Safely Leveling Your RV - What to Know

When you take your RV or motorhome out for a trip, making sure you are level when you park is very important. Obviously you don’t want the discomfort of having your feet above your head when you’re sleeping, or have to deal with constantly rolling into the wall a night. The idea of all of your food rolling off the countertops when you’re trying to cook probably doesn’t sound too great either. RV leveling is not only going to prevent those issues, it’s necessary for your RV or motorhome to function properly as well.
Some appliances within your motorhome or RV need to be level due to their design. Refrigerators, for example, have a cooling system that is based on liquids inside the coils (typically liquid ammonia) being able to flow downward. Without proper leveling, this can’t happen and your cooling system may not work as efficiently as it is supposed to or even work at all. To ensure your RV leveling is done properly, whether you have jacks or just your wheels for leveling, here’s what you need to know:

Proper RV Leveling Pads Are Essential
When it comes to RV parts and accessories, none may be as important as your RV leveling pads. These are the pads that either go under the wheel of your vehicle when you park or work as a jackpad to sit under your jack if you have an automatic leveling system.
There are a few reasons RV leveling pads are important. If you are parking in an area with loose terrain, your wheels or jacks may sink into the ground. As time passes while you’re parked and you begin to sink into the ground, you will start to become unleveled and you can even end up getting stuck where you parked as you try to leave. Using an outrigger pad gives you a wide, sturdy surface that prevents your vehicle from sinking into the ground.
Additionally, RV leveling pads are easily stacked which make them ideal for leveling your motorhome if you do not have a hydraulic jack system. This allows you to easily adjust your vehicle to the perfect height no matter what kind of terrain you are in or how much of a slope you are dealing with.
Remember that the quality and type of RV leveling jackpad you have is something you need to watch for. Using a synthetic outrigger pad such as ours gives you a lot of strength in a single pad so you don’t have to worry about it cracking while being extremely lightweight. It’s not advisable to use treated wood for your stability pads as they can retain moisture, crack under extreme temperatures, and cause splinters when they fracture.

How To Level Your RV With Blocks The Right Way
If you have an automatic leveling system with a jack or multiple jacks, making sure you use a synthetic outrigger pad is still important. You want to make sure that your jack is perfectly centered on the jackpad, directly below your hydraulic jack so it sits evenly and eliminates any possible slippage.

If you don’t have any type of jack for your RV or motorhome, driving onto the RV leveling pads will allow you to level out your vehicle quite easily. Not sure how to do that? Here is how to level your RV on pads in 5 simple steps to guarantee safety:
Determine where you want to park your RV and park about 2-3 feet away from that point (this may differ slightly depending on the size of RV leveling blocks you have).
Set the parking brake and turn off your RV or motorhome so it doesn’t move at all.
Figure out which tires need blocks underneath them and how many of each you will need. You may need to adjust things your first few tries, but as you get more experience RVing you will quickly be able to gauge this by eye.
Place your blocks against the tire in the direction that you will be driving onto them, either at the front or the back. If you have to stack multiple blocks on top of each other it’s best that the pads are slightly offset so your motorhome can easily roll onto them.
Start up your RV and release the parking brake. Putting your motorhome in gear will let you idle speed up the ramp blocks very slowly and safely. Make sure you stop exactly when your tires are over the center of the RV leveling pads.

That’s it. Just check to see if you are level and put your vehicle in park and set the parking brake if so. If you still aren’t level, back off the blocks and adjust as necessary.
Remember, safety is a very important issue when leveling your vehicle. It’s absolutely imperative that you have high quality pads under your jacks or your wheels when parked and leveled. Our pads are designed to be as strong as steel at just a fraction of the weight, so you don’t have to worry about them cracking underneath you.

The blocks are also wide enough that they keep the weight of your wheels evenly distributed. If you use wood to level your RV and it’s too thin, it could damage the exterior walls of your tires which could cause them to blow out while you drive. With our jackpads and RV leveling you never have to worry about things like this because they were designed specifically for safety and strength whether used with an RV or as crane outrigger pads.

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