'd be asking for a new site.

Lori-

[pipedream2]

First off
The rear axle and cartage is now being supported by the shocks only.
Secondly Even when not off the ground and the rear axle supports only the weight of itself....around 1800 lbs......if the bags are blown down and levelers are down they support the entire coach weight except the front and rear axles and wheels..putting blocking under wheels carries no coach weight unless the bags are inflated....which they cant be, if your above the normal ride hight.....BUT raising wheels off the ground and hanging them on the shocks is never a good idea.
Think about it

[Hansville]

Thanks for the feedback. I was limited to site selection since I am a host here for 2 months and have been assigned a site. I did go out and get some blocks since it is not good to have wheels up in the air. I just wanted to confirm my thoughts with the Monaco community. I feel better being blocked up.

[LewF]

Hansville, did you level in Auto? Is all the air dumped before you leveled? Important questions because auto leveling can level the coach way too high and if you try to level without dumping the air to set the chassis down on the suspension trusses that even makes the situation worse. Everyone else has correctly pointed out that lifting the rear wheels off the ground is VERY BAD because they are the coach parking brakes.

After bad experience with Automatic leveling, it lifted the rear wheels off the ground like you have experienced, on our past 2007 Endeavor we only leveled in manual. Then only after fully dumping the coach air system, below 30 psi, and then using the air dump valves to dump the suspension air. I would make sure the coach was supported fully by the three jacks, look to make sure they are all contacting the ground, and stable and if I couldn't get it fully level without taking it too high then I would leave it as close as I could get. We were never so far off level that it caused a problem and we camped in some pretty non-level sites.

Our experience, which may be helpful.

Lew

[Hansville]

Thanks, I did not dump the air and I probably should have dumped before leveling. I am level now with the blocking.

[Rayhough]

Easyest solution is to turn around in the site, that is if you have enough electric cable and hose.

[dajudge]

Raising back wheels not a good idea. As several posts stated, the parking brake only on back wheels. I did that one time, and mh rolled forward and almost hit my toad, which was parked in front of mh.

[pipedream2]

dajudge
How did your coach "roll"forward on leveling jacks.....just wandering here
.Also an air spring coach is a different dynamic than one with steel springs.If your jacks "fell over" you have a bigger problem than just getting level ....i believe