Leveling Sprinter

[c21]

I've had the Lynx blocks break under the weight of the Sprinter rear end so I wound up acquiring a set of Utility Block leveling blocks. They are solid and unbreakable. (a bit spendy but very safe).

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Lotus54

It is $3600 for the Sprinter- but I agree. Still expensive.

http://www.thebigfootleveler.com/aut...benz-3500.html

Maybe when I can afford to not eat for three months, I'll be able to afford them.

Or maybe if I decide to retire from retirement and go back to working for a living…

[InterBlog]

In the "not recommended" category. This was in McKinney Falls State Park, which is notorious for its un-level hookup slots. Not my rig, obviously.

[SwampRV]

What are yall using to see if its level? Just a simple short bubble in a good place and where is it located?
What do you find works best and tips please?

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by SwampRV

What are yall using to see if its level? Just a simple short bubble in a good place and where is it located?
What do you find works best and tips please?

Android phone app. Just lay the phone on the floor near the door. There are several apps to choose from.

Some apps will even tell you exactly how far you need to elevate a side or end to get it level once you've programmed in the dimensions of your RV's wheelbase. Others will just display level bubbles. Choose whichever style works best for you.

[Tincampers]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

Android phone app. Just lay the phone on the floor near the door. There are several apps to choose from.

Some apps will even tell you exactly how far you need to elevate a side or end to get it level once you've programmed in the dimensions of your RV's wheelbase. Others will just display level bubbles. Choose whichever style works best for you.

That’s what I used, just make sure your case has a flat back.

[Titus]

We have the lego blocks, but seldom use them. We have a set of 8 and a set of 4. The most that we have (or can?) use is three per wheel - two down then one across the two to raise it about 2". To raise the rear (both sides, duals) the maximum amount it takes all 12. To raise the front (both sides) it takes 6. To raise one side (front and rear) it takes 9.

We are seldom parked in one spot for more than one night. Even if we stay in one spot for two nights we are often driving somewhere for the day. So I find the blocks to be more trouble than they are worth. We still carry them with us, but we usually spend less time looking for a close-enough-to-level campsite then we would spend using the blocks.

My biggest frustration in leveling is that what we want for sleeping (rear up) is the worst position for showering because the water pools behind the toilet. We have threatened to reorient the Interstate between shower time and sleep time.

The jacks in this forum would be great to have but am not sure I would give up the carrying capacity needed to account for their weight and I know that I would not give up the $4100 needed to buy them.

[SwampRV]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

Android phone app. Just lay the phone on the floor near the door. There are several apps to choose from.

Some apps will even tell you exactly how far you need to elevate a side or end to get it level once you've programmed in the dimensions of your RV's wheelbase. Others will just display level bubbles. Choose whichever style works best for you.

Originally Posted by Tincampers

That’s what I used, just make sure your case has a flat back.

No idea there was an app for that

Thanks

[Tincampers]

Originally Posted by SwampRV

No idea there was an app for that

Thanks

It’s native to the iPhone. Open the compass app and then slide left.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by Tincampers

It’s native to the iPhone. Open the compass app and then slide left.

If you have an iPhone there is a very neat app for $2 that will tell you how much to place under each wheel to level your van. It's call iWoMoSet, by a German named Ralf Andrae:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iwom...309010388?mt=8

You set the wheelbase and track width and the app calculates the required leveling blocks in inches or centimeters.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Titus

We have the lego blocks, but seldom use them. ....

Added bonus for those of us whose toilets are raised because the black tank is inside the van body and the nose of the black tank extends under the wet bath enclosure and under the toilet itself:

If your rig was born with a low-end Thetford toilet, when (not if) you get to the eventual point of replacing it with a Dometic (thread), and when (not if) your shorter family members howl about no longer being able to touch the floor, the legos do double-duty as a raised step in front of the toilet.

In fact, given that the base of the Dometic is narrower than the Thetford, I'm going to try to find for those legos a plastic storage bin that I can place beside the Dometic with a piece of exterior-grade Velcro to hold it in place. Then for showering, temporarily remove the bin of legos.

Unless I'm lucky enough to find one with a cover, in which case it wouldn't matter if it got wet (similarly we have such a bin for hiking boots that we Velcro'd to the top of the black tank... best invention ever, but I had to cut it shorter to fit the space, which meant that we could no longer use the cover).

It actually solves multiple issues because we have a swivel passenger seat which means that shorter people also have to use the legos for THAT, as a foot rest. So it would be nice to keep the legos near the swivel seat and free up space under the couch.

Everything has to have multiple purposes, legos included.

[elgo]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Which requires me to back into our driveway rather that going in nose-first. Which requires that I have levelers to shallow up the transition from the street to the driveway (I tried to get by without them, but I scraped when fully loaded).

Brilliant. When backing into the driveway you only use the blocks on the street as posted in your photo or do you also use them in the sloped part of your driveway?

[InterBlog]

We gave up that original strategy for the MUCH quicker process of backing in at the shallowest possible approach angle. We have a 3-wide driveway so it does work with such a long vehicle. But it also results in a lot of body flexure every time it is done, which I don't like. I can hear the entire metal structure creaking in a way that doesn't typically happen on the road, which makes me worry about opening up micro-fissures in the paint that covers the body seams (I had to re-do our roof's lap-welded seams earlier this year). No approach is perfect.