Best Ways to Level Your Travel Trailer

When you’re ready for a camping trip, nothing makes for a better outdoor experience than taking your RV to a new site and exploring the area. You get to experience all the great joys of camping but still get to spend the night in your comfortably home-like camper. But, your RV might not be so comfortable if it’s not level!

An unbalanced travel trailer is difficult to sleep in, cook in, and even walk around in! At Sunny Island RV, we understand how frustrating and inconvenient an unlevel travel trailer can be, so we created a brief guide that gets you all the information you need for safely and effectively balancing your camper. 

Different Levelling Procedures

Finding the most even ground possible is the first step in making your RV easier to level. With a flat campsite, you’ll be able to level your travel trailer very quickly, or you might not even have to level it at all! 

However, if you’re stuck with a site that has uneven ground, there are different methods, depending on whether or not you have landing gear available.

Leveling with Landing Gear

In most travel trailers, landing gear is provided on the sides and ends of your RV, and you can easily raise and lower this gear with a hand crank. 

First, lower the gear on all sides so that it’s touching the ground, and then check to see if your travel trailer is level. Levels are pretty affordable, but if you don’t have one, there are plenty of apps for smartphones that work just fine for checking the balance. 

If you see that the level is off, then use a jack to lift the side of the camper that’s too low. Then, put a block of wood that’s even on both sides on the ground under the landing gear. 

Before lowering the landing gear onto the block, be sure to chock the nearest wheel so your RV doesn’t roll right off the block! After doing this, check the level again, and repeat with extra blocks if the level is still too low. This same process works for either raising a side, the front or the back of the RV.

Leveling with Blocks

You might not have landing gear, which means you will want to do the process with blocks. We recommend that you buy blocks specifically designed for leveling a travel trailer, as these are much safer, easier on your tires, and simpler to use. 

After checking your level, pull your camper forward from the intended parking spot by a few feet. Take note of where each tire will rest, and place blocks on the ground in the tire’s spot. 

If the front of your back is too low, you’ll have to put blocks under both tires. If it’s the left side that’s sunk, put blocks under all left-side tires (the same method applies to the right side and the back). 

Once the blocks are in place, back your RV into position and check your level again. If it’s still off, pull forward and stack an additional block onto the first one you laid down, and repeat this process until you have a level travel trailer. 

Are you in the market for a camper? Sunny Island RV carries a variety of travel trailers for sale. Our dealership is based in Rockford, Illinois, and we also serve those in Chicago and Naperville.