Doesn't look safe

[halfprice]

While doing my daily walk through the neighborhood I saw this

Front tires at least a foot off the ground. I know i would never do thus

Jerry

[16ACE27]

Must be running the fridge

[jannnda]

Originally Posted by halfprice

While doing my daily walk through the neighborhood I saw this

Front tires at least a foot off the ground. I know i would never do thus

JerryAttachment 24971Attachment 24972

Maybe they new to the MH world? That looks really bad.

[halfprice]

Its been like that for a week

[EA37TS]

I’ll wager there is more surface area in contact with the grounds then there would be with tires only touching.

[halfprice]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Must be running the fridge

Level with blocks not the jacks

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by halfprice

Level with blocks not the jacks

Then why have leveling jacks? Unless there' an earthquake over there that RV is not going anywhere. It looks strange and may appear unsafe, but it's OK.

[Lt Keefer]

My owners manual says not to do that.

[greenfield3]

Years ago when my Mom and Dad would visit with their Class C in my inclining driveway they also used blocks to level the rig with elevated wheels. They never experienced any problems. But I agree it looks unsafe.

[EA37TS]

Something interesting that I just learned about my coach while responding to this thread.

I just looked in my owner's manual and it says don't lift the wheels off the ground. No surprise there.

The interesting part and I quote:

"Note: All slide-out rooms should be fully extended prior to leveling the motorhome; rooms out, jacks down. Raise the jacks before retracting the slide-out rooms."

Now, I have the Equalizer Systems EQ Smart Level System which is different than the Lippert system that was in the Challenger.

Amazing what you learn when you read the owners manual.

[gmc]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

Something interesting that I just learned about my coach while responding to this thread.



I just looked in my owner's manual and it says don't lift the wheels off the ground. No surprise there.



The interesting part and I quote:



"Note: All slide-out rooms should be fully extended prior to leveling the motorhome; rooms out, jacks down. Raise the jacks before retracting the slide-out rooms."



Now, I have the Equalizer Systems EQ Smart Level System which is different than the Lippert system that was in the Challenger.



Amazing what you learn when you read the owners manual.

My manual says not to raise *ALL* wheels off the ground... no such warning about one or a pair.
Also stickers clearly say not to operate slides if not level.

Do I try to avoid having wheels off ground? Sure...
But do I sweat it if I need to? Nope... not at all.

My last sticks/bricks, my last RV would run fridge fine in driveway... current rig needed wheels lifted to do same. No way I would try to drive up on blocks that high. Much safer to use jacks in my opinion. They support most of the rig weight as soon as they start lifting.

One of those ‘religious’ arguments you won’t get consensus on.

[JamieGeek]

Not going to argue either way as I don't have Jacks but our driveway is just as bad requring me to lift the front at least 6" to get the fridge to run correctly.

I keep a pair of these RhinoRamps (Amazon) in the garage for just this purpose. They are exactly the right height for us to run the fridge (and at 16k lbs max capacity are easily capable of handling our 12k RV).

[Bob Denman]

As long as the rear tires are solid on the ground (making the parking brakes a part of the game...): it's not the big deal that it looks like...
(IMHO)

[Judge]

I agree with Bob and other posts with similar sediment. The rear tires need to main rain contact to help keep the coach from drifting on a grade with the parking brake set and transmission in park.

With my SnapPads I definitely have more surface area in the ground than what the tires provide.

The reason the say don’t lift the tires off the ground is all about liability. If the hydraulics fail and the coach starts to drop, they don’t want someone’s foot to be under the tires.

If my front tires are off the ground, I put a block or two of wood under them just in case there would be a problem with the hydraulic.

[LandKO]

At our current camp location, to maintain level, the front tires are barely off the ground.

We’ve camped overnight at other locations where the front tires have been a couple of inches off the ground. IMHO, this is ok for a few days, but for long term, I agree that blocks or ramps should be used.
I use Anderson ramps when the MH is parked at home.

[Chance]

The real issue in my opinion is that these light-duty jacks are not strong enough to handle lateral forces at ground when parked on incline, particularly since they would be near full extension. When designed for it, much larger vehicles like mobile cranes and power-company trucks are jacked off the ground safely.

Even if all wheels were jacked off ground, why would pads slide? There is plenty of friction between steel and concrete or pavement to keep motorhome from “sliding” down the driveway. The coefficient of friction may be a little lower than a rubber tire, but we’re only talking about a slope of few percent.

There is nothing inherently wrong with jacking wheels off ground if jacks are designed for it, but in this case they are not. Owner is taking a risk that a jack may bend, collapse, or damage attachment point at frame.

In my opinion it pays to not commingle issues. Just because jacks are not designed for it in this case, it doesn’t mean the act of jacking tires off the ground in itself is inherently unsafe because of some other imagined issue.

If instructions say not to jack off ground, best not to do it; regardless of whether we know the correct reason or not.

[halfprice]

Bottom line for me ill never lift a tire off the ground. I dont think its safe. I'll use the yellow leveling pads, reposition, or change sites before I lifting a tire. But thats me. Do what you feel is best for you

Jerry

[Bob Denman]

We all have to use our own common sense; in order to decide these things...
The only wrong answers are when we violate our own personal boundaries.

[Judge]

Agreed Bob....

In many cases the Levelers are carrying the bulk of the coach weight after leveling.

When you see the suspension extended to the max and large gaps in the wheel wells, the Levelers have 90% or more of the coach weight in these instances.

With my SnapPads installed, I have ~144 square inches on the ground per Leveler for a pretty stable foot print when leveled.

If I was in a space where there was a significant incline one way or another, I would be repositioning or moving to another space if my jacks had to be extended to the max to deal with it.

Current I am on a fairly level space but my front wheels are just barely off the ground. I can guarantee I have as solid foothold on thee ground as a result of the SnapPads being used as I would if the tires where carrying all of the load.

[TurnerFam]

the instance levelers start lifting the coach, they are already carrying the bulk of the weight, regardless of how 'high' they eventually lift it.... 'safe' is a relative term - this is not necessarily an 'unsafe' situation, otherwise levelers would not be 'allowed' to lift wheels off the ground.