How do you level your rig when camping?

workerdrone

Part time fulltimer
cheap square plastic bubble level placed temporarily on the center console to get me close while parking in approximate spot, leave idling,

then a cheap 10" plastic level to check outside F/R and L/R for fine tuning, some pieces of sawn 2x8 or local rocks to place under wheels, just drive onto them in low gear or 4lo if a few need to be stacked.

2x8's sawn into a few different lengths to allow stacking and make a little ramp to climb
 

Alloy

Well-known member
I was under the impression the Bigfoot uses arms/feet, like a motorhome might. Some expedition trucks (notably, Earthroamer) use an air suspension system that lets you raise or lower each corner of the truck independently for leveling purposes.

Bigfoot uses hydraulic cylinders. It will lift the tires off the ground.
 

PCO6

Adventurer
I use blocks but to get me in the ball park upon arrival I attached a bubble level to the back side of my glove box door. It's pretty accurate when the door is open and the Jeep is sitting on level ground. I took this pic in my driveway which slopes back to the road. Don't read too much into the Crown Royal bag. It's for my car wash change.

20-10-31 1.JPG
 

BritKLR

Kapitis Indagatoris
Camp enough, know your rig and systems enough and you can spot a level spot as you pull in and your done.
Otherwise, yellow lego blocks and eyeballing it and your done. 3-5 minutes max.
On other campers I've had manual jacks, electrical jacks, airbag systems, etc. and while I never had any problems with the systems, I've found that "less is better" when in the back county. Cheers!
 

4x4tripping

Adventurer
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My Land Cruiser did have active height control - but this is for adjust the height of the vehicle not the balance. So I did see a lot of the world, just with using wood or rocks for balancing the vehicle.

My new rig has an aftermarked upgraded full VB air suspension and it can do "autolevel" with an keypress. Each tyre suspension can move (up/down) 14cm - so the campspot can be pretty unflat. I dont have a picture who really show the ballancing well.

VW-Bus-4x4tripping-overlanding-adrenalin-gefahr-gefaehrliche-situationen-reisen-wildcamping.jpg


andalusia-roadtrip-wildcamping-wildcamp-aventure-spain.jpg


It brings a lot of more possibilities to wildcamp, it is more than just a nice addon. I loves too the comfort who comes with an air suspension, the lift (if required), or lowering the vehicle for highway driving.

I never would look back again, even when I did showed pretty well, that you can discover the world without :)

If you are using an iphone you can use the "spirit level / Measure App" App for levelling your rig - if you know where you have a flat space in your rig.

trippin
 
Last edited:

ReluctantTraveler

Active member
AVvXsEgH_ObNE7Mi_1VEHO7ipSd6P593tM0bYWLDfLV6OzybN2KXaVGUUQEfN-CWXHdB1zbjZtf42_mHZloCs4u7xWd9gZPA_aFcszc2mm0DMZIs9YiMDcTo4YtAwCBdvyIWm0c7VO9Da-UX5knpuRkQpoY27e1SokuDA9OrXyfApGadruWZ6-yrWDMbY0kW=s1280


My Land Cruiser did have active height control - but this is for adjust the height of the vehicle not the balance. So I did see a lot of the world, just with using wood or rocks for balancing the vehicle.

My new rig has an aftermarked upgraded full VB air suspension and it can do "autolevel" with an keypress. Each tyre suspension can move (up/down) 14cm - so the campspot can be pretty unflat. I dont have a picture who really show the ballancing well.

VW-Bus-4x4tripping-overlanding-adrenalin-gefahr-gefaehrliche-situationen-reisen-wildcamping.jpg


andalusia-roadtrip-wildcamping-wildcamp-aventure-spain.jpg


It brings a lot of more possibilities to wildcamp, it is more than just a nice addon. I loves too the comfort who comes with an air suspension, the lift (if required), or lowering the vehicle for highway driving.

I never would look back again, even when I did showed pretty well, that you can discover the world without :)

If you are using an iphone you can use the "spirit level / Measure App" App for levelling your rig - if you know where you have a flat space in your rig.

trippin

is there any sort of maintenance with a system like that? As in, “you need new airbags every 20,000 miles” or anything?
 

68camaro

Any River...Any Place
I have the HWH hydraulic leveling system which works fine, but in reality I only used once or twice to test it. 99.9% of time I can get rig level "good-enough" by just parking smartly, however I really never stay two nights at same spot and only sleep in rig as I am fishing from early to late.
 

4x4tripping

Adventurer
is there any sort of maintenance with a system like that? As in, “you need new airbags every 20,000 miles” or anything?

It is maintenance free. VB is available too in many countrys worldwide.

I have the HWH hydraulic leveling system which works fine, but in reality I only used once or twice to test it. 99.9% of time I can get rig level "good-enough" by just parking smartly, however I really never stay two nights at same spot and only sleep in rig as I am fishing from early to late.

It did change a lot, as we dont sleep inside anymore - now we sleep on top. There you recognize any angle much much more ;-)

trippin
 

86scotty

Cynic
I can't blame anyone for taking too much junk with them as I take a lot, often with many redundancies, but it surprises me that only one person above has mentioned rocks. I don't bother taking anything like blocks that take up space. Rocks and firewood have always sufficed for me.
 

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