Fifth Wheel is 41 feet long. Even gentle sloped campsites will make ground clearance considerably different between the front of the camper and the back. Question for 5er owners? How do you level (front to back) your 5er when the front is sloped excessively low (excessively low for your 5er... as a shorter 5er might not have this issues on the same site.
Definition: Campsite is sloped downhill, meaning the tail end of the camper is uphill, the front end of the camper is downhill. I have no problems when it's reversed.
Problem: When the campsite is sloped too much, the front landing gear will not extend far enough to bring the camper level front to back.
Problem: The front landing gear is close to the ground, and there is only so much lumber that can fit under the feet, but even fully extended, the front is still low.
The longer the trailer, the more pronounced this becomes.
We are currently camped at a state park in Indiana and for the 3rd time in the last year we've run into this situation. In about a month I'll be parked for a week on such a site as this again, so trying to get this figured out now.
Of course, the easy solution is just to leave the camper parked front downward and forget it. But I don't like that option.
I've rattled my brain for almost a year now, trying to come up with a solution. Once unhitched from the truck, you are pretty much at the mercy of the length of your landing gear jacks.
I have thought about ramps for the rear tires to back onto, this would initially raise the entire front of the 5er, but unhitching and hitching may be a real problem. Plus a 1 ton dualy with 3000 pounds of trailer over the rear axles, well, I don't think too many car ramps would support that type of weight.
I thought, maybe back the truck onto a stack of lumber under all 4 tires (well, 6 tires in my case), but that would require bringing along a LOT of lumber to raise the truck even 3 or 4 inches higher off the ground.
Then I thought of how I did this with our travel trailer and thought maybe one of those king pin tripods would work, and in theory, they would, if they could fully support 3000 pounds.
With our travel trailer when the front was sloped downhill, I'd raise the trailer as high as I could go with the tongue jack. Then I'd lower the front stablizer jacks all the way down and let the trailer rest on the jacks. Then raise the tongue jack and put put additional lumber under the tongue jack, then lower the tongue jack again on the higher stack of lumber. Now the stablizer jacks are completely off the ground, so they will also need lumber under them to stablize too. But the entire camper is now level front to back. To hitch, this process is reversed.
With a 5er, the tripod could support the king pin, then the front landing gear jacks could be retracted and more lumber put under the feet. Then the landing gear could be extended again and bring the 5er level. To hitch, the process would be reversed.
The only problem is finding a king pin tripod that is stout enough to support approximately 3000 pounds.
So, the question is, how do you do it when the front landing gear simply doesn't extend long enough?
FYI, here's a couple photos of where we are currently camped. The front is still slightly downhill, but the front landing gear is extended as far as it will go, and ... my 6 point leveling system is currently in an error because they are hyper extended right now.
How do you do it? Or do you just leave the camper nose down and unlevel?
FYI, the motor home behind us is parked on a similar slope. He looks to be about 35 feet long, and the front tires are off the ground. His front hydraulic jacks are extended too.
Definition: Campsite is sloped downhill, meaning the tail end of the camper is uphill, the front end of the camper is downhill. I have no problems when it's reversed.
Problem: When the campsite is sloped too much, the front landing gear will not extend far enough to bring the camper level front to back.
Problem: The front landing gear is close to the ground, and there is only so much lumber that can fit under the feet, but even fully extended, the front is still low.
The longer the trailer, the more pronounced this becomes.
We are currently camped at a state park in Indiana and for the 3rd time in the last year we've run into this situation. In about a month I'll be parked for a week on such a site as this again, so trying to get this figured out now.
Of course, the easy solution is just to leave the camper parked front downward and forget it. But I don't like that option.
I've rattled my brain for almost a year now, trying to come up with a solution. Once unhitched from the truck, you are pretty much at the mercy of the length of your landing gear jacks.
I have thought about ramps for the rear tires to back onto, this would initially raise the entire front of the 5er, but unhitching and hitching may be a real problem. Plus a 1 ton dualy with 3000 pounds of trailer over the rear axles, well, I don't think too many car ramps would support that type of weight.
I thought, maybe back the truck onto a stack of lumber under all 4 tires (well, 6 tires in my case), but that would require bringing along a LOT of lumber to raise the truck even 3 or 4 inches higher off the ground.
Then I thought of how I did this with our travel trailer and thought maybe one of those king pin tripods would work, and in theory, they would, if they could fully support 3000 pounds.
With our travel trailer when the front was sloped downhill, I'd raise the trailer as high as I could go with the tongue jack. Then I'd lower the front stablizer jacks all the way down and let the trailer rest on the jacks. Then raise the tongue jack and put put additional lumber under the tongue jack, then lower the tongue jack again on the higher stack of lumber. Now the stablizer jacks are completely off the ground, so they will also need lumber under them to stablize too. But the entire camper is now level front to back. To hitch, this process is reversed.
With a 5er, the tripod could support the king pin, then the front landing gear jacks could be retracted and more lumber put under the feet. Then the landing gear could be extended again and bring the 5er level. To hitch, the process would be reversed.
The only problem is finding a king pin tripod that is stout enough to support approximately 3000 pounds.
So, the question is, how do you do it when the front landing gear simply doesn't extend long enough?
FYI, here's a couple photos of where we are currently camped. The front is still slightly downhill, but the front landing gear is extended as far as it will go, and ... my 6 point leveling system is currently in an error because they are hyper extended right now.
How do you do it? Or do you just leave the camper nose down and unlevel?
FYI, the motor home behind us is parked on a similar slope. He looks to be about 35 feet long, and the front tires are off the ground. His front hydraulic jacks are extended too.
Followup:
I followed Lantley's (post above) and purchased the jacks from Harbor Freight. I read the reviews on-line and the only thing negative about them was the weight and the price. After seeing them in the store, I had no problem with either weight or price. I purchased them... $99.99 with tax, $106.??
The first thing I did once home was to determine just exactly how much of an angle can my 5er take. So on flat ground, I manually raised the jacks until the completely stopped. Actually, they raised about 26 inches. I don't know why I couldn't get them to extend farther at the campground.
So now I know the limitations of the front landing gear. I even used black marker on the legs to indicate where level was in my drive way and marked the max extension. I'll probably go back and try to mark every 2 inches of extension, so I won't hyper extend again.
With that, (for practice purposes), I lowered the front again and this time rested the frame on the jacks. Doing this, it allows a lot more space or ground clearance from the ground to the bottom of the jack foot, allowing for quite a stack of lumber now, or the ability to extend the inserts several more inches.
On an incline, this will take care of my problem. Also, I have a nice cozy place to haul the new jack stands. They are now part of my permanent arsonal.
Once again, thanks everyone for your input. Everything is much appreciated. In about 3 weeks we'll be on a very unlevel site (front to back), so that will probably be the first real test of this endeavor.
I followed Lantley's (post above) and purchased the jacks from Harbor Freight. I read the reviews on-line and the only thing negative about them was the weight and the price. After seeing them in the store, I had no problem with either weight or price. I purchased them... $99.99 with tax, $106.??
The first thing I did once home was to determine just exactly how much of an angle can my 5er take. So on flat ground, I manually raised the jacks until the completely stopped. Actually, they raised about 26 inches. I don't know why I couldn't get them to extend farther at the campground.
So now I know the limitations of the front landing gear. I even used black marker on the legs to indicate where level was in my drive way and marked the max extension. I'll probably go back and try to mark every 2 inches of extension, so I won't hyper extend again.
With that, (for practice purposes), I lowered the front again and this time rested the frame on the jacks. Doing this, it allows a lot more space or ground clearance from the ground to the bottom of the jack foot, allowing for quite a stack of lumber now, or the ability to extend the inserts several more inches.
On an incline, this will take care of my problem. Also, I have a nice cozy place to haul the new jack stands. They are now part of my permanent arsonal.
Once again, thanks everyone for your input. Everything is much appreciated. In about 3 weeks we'll be on a very unlevel site (front to back), so that will probably be the first real test of this endeavor.
