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Quote: Originally posted by lunarvenus on 19/5/2013

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A friend of mine told me once how he managed to change the tyre on his caravan by useing the legs to lift the van, he couldn't find the jack.
It worked so if the van is solid they are probably strong enough but its not advised.

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Never ever use the steadies to lift the van up either to level it or to change a tyre. It may look like your friend got away with it for a bit but its likely to have put too much strain on the caravan floor which in turn does the same to the front & rear panels causing cracking and leaks.

Dave

the steadies are just that,steadies it stops the caravan from rocking too and fro.after the two wheels have been levelled looking from the front,then level front to back using a spirit level on level floor near the fridge.( it is most important that the floor is level for the fridge to run correctly). then after this the steadies are lowered to steady without lifting any corner.the steadies are fixed to the wood floor of the caravan.if you overwind the steady you could at worst twist the chassis because the floor is fixed to the chassis.failing this overwind will push up the floor and anything fixed to the top of it like funiture like a wardrobe into the roof space.if the caravan is not level then it is just possible your awning will not sit correctly ie.too high,too low sloping one way or the other.not level things roll off working tops.toilet doors fall open by themselves.and one of the worst things is the water drainage because it can not drain correctly, too much one way and water will not drain at all.also when you pull out the plug on the sink the water could come up through the plug hole in the base of the shower tray,or even back up the bathroom sink plug hole until it has time to slowly drain away.i have seen both of these when people on site have asked me to have a look why water was coming up the plug hole in the shower base.just my view for what its worth.

Quote: Originally posted by Monty8 on 19/5/2013

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This is our first van and I am not sure about this levelling thing. The suppliers delivered our van to the site (seasonal pitch) and put it on a grass pitch(no hard standings available till July).
The first time we used it we knew it wasn't level as the doors kept swinging open, the front end was low. The man who owns the site used a drill to raise the front steadies, then he put blocks of wood under them. The van is on a bit of a slope as well. Was that the correct thing to do? I noticed that quite a few vans have wood or concrete slabs under their steadies as well.
It is worrying me now that he did the wrong thing but as we know very little and his family have had the site for years and are obviously experienced we just trusted him.
I would be very grateful for your advice.

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