Leveling Extreme Slope

[SlowCruising]

Good Morning!

We just purchased a 2017 Newmar Ventana 4369. We are in what appears to be a slightly unlevel site. When we go to level, the front passenger tire slightly lifts off the ground and the auto leveling system is telling us that we are in an extreme slope.

We have tried putting blocks under the levelers and riding onto blocks to raise the tires, but we get the same response.

What can we do? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Colleen

[Jim_HiTek]

Why do you feel you need to do anything?

If it's only one front tire off the ground, and only slightly, but you're pretty much level, just turn off the key and ignore it. (The beeper doesn't keep beeping with the key off does it)?

I'd just set it, relax, sit in my easy chair and read the User's Guide though.

[Dutch Star Don]

"SlowCruising".....there will be times when the coach leveling system just can't overcome the unlevel condition and the jacks will stop, and you'll get an "Excessive Slope" light. At the same time, you should be getting one or two red lights on the jack panel, indicating which side is too low.

Some things you can do......first, as the leveling system tries to level, let's say the coach is low on the driver's side, it will lift the driver's side and then switch to the passenger side to finish leveling. It will keep working at leveling until it runs out of extension. However, as it does this, it may over lift one side and then adjust to correct with the other jacks. It can do this a few times. The problem......the jacks only LIFT to correct, they never LOWER to correct.

On occasion, my coach may have worked both sides too many times and now the "Excessive Slope" light is on, and the coach is still not level. If I suspect this has occurred, I will MANUALLY lower the side I believe lifted too much and then hit "Auto Level" again. Often this will solve the issue and the coach will finish leveling.

If the site is way out of level, you may have to do what you tried to get it level. You have to level the coach like it doesn't have auto leveling, using blocks under the wheels, until it's within the capabilities of the leveling system. Once you have the blocks in place, you need to match the height of the corner raised with a block under the jack. So, if you lifted the front right tire 4" you should put a 4" block under that jack. The reason for this rule, is so that you never place more height under a rear jack than you placed under a rear tire and lift the rear off of the ground losing your parking brake. Once it's all blocked up and the coach is WITHIN its leveling ability, it will Auto Level.

As you get more comfortable with the coach, you'll soon learn how far it can lift and the sites where you won't be able to get level. I find, MAYBE, once a year that I need to use some blocking.

Even without having to block the tires/jacks, you'll find sites where the front is lower than the rear and when the coach gets level, it leaves the front steps about a foot above the ground. You'll need a folding step you can pull out and use in that situation.

Lastly, I only carry three ramps and two blocks for the jacks. If the front of the coach is low, I place a ramp under both fronts and blocks under both front jacks. If the two fronts are low and one side, I place ramps under the front two tires and one ramp under the inside dual. You'll never need to lift more than three corners. My ramps are a 24" long x 2" thick x 8" wide board with a 12" long piece on top. If I come across a site that needs more than that, I move or don't try to get totally level, it's too hard on the chassis and slides.

[gatorcq]

I never let tires off the ground. Asking for frame issues, slide problems.

[chuckftboy]

When I've been in that situation, I use manual leveling. If the front is low, I raise the frontup level and leave the rear tires on the ground. Sometime I use one or both rears to just stablize the coach.

[jacwjames]

What kind of leveling system do you have.



Some friends of ours have a Outlaw with a the Lippert leveling system. They came to our house and tried to level on a slight slope (one that I could leveled our coach using manual levers).

I watched them try to level and the coach was jumping all over the place. Seemed like the logic that the controller used didn't try to start from the high spot and level the rest of the coach. It lifted the wrong corner and made it much more difficult to achieve level. The coach jumped all over the place before it stopped. The next day they tried it again and it ended up worse.

So I got on line and started to do some searching and found that this type of system had LOTS of complaints and in the end people just recommended using the manual leveling function. So we went out and tried that and got the coach pretty level and it was a lot lower.

There was a calibration sequence they could try but you have to be on a flat level surface to do it so we didn't try.

[JFXG]

Slow……. I don’t know who made your leveling system- HWH or Lippert- but… are you smarter than the cheapest designer they could afford to hire? Switch it into manual mode and life will get easier. My ‘02 Dutch Star has no auto-level but a minute is usually all it takes to pass the bathroom door test and start moving the slides out.
And crawling around putting blocks under the tires just so the auto level system can sorta work is nowhere on my to-do list!

[NCC-1701A]

I never use auto level. I always manually run the jacks because, as already stated, auto level will many times raise and raise and raise again trying to achieve level. Must be very primitive programming behind that algorithm! I find it easier to just run the jacks myself.

Like DSD, I carry some "ramp parts." Mine are 3/4" marine plywood cut to various lengths (bottoms are two feet long as this is about the max to fit between drive and tag. Tops are 1' long. One edge of each is a 45 degree bevel. Others are cut to lengths between to make the ramp as I need it. They are all 1' wide.

I don't like any wheels off the ground, but I will NEVER raise the rears off.

One comment is the longer the wheel base the more slope matters and even "slight" slopes can be quite negative when 20-25 feet of wheelbase is involved. I've been on sites that at first glance don't look too bad but it doesn't take a lot. We aren't usually on paved sites preferring county or regional parks and many of those weren't designed with giant buses in mind. So we might run into this issue more than some do.

[FIRE UP]

Leveling a coach in any given situation is what you make of it. Some folks are simply lazy and will park their coach at extreme angles. We've seen it many, many times. Some will lift the front wheels off the ground by as much as a foot!!!!!!! Seen that plenty of times. And we've seen coaches with the rears off the ground by several inches. What's important to some of us, like not breaking wind shields, damaging slide mechanisms, tweaking frames, over stressing jacks and mounts and a few other odds and ends, is NOT important to others.

Well, it's their coach. It's none of my business in telling people what not to do. They're all grownups. If they've made it this far in life to be able to own or at least are paying for motorhomes or travel trailers etc. but don't really care how they treat them, well, it ain't mine. We've seen plenty of bent jacks and jack mounts due to hap-hazardly stacking old 2"x4"s and cracked wood etc., even ROCKS we've seen under jacks.

I do whatever it takes to level our coach. That means I carry a small lumber yard with pre-made ramps and blocks. I use the auto level all the time if and when applicable. Our coach drops around 3" or so when the air is dumped and then the leveling system takes over. If I approach a camp site or RV park site that I know the auto leveling system will be over-taxed or won't work at all due to "Excessive Slope", I break out the ramps and blocks. If it's a dirt site, and I think it will work, I'll break out the shovel and dig where I have to dig so that my tires and wheels will do the primary leveling. Then the use of the Jacks will *fine tune* the leveling.

Yeah, it's sometimes a bit of work. BIG DEAL! It's our coach and I'M the one who has to fix it if I intentionally break something due to me being lazy. There's already enough for me to fix due to age, mileage and maintenance etc. I surely don't have to create more. If I have to drive up on my ramps to get a better approach to being level, then out comes the blocks that will go under the jacks to limit the down travel for them, so the coach is more stable.
Scott

[eddndee]

I always try to level the coach before I deploy the jacks, which I think of as stabilizers. If I had auto-levelers, I would probably still level manually…it’s easier.

[SlowCruising]

Thank you all! I truly appreciate all the thoughtful responses.

We bought some 2 x 12's and cut them to varying lengths. The beveling idea is good - thanks! We will be learning how to manual level. It seems to be the answer.

Thank you all!

Colleen

[Ray,IN]

The general rule for lifting the front wheels off the ground is particular to the type front end. A solid axle weighs much more than an independent front suspension.
The solid front axle chassis mfgrs. recommend not to lift wheels off the ground. The IFS chassis mfgrs say it is OK.

[MLA575]

Resurrectin an older topic... Can anyone describe the procedure for utilizing ramps to compensate for an extreme slope? Currently own a 2023 Jayco Alante with an EQ leveling system. Approaching our second year of RV'ing. So far, we have not encountered any extreme slopes but I am sure we will in time. With that being said, I have been trying to visualize and researching on how you proceed with doing such. I probably am making it more of an issue than it really is but just looking for some general guidance. Thank you in advance!

[alank]

This is the level I use to determine level.