Levelling Your Caravan

To prevent the nuisance of doors swinging open or shut because the caravan is out of level and to prevent the caravan rocking every time someone moves about, it is worth taking the little time necessary to get the caravan as level as possible and rigid.

Basically, it means levelling the van, then lowering the front slightly before lowering the rear jacks, then wind up the front again to put pressure on the rear jacks to ensure they are firm, then lower the front jacks.

Before Unhitching your Caravan from you Car

First check that the left and right wheels of your caravan are sufficiently level with each other. If you find that one wheel is in a hollow, this is the time to put down a levelling pad or two behind the wheel so that you can reverse the caravan onto the levelling pads.

Whether a wheel is up on pads or not, the possibility exists for your caravan to move while it is being unhooked and it could even roll off the pads, therefore, WHILE THE VAN IS STILL HOOKED ON TO THE CAR, put chocks in front and behind both the right and left caravan wheels to prevent the caravan moving when you unhook the car.

The caravan hand brake is often not enough to stop the caravan moving, if it moves only an inch or two while being unhooked it can cause serious damage to you or your car. Having your fingers jammed between the caravan and the tow ball can seriously ruin your day.

When you are satisfied that your caravan is reasonably level and won’t move, unhitch the caravan from your car and stow away your weight distribution hitch.

Unhitching your Caravan

1. Wind up the jockey wheel until your caravan is reasonably level. Use a small spirit level resting on the ‘A’ frame, to ensure that your caravan is level front to back.
2. When the caravan van is level, wind down the jockey wheel one turn. Now your caravan is slightly out of level, with the front being lower than the back.
3. Lower the rear levelling jacks on to the bearing pads, as far as they will go.
4. Wind up the jockey wheel to ensure your caravan is level again. (Now there is a slightly greater load on the rear levelling jacks, much more than you can put onto the jacks by winding them down. This ensures the van is rigid and doesn’t rock every time someone moves.)
5. Now lower the front levelling jacks of your caravan as far as they will go.
6. Wind down the jockey wheel one turn. This again takes the load off the jockey wheel and puts a little more of the load onto the front jacks.
7. Your caravan is now level and rigid and will not shake even if you stay on that site for some time.

Hitching your Caravan

The load on your levelling jacks will be too great to raise the levelling jacks without first releasing the load with the correct use and sequence of the jockey wheel.

1. Wind the jockey wheel up to lift the front of your caravan and take the weight off the front levelling jacks.
2. Raise the front levelling jacks to the stowed away towing position.
3. Wind down the jockey wheel to lower the front of your caravan, (raising the rear of your caravan), taking the weight off the rear levelling jacks until they are clear of the bearing plates.
4. Raise the rear levelling jacks to the stowed away towing position.
5. Check the approximate height of the towing ball.
6. Wind up the jockey wheel until the hitch is about the correct height, but leave the hitch a little higher than the towing ball. When you reverse to the hitch, you need the hitch to be higher than the towing ball allowing the ball to pass underneath the hitch.
7. Leave the chocks under the wheels until your caravan is properly hitched on to the car and the caravan hand-brake is released.
8. When your caravan is properly hitched to the car, switch on hazard lights to ensure connection is made to the rear lights housing. Remove chocks and check all clearance and brake lights and indicators.
9. Release hand brake. Check around the area for tools etc.
10. After moving away from the site, stop, get out and check that all chains and connections are sound.