Auto Level while attached to Truck

[Rangerbazz]

I am not sure if this is possible, but if we are traveling across the country and need to stop and want to sleep, it would be nice to be able to auto level for comfort. I tried this while attached to truck and it wanted to start by raising the front jacks, which were already raised and it tripped the breaker and restarted. Wondering if anyone has done this while attached? Maybe if the back was higher than front to start, then it would auto level? Could it mess up the hitch?

 

[cookie]

I can't even imagine doing auto-level while hitched up.
That hydraulic pump has a lot of power and I believe that you could do damage somewhere.
The beauty of the leveling system is it's ease. It only takes minutes to unhitch and hitch up so why not do it the correct way.
The following is taken from the Level-Up manual.

3. Push “FRONT BUTTON” to extend landing gear jacks and lift front of vehicle to take the weight
of the 5th wheel off of the hitch.
5. Pull tow vehicle away and park at a safe distance.

Peace
Dave

 

[Gaffer]

Don't do it. We extend the front jacks to stabilize the front and take some weight off the truck. You could also lightly ground the others if you wish but we don't for an overnighter.

 

[jmgratz]

We find it is just as easy to unhitch even if just overnight unless the rig is already level then we just put the front legs down to help stabilize it. Same with hooking up the sewer. Don't hook it up if just an overnight

 

[dbbls59]

We find it is just as easy to unhitch even if just overnight unless the rig is already level then we just put the front legs down to help stabilize it. Same with hooking up the sewer. Don't hook it up if just an overnight

I do this also. Once I hit auto level while hitched but the unit was almost level anyway. It leveled before I realized my mistake. I didn't think it should have leveled but it did.

 

[porthole]

Auto level starts the sequence expecting the landing gear to have already been deployed, e.g. off the truck. When you push "Auto" the first thing to happen is the landing gear starts to retract to, I was told from the engineer (Bob T.) that this is to give the system a baseline to start leveling.

So if you just hit auto-level you may just get an error, or a sequence of events that are not desirable.

Frequently when we make a 1 night stop, campground or other, I will use the manual mode, no reason why you can't level it some with the trailer connected to the truck. If you ever watched your control pad in manual mode you will see the display will give give some relative front to back and side to side info on out of level in degrees.

If the site is fairly level I'll just use all the jacks to give some stability.

If the site is not level I will use the jacks and try leveling without lifting the truck more then an inch or so. Keep in mind that you can lift your truck if you have a short bed and not loaded up. The jacks are rated at 15,000 pounds each, but the pump is not rated that high. Still, it has a lot of lift capacity.

In my case I don't really try and lift my truck, My hitch has about 4-6" of vertical travel.

 

[danemayer]

Lippert is adamant that you should not press AUTO Level when hitched. Reasons stated earlier explain some of the problems.

As suggested, manual leveling will do the job for you. Extend the front gear until the trailer is approximately level and then extend the rear gear to just take a little weight off the wheels. As you extend the front gear while hitched, you'll likely lift the body of the truck a little as the springs unload. Don't go too far. You can also do a little side-to-side leveling - how much is probably a function of how much side-to-side tilt your hitch will accommodate.

I'd be surprised if hitch designers built the hitches to survive the abnormal stresses your hydraulics could put on the hitch.

If you're off level so much that it's a problem, park somewhere more level.

 

[pegmikef]

It is simple. Don't do it.

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

If it where me I would do it on manual mode without any worry's, as long as the rig is close to level front to rear. "Don't use Auto-Level".

 

[JohnD]

I guess I've been extremely lucky over the years as don't think I've ever been in a campground where I couldn't get the trailer level side-to-side just by maneuvering the trailer in the site.

The only place I've ever had to use levels for side-to-side is in my side yard!

 

[Crumgater]

We unhitch, even for one-nighters. That has the added benefit of running the truck out to gas up and grab fresh donuts in the morning without taking the trailer through town.

 

[jmgratz]

We unhitch, even for one-nighters. That has the added benefit of running the truck out to gas up and grab fresh donuts in the morning without taking the trailer through town.

Amen to the fresh donuts..

 

[Oregon_Camper]

We unhitch, even for one-nighters. That has the added benefit of running the truck out to gas up and grab fresh donuts in the morning without taking the trailer through town.

 

[cookie]

View attachment 41903

Mmm, dohhhnuts.

Peace
Dave

 

[OEFVET]

I NEVER used the auto level while hitched but have used the manual mode several times for overnighters. It works very well.

 

[murry135]

My response to AUTO LKEVEL while hitched is Snap, crunch, tear, bang and OH S*^T.

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My response to AUTO LKEVEL while hitched is Snap, crunch, tear, bang and OH S*^T.