Levelling the caravan
Hi all
when levelling the caravan should I drive the caravan forward or reverse on to the chock ?
Bit confused about the braking mesh of the caravan, I thought that you should reverse so as the brakes are working correctly, but I heard different.
Any help in this matter would be great
thanks Gary
Comments
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Personally I would reverse on to leveling ramps as the hand brake will engage almost immediately, pulling the van onto the ramps the van will roll back a couple of inches before the brake engages.
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Hope you are not confused by the different responses.
in our experience, if there are two people it is better to pull forward onto the ramp. The driver keeps their foot on the foot brake while the second person checks the side-to-side spirit level, and puts a chock behind the wheel before the driver applies the handbrake, so that the caravan doesn’t slip down the levelling ramp.
You can then unhitch and level up front to back with the jockey wheel.
Then put the legs down.
Hope that helps. (We don’t have a motor mover, but DO have 30 years practice including 11 years as wardens...and we also manage to line up our Alko lock at the same time...not bragging or anything!)
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Although we’ve tried ramps, we’ve never found them as easy as 1,2 or 3 boards stacked. At just over 1” thick for each board your levelling should never be more than .5” out. A bit of care to place your wheels in high/low points on the pitch helps, as does a garden trowel for adding/ reducing gravel height on hardstandings. Understanding how much lift you are getting from a ramp, from the driving seat of a tow vehicle, is harder than estimating the thickness needed from a board stack from the position of a spirit level bubble. Or at least it is for us.
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Current van the mover clears the ramp. The previous van it didn’t which made the decision for us. Currently sometimes we pull onto the ramp and sometimes we reverse. Sometimes there is a good reason for the choice but normally it’s random. Not sure about line up the Alko lock. In my experience you can have a level van or a wheel lock aligned but not both. If you decide to jack the van up to line up the lock. Leave the van hitched as it stabilises the van.
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We used cut down thick planks, maximum of two under one wheel. If you reverse onto ramps the caravan towing socket assembly compresses slightly then expands when you unhitch and can touch the car so I always found it better to move slightly forward before unhitching.
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I went on the Caravan Club training course, they said you should reverse on so the caravan will try to roll forward which works with the breaks.
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Rather than reverse and have to feel when the braking system is in reverse mode,
it was a lot easier to pull the caravan up the ramp(s) , brake the caravan and chock it. Release the hitch, and raise the tow hitch, drive the car away and adjust the fore / aft pitch.
of course, modern motor movers make a mockery of the old ways;-)
you can get graduated spirit levels, so that with a little bit of practice, you can immediately tell that you need one side X higher than the other, twist the level through 90 degrees and you know how much fore n aft level needed.
stabilisers down , gas on , electric on , kettle on. Job done
Rgds
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I use a levelling device made by Milenco, it sits around the wheel on the side to be lifted/levelled and you ratchet it until you get the caravan level plus this means I can level the caravan on my own and it does not interfere with Al-Ko wheel lock, it is expensive but I have had mine for 6 years now and feel it was money well spent. Hope this helps.
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We did all that back and fourth stuff first year of caravaning, but now have a Lock n Level system SO Easy! just look at this video link!..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7GejeQPweU
Once you use one, ramps and blocks are a thing of history!
Trust me when I say its so easy to use and store and works every time!
happy vanning
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Forward or reverse, it depends on the pitch and how I feel on the day, it's just not worth thinking about as long as it's made safe when raised.
All these gizmo's are fine if that's what you want, but a few blocks of wood is a tried and tested alternative and a few minutes here and there won't bother me in setting up.
Much prefer something solid under the wheels and not an inflated bag that may puncture or deflate leaving undue weight on the steadies.
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One of the first bits of kit we bought was a set of ramps - used then about twice - was recommend some planks to use and found them much easier although over time these will sink in to soft ground so adjusting needs to happen which you'd do in any case.
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Lock’n’ Level is by far the best levelling system I’ve found, yes it costs more but by goodness it’s worth it. I went through this thread and was amazed to find the fist mention of the L&L was well into it. The L&L gets your van bang on every time and it’s sooo easy to use. Levelling used to be a pain in the ass but not now- it’s a breeze.
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For years I have used a wooden wedge from “0” at its point and “3” in height at the other end...Length of the wedge is “15”....Pull forwards up the wedge and a wheel chalk to put in behind When spirit level, side to side, shows level...Hold with foot brake, insert chalk,and pull on caravan handbrake
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Totally agree Merve. Best bit of kit I have bought and have used it constantly for the last three years - van sits on it on the drive at home. Mainly got it to facilitate the fitting of both wheel locks on a TA but levelling - especially on soft ground, (we tend to use mainly CLs and CS's) is both safe and simple.
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Hello,
I have and use
http://www.milenco.com/products/levelling/aluminium-leveller
I bought it off Gumtree, it was practically brand new.
I am kinda new to caravanning and I have tried different heights in planks, ramps and so on but the Milenco leveller will save you a lot of time and effort in terms of backwards and forwards.
Honest review... Fantastic bit of kit, easy to use too.
StarGazzy.
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Yes we have one and if you want easy(ish) and accurate side to side levelling this does it perfectly.
We don't use it as much nowsdays for short breaks but used it a lot when we would be two weeks plus on one site .
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yes fully agree there
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Why not use the mover if you've got one. Get level, handbrake on, fit chock, corner steadies down, disengage mover last. No opportunity for van to roll. Also gives you chance to line up wheel lock without leaping in and out of the car, especially if solo.
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