I might have it figured out: I used it again and this time I leveled it by putting the front jacks down first instead of the rear first (the manual does say this, but I didn't think it would matter). When I do that it seems only the front jacks go down, not the rears.
Perhaps if you do the rears first it puts the front ones down as well to prevent you from lifting the rear wheels off and then having the coach roll? I am not sure since I only have one example to work with. I have to do more experimentation, but when setting up camp no one wants to watch me play with the leveling system
I will look at the manual valve procedure as well, that is a great suggestion.
With the yellow blocks the jacks do have to travel further, but it should be closer to level and lifting the coach less, thus minimizing the chances of having the wheels off the ground, right?
Some people do seem to really like the autolevel and some hate it. I just know that the first time I used it the results were all of the wheels off the ground and it scared the heck out of me. I imagine people's opinions are shaped by what kinds of sites they are in. Personally we are boondocking 90% of the time (and full-time) so we aren't always starting with the best sites.