As you probably know, owning or renting a caravan can be a great way to save on accommodation fees if you’re on a budget, especially when you want a bit more flexibility over the journey. But while it’s a great way to travel, you’ll occasionally come across a campsite or an area with slightly less than perfect ground. And parking on an uneven surface for a night or two, with a bit of a slope, can be a little frustrating.
So when you come across pitch or space that isn’t as flat as a pancake, you’ll want to be sure you know how to level your caravan. Beyond ensuring you sleep comfortably, levelling it can help ensure appliances work correctly, that you get a flatter night’s sleep and, come breakfast, the plates don’t slide off the table onto the floor!
Why should you level your caravan?
Levelling your caravan ensures you get a good night’s rest. It can be more uncomfortable than you realise to sleep on what feels like a slope, disrupting what little break you may have after a long drive. A level caravan also ensures that your drainage is working properly so you won’t have a nasty surprise of shower water running down your caravan floor after your morning routine the next morning either. Fridges also require to be level to operate at their optimum efficiency.
3 steps to levelling your caravan
Before you begin to level your caravan, you’ll want to find out if you are indeed on an uneven pitch. One easy way to do this is by placing a spirit level on a hard and flat surface of your caravan. A table or kitchen top works best, and if you don’t have a spirit level, a glass of water may also be used as a temporary substitute.
If you’re a bit more tech-savvy, there are also a number of handy spirit level apps that you can download and use on your phone. These apps utilise your phone’s gyroscopic capabilities to find out the level point, although you may have to remove your phone covers (if you have one) to get an accurate reading.
And without further ado, here are the 3 steps to level a caravan:
1. Levelling your caravan axle
Your first step to getting your caravan even is to level its axle. This is also known as levelling your caravan from ‘right to left’. To do this, you’ll have to have brought along levelling tools for your caravan like a levelling ramp or wheel jack. If you’re keen to invest a little more money to trade for the convenience of levelling your caravan axle, you may also consider purchasing an inflatable bag levelling system.
When using a levelling ramp, it’s always best to place the ramp in front of the caravan and slowly pull your caravan up. This is to avoid issues with the over-run brake system that is fitted in certain caravans. You can also use this tip if you’re using the inflatable bag levelling system.
If you’re not keen on levelling your caravan on a ramp, you could also use a wheel jack that wraps around your caravan’s wheel. Once you’ve snugly attached the wheel jack, you can then raise and level your caravan by turning the handle. Unlike levelling ramps, wheel jacks are a great option because you can fully control the amount of height raise you want.
2. Levelling your caravan across its axle
Once you’ve levelled your caravan from right to left, you’ll now want to level your caravan from ‘front to back’. This can be done by using a caravan jockey wheel to raise or lower your caravan. Be sure to use a spirit level to ensure you’re raising or lowering on the right side of your caravan. Unlike the previous step, you’ll want to place the spirit level below the door sill or somewhere similar to ensure your caravan is properly levelled from front to back.
3. Lowering your corner steadies
When you’ve completed levelling your caravan from right to left and front to back, you’ll now be ready to move on to the final step: lowering your corner steadies. This ensures your caravan is stable for the duration of your stay, regardless of how uneven the ground has been before. If you need further reinforcements, you may need to consider placing some bricks below the corner steadies to stop them from sinking.
As a rule of thumb, your corner steadies should never be lowered until you’re sure that your caravan has been levelled properly. Many campers make the mistake of using their corner steadies as a levelling tool, but this could damage the floor of their caravan. This is because most corner steadies are attached to your caravan’s flooring and not to the vehicle’s chassis. Now that you know this as an insider tip, we’re sure you won’t be making the same mistakes that the other campers have.
Useful levelling aids
Lock n Level
The Lock n Level system allows you to level your caravan by putting what looks like an air bag under the wheel (or wheels if it’s a twin axle), and use an air pump to increase the pressure and raise the caravan. This can make levelling a caravan much easier, especially if you don’t have a motor mover.
The other benefit of a Lock n Level system is not only is it a great aid for levelling the caravan easily with air pressure, it also (on twin axle caravans) effectively allows you to jack up the caravan without a jack (which can be difficult to get on if you have a motor mover), allowing you to more easily change a wheel.
Using a Lock n Level on a Single Axle caravan
Using a Lock n Level on a Twin Axle caravan
Helpful links to products