How to level a caravan

[Music] hi everybody welcome back to us up here at the storage yard it's a bit cold it's a bit dark and it's a bit well it's threatened to rain to be honest with you so we'll make this one a quick one I think um today's subject is really aimed at people who are just starting off caravanning and the subject that you've probably worked out already is how to level the caravan now leveling the caravan is probably the most important task you need to get right when you arrive on-site the reason for that is you want to make sure that the appliances all work correctly so things like the fridge won't work if they're not particularly level and also the living experience as well in the caravan you want to make sure you get right as well if you have the caravan not level you know it's not gonna make a very pleasant sleeping experience and if it's too high at the front or too low at the front you're going to have things rolling because a forwards up and down the caravan so when we lever the caravan what do we need to do well there's two things we need to make sure we get right first of all we need to level across the van so left to right and then the second thing we need to do is level front to back so let's have a look at how we achieve leveling left to right to start with alright so when we're leveling left to right what are we actually talking about or very simply one wheel will need to be higher than the other now in a moment I'm going to show you how we work out which side needs to raise up on which side needs to be lower but basically what we need to do is raise one tire above the other side and there's a variety of different bits of equipment which we can use you can even make stuff yourself we use a ramp like this one here but you can also buy equipment which slots around the tire and you wind it up and it lifts the caravan up and also you would have seen in one of our previous videos we've got a hydraulic jack as well which fits underneath the caravan you can to a certain degree use that to level off your caravan as well you can also make things yourself just by using planks of wood and I've seen many people use planks of wood pieces of decking actually which they've put holes through so we block together and you can drive up nice and steadily on to those now I mentioned about driving up onto the equipment now there's a couple of ways you can do it you can either use your tow car to literally pull your caravan onto the ramp or you can use a motor mover and today we're going to use the motor mover simply because we're in the storage yard and it's a little bit convenient when you level up one of the big things you shouldn't ever do is reverse your caravan up onto a ramp or onto the blocks because when we reverse if you remember the overrun will kick in and you'll have no brakes now I'll use as I've already shown you I use this leveling block here and this is a particularly good one for us because it also has it also has a chalk and as you can see it locks in place so I Drive up the caravan onto this and that fits in place like so right so now we've got all that sorted out let's actually show you how we're going to level the caravan left to right and as I said we're going to use our motor mover so the first task we need to do is engage the motor mover onto the caravan okay so we've engaged the motor mover now onto the caravan we've taken the isolator switch and I switched on so we're all ready to go now we need to do is move the caravan forward and work out where we are now how do we know that we're level well obviously we need to use something like this this is obviously a spirit level where do you put the spirit level in your caravan is a contentious issue and lots of people tell you where to put them but the truth of the matter is every single caravan every single make every single age will be completely different you will with experience learn where the best place is to put your spirit level to start with I recommend you buy yourself a nice big spirit level from the DIY centre put it across the caravan the reason why you'll need a big one is to get over any dips or ridges in your flooring and it adages out that the span of the floor place it across the floor of your caravan and then read the bubble and see where it is now lots of people say don't use the cabinets and that is true because the cabinet not always our level but I have over the experience of this caravan in particular I have learnt that our kitchen cabinet on the top of the kitchen cabinet where the cooker is is actually very very level and for the purposes of this video we're going to be using that one so you can watch the change of angle in this spirit level so let's nip inside and learn which side of the caravan we need to raise and which side needs to be lower so as you can see we've got the level here on the kitchen side and as you can see here we're quite far off to one side but let's manipulate the level itself and work out which side needs to come up if we continue to raise this side you can see that the bubble isn't coming to the centre at all but if we level this side up here you can see the bubble comes into the centre so that's telling us this side of the caravan needs to come up so let's put the ramp underneath the tire and drive the thing up give it a good tap when you install the ramp and that way you know that it's going to register straight away now you see that we've got a motor mover here and sometimes motor movers are mounted a little bit lower and they can foul up on a ramp well there's an easy trick to that and that is to literally wind the jockey wheel up on the front of the van to raise the front of the van up so you can get the ramp underneath perfect I think you'll agree that's now spot-on level left and right so now we're level all you need to do now is install a choc under the back of the wheel like so roll it back a little bit and that's going to lock it in place perfectly now we need to do is put the handbrake on release the motor mover and then we can work out the level front to back okay so we're almost done we've leveled left to right now across the axle now what we need to do is level back to front and again we're going to use our spirit level that we have here and what I'm going to do is I'm going to place this in the doorframe on the ledge that's why I bought this size to be honest with you that will fit now neatly across the door ledge and we can work out using exactly same method as we did left to right whether we need to go up or down at the front to back usually Angela helps me with this one she usually stands by the door and I'm winding the jockey wheel up and down and you can get the level pretty spot-on there are applications available for smartphones which shout out whether your level or not and it it can be very annoying to listen to but it does tell you pretty accurately whether your van is level or not we've not used it so I won't give it a review just yet but usually there's two of us doing this routine and you can situate this wherever you find is a level position and as I said before you get to know your caravan and you get to know and understand where the most level parts of your Caravan actually is so without further ado let's place this in the doorframe and work out whether we need to go up or down at the front and the back so again as you can see here I've placed the spirit level on the doorframe and you can see that if I manipulate this again you can see that if I raise the back of the caravan up here with my fingers you can see that the bubble starts to appear in the middle there so well that's telling me is the back needs to be higher than the front so because I've got the jockey wheel at the front what I can do is lower the caravan at the front and that will bring that bubble in place well it's going to see what that's like how we look in oh look at that that's a bottle I was just coming back to check but that's pretty spot-on I think you'll agree so now with the left and the right and the front and the back this Caravan is now level all we need to do now is put down the corner steadies and would you believe it there's a trick to that as well you might be tempted to rush out and buy yourself an electric drill with an attachment to go and put your steadies down but if you're a newcomer don't start off by using the hand winder because you can get to feel where the caravan is supported now when we're leveling the caravan we most certainly don't to be using the corner steadies they are as the name dictates corner steadies they steady the van from the corners the front corners on our caravan for instance the steadies are not even connected to the chassis and if you try to level up your Caravan using the steadies well the likelihood is that you're going to split the floor or do some damage to caravan perhaps even walk the floor of the van so what you want to do is start off by using a hand winder and you can see where the pressure meets the floor to the caravan via the leg let me show you exactly what I'm talking about now just partially wound the leg down and as you can see here we've got a concrete base here we've got a little foot pad on the bottom the caravan as well and what I'm looking for now is for that to sit nice and square to the floor and as I'm winding it down I'm going to start to feel some tension in the hand winder the cavern may just raise up just a tiny amount about there and that feels Rick steady to me and there we go that's now properly supported here in the corner and there we go guys that is it we are now level and the caravan is settled and it's safe to enter and start work on the other services so there's an important sanity check that we now need to perform to make sure that the caravan is level and to make sure that everything else is working okay and that is to make yourself a cup of tea you see by using the kettle you'll prevent the gases connected okay the electric is working fine the water's coming through the tap and then of course you can use your cup of tea just to make sure that it is absolutely perfectly level and that's my advice to anybody who's starting off caravanning and needs to know how to level the caravan comments obviously welcome down below and until next week guys will speak to again soon take care now bye bye

Channel: The Trudgians

Views: 275,407

Keywords: caravan, caravan ramp, leveling ramp, towsure chockmaster, trailer, camping trailer, spirit level, milenco

Id: PDjEJBes2o8

Length: 11min 26sec (686 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 24 2016