Used Campers: How To Level Your Camper

As I have written in previous articles, I purchased a used camper this summer and have taken it out several times for family weekend trips. Used campers are great, but one thing I soon found out was that leveling a camper can be tricky if you don't have the right tools.

The first trip out, we must have found the best campsite ever, because it took me all of 2 minutes to get the camper level. Naturally after that first trip, I thought it would be that easy every time. Not so much. I quickly found out in trips since then that all camp sites are not created equal. All camp site pads are not created equal either. However, there are tools that you can buy to make the job easier and get you to the fun parts of camping sooner.

First off, most campers have some sort of leveling jack on each corner of the camper. They are usually either a scissor jack or stabilizer jack. You should consult your individual product manual for the operation of your jacks.

Once you figure out how your specific jack operates, you can focus on leveling your camper. To level your camper, you will need two things.

Calibrated Level

RV Leveling Blocks

How To Level Your Camper

1. Secure the camper with your wheel chocks and unhook the camper from the tow vehicle. Move the tow vehicle a safe distance away from the camper.
2. Inspect the camper and your levels to see if the camper is leaning more and two inches toward one side.
3. Add 1 leveling block per 2 inches to the opposite side that the level bubble is reading. For example, if the bubble was 3 inches to the left of zero. I would add 1 block to the right side of the camper. Or, if the bubble was 3 inches to the left. I would add 1 block to the rear of the camper.
4. Crank down your scissor or stabilizer jacks to the point that they are just barely supporting the weight of the camper. For anything but larger RV's, you do not want to have the wheels off the ground. The wheels actually help stabilize the camper. So don't crank you jacks to the point that they lift the tires up.
5. Look at your calibrated levels. Each mark equals one inch that side should come down or the opposite side should come up.
6. Adjust each stabilizer based on the reading from the calibrated level.
7. Look at the calibrated level one more time to make sure they both read as close to zero as possible.

That's it, you have a level camper. Enjoy!