homemade electric leveling system

[brians1969]

Sent: 8/11/2006 5:05 PM

I was just at Walmart and I saw (for $54.00) an electric 1 ton scissor jack for jacking up your car. It even had a remote(corded NOT cordless) for making go up and down. Wouldn't it be neat to mount 4 on the Winnie, and run all the wires in to a central joystick? Any thoughts, folks? I assume 4 1 ton jacks would be sufficient for leveling.

brian

[Oz]

Sent: 8/11/2006 7:01 PM


They might be if you just need an inch or two... maybe three on a corner, but one ton jacks, especially with an electric motor... well, I don't know if I'd bust $200 for the set.  I don't know how much stress those electric motors could take and for how long.  I guess it would take a trial test to see.  You could get one and run it up and down like 50 times.. say up to 4" or up to as far as it will lift.  If it holds up, get the other 3... you just might have discovered a great, comparitively inexpensive leveling alternative...  if it doesn't hold up or provide enough lift... get your money back.  Sounds like a viable plan to me.

[brians1969]

Sent: 8/12/2006 5:32 AM

Where do I mount them?
What do I use to extend them to the ground?
thanks!
brian

[Oz]

Sent: 8/12/2006 6:49 PM

Mount them directly to the chassis frame, behind the rear wheels... this is the easiest.  The front may be harder to find a spot to mount them because of the leaf springs... but closest to the front as possible without bending the bumper mounts.  You should be able to use 2 squared U bolts each to mount them to the frame.

If they are electric, they should extend using the motor.  The big issue is, how tall do they extend?  You may have to stack several boards on the ground in order to get them to even reach the ground... and since I'm guessing these were designed for cars, they are likely way too short without something like a piece of railroad tie size blocks of wood under each of them.

[brians1969]

Ok, 8 years later, I still have done nothing, so I'll ask the question again. Anybody doing any homemade leveling system? Something I have seen on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ELECTRIC-POWER-LIFT-TONGUE-JACK-12V-3500LBS-CAMPER-RV-TRAILER-LEVEL-ADJUSTABLE-/201153557597?hash=item2ed5afb45d:g:fkEAAOSw7NNT9Bpj&vxp=mtr

Do you think 4 of these would work? The unit is designed to level 3500 lbs. Thoughts?
brian

[Rickf1985]

My only concern would be sideways stability. There is no real way to keep a thin jack like that stable side to side so if you get say the front up to the point where the tires are not making a good solid contact then it could slide sideways and just bend the jacks over. And the ones you have linked are for mounting in the junction of a trailer tongue. I have no idea how you could mount that to a frame under an RV plus have all the height above the mount needed.

I had just thought about going with the scissors type with the battery powered drill attachment to run them up and down. Cheap and easy and if one breaks you have not lost a lot of money.
No matter what you will still have to block the wheels to get close to level before using anything like this because they are not going to lift a 12-14 thousand pound RV up in the air.

[brians1969]

It is not the design of a leveling system to raise a wheel off the ground. I do see what your what your saying though about the mounting. Each one (you would have 4) is rated for 3,500 lbs, so it should be well within it's capacity to raise 1-4 inches I would think.

[Rickf1985]

True, it would, but where would you find two feet above the frame anywhere to mount them? Or higher, they are going to stick down pretty far and you do not want the to catch on something while driving. Those things are about 36" long if I remember correctly.

[brians1969]

Hmmm...good point.  So we're back to scissor jacks again.

Here's a 2 ton one that would  replace my current scissor jack:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAR-TRUCK-TIRE-CHANGE-2-TON-ELECTRIC-SCISSOR-LIFT-JACK-AUTOMATIC-WRENCH-KIT-/351097340438?hash=item51bf084216:g:xQ0AAOSwyQtV56-C&vxp=mtr

[Rickf1985]

Get a plain scissors jack and a socket for your battery powered drill. Save yourself a ton of money.

[joanfenn]

That is all we use with our trailer, on both the jacks and the slide.  Battery powered drill and a socket.  Sometimes simple is best.

[DRMousseau]

On the ol' Winnebago Brave, I too jus used jacks and blocks. I intended to eventually get some heavy jack-stands (always quite useful), but never did.

Now, even the base weight of the Cruise Air II exceeds that of my heavily loaded Brave. It's jus no longer really practical for me to use jacks anymore. Where a 6-ton jack was fine for the Brave, it's now pretty much useless to me. I need 8-ton minimum, and would prefer 10-ton.

With plenty of storage space, I keep a l'il shovel and a small assortment of 2x material to drive up on, if I need a bit of leveling adjustment. This thing's pretty stiff, so it's not like there's any motion with movement inside. I tend to a very slight "list to starboard", to assist doors and water run,.. nothing real noticeable. If I were to put it up for long term, I'd likely block the frame to relieve all tires and suspension.

But it's my year-around home, and I could be moving it elsewhere at any given moment. The 2x block assortment affords me quick and easy leveling and minimizes the affects of soft ground too,... when necessary, they also serve other useful purposes such as a stable jack base and blocking.

Strange as it may seem to some,... I've been lugging 4 solid concrete "half-blocks"! I suppose they can serve for jack blocking too, if needed. But I think they would crack under the weight if not carefully placed. Mostly,... they are jus used side-by-side as my 16"x30" "entry porch"!!!

Such is the luxury of a small apartment w/basement storage!!! LoL!!!

[Rickf1985]

You see the price of those plastic legos!!!!!!!!!!!

[Oz]

So, after 8 years, the old school method is still the simplest way that works.  As I guess it would 8 years from now and 8 years from then and so on...

[DRMousseau]

LoL!!!
Yup,... as you noted, the "old school" K.I.S.S. methods are also dependable, year after year!!!

Placing and retrieving jacks, blocks and stands is a real pain and take time when settin up and takin down. I certainly understand the simplicity of pushin' a button,.... until simple problems arise!!! UGH!!!

My "drive-on" 2x blocks are about the simplest, and take jus moments to place and retrieve. I noticed that plastic stacking equivalents are now commercially available,... but some of us prefer "real" wood! LoL!!!

[sasktrini]

You see the price of those plastic legos!!!!!!!!!!!

I scored a set of plastic Legos at an RV show for pretty cheap.  lol

I'm new to this, but I understood that you don't want the stands to level you… rather you want to park as close to level as possible, and then stabilize the attitude of your coach with your stands, whether they are scissor jacks or whatever type… that's why I bought the Lego. 

Aren't they called "stabilizer" jacks, as opposed to 'lifting" jacks? Thoughts?

[Froggy1936]

Yes, There intended purpose is to steady the parked rig, And eliminate rocking and swaying if some body moves around wile others are trying to sleep etc.  (this is not a problem for single campers )  But like all things that offer a convenience they will be put into service to change tires etc . I purchased a new 18V drill motor to operate my frt sissor jacks But it will not lift the complete weight of the frt end . I have to use  my impact (110V ) to do that !

[sasktrini]

… and I almost spit coffee on my keyboard haha good one

[cosmic]

keep in mind i only have a D21 but i welded 4 scissor jacks to my frame. they were 3 1/2 ton jacks and i can lift the front end off the ground with a 440 under the hood.. but not with my crappy cordless drill. i have to use the cranker bar that came with them.
I try not to do this because of the stress on the frame but know in a pinch I can change a tire if need be.

[brians1969]

So I decided I'm going to do something rather than keep talking about it! I was able to get a few good deals on some Atwood leveleg system parts. This won't be quite "homemade", but as I start the work, I will provide more details and some photos.

[brians1969]

I finally got a few minutes to spend on this project.
Here are some of the parts:

This is the bracket that bolts to the frame.

[brians1969]

This bracket slides over the jack tube and bolts to the frame bracket. Both brackets have multiple holes to allow for different mounting heights.

[brians1969]

Here is a poor picture of the jack:

[brians1969]

Here is one mounted.

[LJ-TJ]

WOW! That's pretty neat. I don't want to hijack this thread but I was wondering if we have anything on the HWH 110 leveling system. Specifically an older system as I just found one on an old Classic 1975 Brave. I someone said it was a 110. She's looking pretty tough but I thought it might be worth trying to bring it back to life. Any help of direction would be very much appreciated. Thanks Hm?