Leveling your RV can be a pain in the butt. As much as various campgrounds like to advertise level sites, I’ve yet to find one that was truly level; at best they require a few inches of leveling blocks to get the trailer right.
This is significantly worse if you go boondocking.
Most trailers seem to include some kind of bubble leveling system. My trailer has it on the tongue jack; a little circular bubble level. If you have a travel trailer, I’m sure you’ve seen it before. If you don’t have that type, there’s usually a level on the front of the trailer and the side.
Out of curiosity, I got out a 2′ carpenter’s level and tested various parts of our travel trailer. The floor, the counters, the sink, etc. I was fairly happy to find they were all level with each other. Unfortunately the bubble level that came with my trailer was way off.
This can cause a HUGE problem when running your fridge off of propane. Not so much in that it causes a massive cooling problem, but more of the fire and explosion variety. Leveling your rig is VERY important. Now, I’m sure getting it within an inch or less is good enough; but I’m a perfectionist.
I found this neat little sensor that you install on your RV in a compartment or on a cabinet – you pick! You level your RV, turn it on and connect your smartphone (iOS or Android) via the proprietary app. Once the device and the phone are communicating, you take some measurements that the system asks for. Following that, you’ll indicate when the trailer is perfectly level.
Take your time getting the trailer as perfect as you can at this point. This zero is going to be what all your future levels will be based on. The old adage of “garbage in, garbage out” is extremely true here.
This installation was insanely simple; it made the propane tank level system installation seem complex by comparison (which was super easy!)
If you read up on this product, you’ll find that they had some bad reviews due to poor battery life early on. The company solved this with 2 different solutions. The first is an included on/off switch on the bottom of the unit. The second is an auto-power off after the trailer hasn’t moved for a while. Makes sense, if it hasn’t moved within the past several hours, you probably are not worried about leveling anymore.
Once you’ve got everything installed and configured, the application is extremely easy to use. When you open it up, you’ll be instructed how many blocks (in inches) you’ll need to get the trailer level. It will tell you which corners need to come up and which need to come down in inches. It’ll also tell you how high you need to get the trailer to reach your hitch/unhitch height.
I’m extremely happy with this product, it was easily worth the price to level the trailer easier. No more guess work is needed to get the trailer “just right” at our next camp spot! Playing around with it, it looks like it has quarter-inch resolution, which is amazing.