Levelers

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Bob Dugard

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Joined
Nov 15, 2012
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26
Merry Christmas Everyone!!

We live in Northern Ontario and putting my 40 ft. class A motor home to bed.
Just got it and needed have time to plan trip south.
Would you suggest leaving levelers up or down it is around 30 below and lots of snow.

BobnJude
 
Would you suggest leaving levelers up or down it is around 30 below and lots of snow?

I leave mine extended during storage, but probably would reconsider in such extreme conditions as you describe.
 
We live in MT which can be as cold but my major problem is a combination of cold and WIND.  I leave the jacks up.  We usually leave in mid Decmber to mid January and I have no desire to clean jacks in the winter.  By spring cleaning the jacks would be a major task as the debris left from the wind, dirt, etc., would be really packed on.  Last 2 years we did not travel so it was easy to clean the pad portion and be ready for summer travel.

 
If you have air ride, you may consider leaving you levelers up and placing a support under each of the level pads.  Do this before you dump the air.  After dumping the motor home will come to rest on the supports. You will have the weight off the suspension and the levelers will be protected.  Good luck
 
The tire manufacturers recommend using the levelers to take some weight load off the tires, but hydraulic jack manufacturers want you to protect the hydraulic rams from as well. Tough decision when in extreme conditions.  I think in your circumstances I would try to get some other support under the frame to carry some of the load and then keep the jacks up.

Note that putting blocks between frame and axles relieves the suspension but not the tires.  The idea of relieving the tire load is to help avoid having the sidewall take a "set" in the slightly bulged out condition caused by a heavy load on it. They also recommend increasing tire pressure to the max rating on the sidewall for the same reason. I'm not sure that is a very important consideration with modern tire construction, but both Michelin and Goodyear still recommend that in their RV tire guides.
 
Gary: Correct me if I'm wrong but the gentleman didn't say to block between the axle and suspension but rather block under the pads of the retracted cylinders and then drop the air from the air bags. This would solve the problem in my opinion.
 
Bob where are you in Northern Ont? My wife was from Kapuskasing and according to what I see watching the weather from Welland you should have gone south already. It's way more rewarding when you leave -40 and drive to Florida temperatures  than toughing out that cold weather. We leave just after xmas and just waiting for some snow to remind us what we intend to miss.
 

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