Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 12, 2025 ...

leveling anomaly

June 19, 2014, 10:07:32 pm

The paved parking strip that we stayed in this last weekend was quite a bit out of level.  I backed in and had my rear wheels still on the asphalt, but the leveling jacks were on the grass.  I put leveling pads under all of the jacks and at the completed leveling position, the front wheels were several inches off the asphalt.  Over the course of several wet days, the rear jacks settled an inch or so into the ground, which allowed the whole coach to settle.  When I went to un-level the coach, the jacks all came up all of the way, but the front jacks would not clear the pads due to the settling.  There is a procedure that allows you to drive off with the jacks down, but I believe that is for situations where the jacks would not retract which was not my situation.  After much prayer and contemplation, I reasoned that I could possibly lift the front of the coach far enough with just one leveling jack to allow me to get the pad out from under the other jack.  This worked well and I was able to get both pads out by alternating jacks to lift the front end.  I am posting this for anyone that may get into a situation like this.  From now on I will make sure that both the front and rear leveling jacks are on the asphalt or really hard ground.  Have a great day  ----  Fritz

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Re: leveling anomaly

Reply #1 – June 20, 2014, 01:16:21 am

You can drive forward off the jacks in the down position.  They just swing up.

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Re: leveling anomaly

Reply #2 – June 20, 2014, 11:16:22 am

Fritz, what Bob said; I had our 88 parked in our asphalt drive in the heat - they sank into the asphalt cause I didn't have pads at that time. We were in the coach when it moved (sank) toward the garage - WoW

I thought we broke all 4 of them. Would not come up - so looked at the hinge, started her up and moved forward about 3" and whala - up to stored position.

I had 4 holes in the drive - L O L but Old Faithful was OK!   

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Re: leveling anomaly

Reply #3 – June 20, 2014, 11:25:08 am

 And, another thing to remember if you have the 610 system of "kick down Jacks" NEVER have the rear wheels jacked up off ground as they are your "brakes". I did that once with our original GV down in Mexico when on an out of level area and got the shock of my life when it rolled back off Jacks. One of the pistons had a very slight bend in it due to that and I had to take it apart when we got home and had a new cylinder shipped from HWH. Not a cheap lesson.
JohnH

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Re: leveling anomaly

Reply #4 – June 20, 2014, 11:49:29 am

Thanks for the input.  I just figured if there was another way other than driving off the jacks, that it would/could be better for the jacking sys.  I've even considered carrying a good hydraulic jack with me just in case.  I have a low profile 12 ton jack that would do the job.  I will try to be smarter about leveling in the future.  Thanks and have a great day  ----  Fritz

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Re: leveling anomaly

Reply #5 – June 20, 2014, 04:19:45 pm

I drove forward with the HWH kick-down jacks in the down position on my '87 Bluebird. Nothing bent, but the shaft seals were old and brittle and couldn't take the load. Both seals let go and the fluid went everywhere.

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