Leveling Block Size for Larger Tires

[loonwheeler]

I am in the process of creating my own leveling blocks for my U1300L camper with Michelin XZL 365 80/R20 tires fitted. Does anyone have experience with leveling blocks for this size vehicle and tires? If so, what size (L X W) do you recommend based on your experience?

I have purchased some 3/4" thick rubber mat that I would like to cut to size to make leveling blocks. Since I have plenty of material for the price I can make them pretty much whatever size I want. As a Plan B I also have some 2X8 lumber that I can cut in lengths in case the rubber mat idea doesn't work as well as I am hoping.

Thoughts?

 

[canals1164]

I used some old rail sleepers which are 4x8 " cut at about 18" long with a long taper from 4" down to 1" over about 8". Works fine for us, our camper body is three point mounted with single pivot at the rear so we only block front wheels up.

 

[Joe917]

I use pieces of cut off LVL about 16" long with my 917,
Friends of ours have a very large Mog with the same tire as you. They use 12"x12"x3/4" rubber pads. I have seen them put 8 pads under one tire then just crawl onto the stack, quite impressive.

 

[grizzlyj]

We started out with I think three blocks from about 3" by 10" timber, about 30" long but after a while they ended up splitting. No idea what wood.
.
Instead I glued and screwed two out of plywood which surprised me in being stiffer but way lighter.
.
They ended up just to put the jack on though, with another block to bridge between those two. We found that by paying attention to how we parked we could get level enough, especially if we swapped which way round we slept on the bed to stay head up.
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But a Mog has so much flex everywhere you don't get much of the block's effect transmitted to the camper
.
Pic of one ply block, bonnet key for scale

 

[canals1164]

We saw a large truck in Morroco who parked on four air bags and then went round with an airline!

 

[ianc]

We saw a large truck in Morroco who parked on four air bags and then went round with an airline!

Now that's a cool way to do it!

 

[Ozrockrat]

Either some horse stall rubber and cut it down or I grabbed some off cuts of aluminum from the local metal supply. They make really good jack base as well as being sometimes used for leveling. But the commercial plastic building blocks(Lego) work ok as well. As long as the base you are putting them on is flat

 

[loonwheeler]

Here are a couple of pictures of the 3/4" rubber mat that I purchased and have used to create a couple of 12" X 12" trail pieces for my friend who has a VW Eurovan camper. Just looking at them, 12" X 12" pieces seem a bit small for the XZL's.

 

[Kiomon]

12 x 12 will be plenty! We have been using levelers that are 8.5 x 8.5 and they have been fine. I like the idea of the rubber matt. We use some interlocking blocks, but they have worn over time.

 

[julius0377]

I have the "Fiamma Level System Jumbo" rated up to 12 t pr. axle (but i would personally not trust it all the way there). 4 of them solves about everything you need (2 in a pack).

Im currently at 4,4 t on the rear axle, and 3,9 t on the front. Atego with 385/65 R22.5 (previously on 365/80 R20, almost the same size.)

 

[Iain_U1250]

We drove around with some 2" and 3" levelling blocks of wood on our first trip, and to be honest we used them once. Like GrizzyJ said, the mog seems to be limit the effect of them with it's flexible chassis and soft suspension. We can raise either side of our bed, so if we have to park on ground which is not level, we can get our bed sorted out quite easily. This time I did not bother packing them, to many other things I'd rather take.

 

[Sitec]

There's a couple of threads discussing levelling trucks.. Blocks being one way, and hydraulic rams being another.. Having a bed that has the ability to be levelled is by far the simplest option... so how does yours work Ian_U1250?

 

[Iain_U1250]

I have an IKEA slat typematress base, which can have either end raised up. If we park slightly downhill, we can just raise up the on half of the bed.

 

[loonwheeler]

I have an IKEA slat typematress base, which can have either end raised up. If we park slightly downhill, we can just raise up the on half of the bed.

That is an interesting application - the tilting bed. Genius!

Since I already purchased the rubber mat, I will still move forward to make some pieces. Easy to make some to try out. It is easy to understand that the soft suspension along with the 4 point mount negates some of the leveling affect. Maybe I can test how much of a leveling affect (if even measurable) each 3/4" mat will produce. It may not be a lot based on your feedback, but I like having data for my own understanding.

 

[charlieaarons]

I use rocks and crawler gears.

Charlie