Levelling ramps could be wider??

[747]

Never use them.

 

Never rolled out of bed either. :D

[Rayjsj]

747 - 2013-07-09 8:45 PM

 

Never use them.

 

Never rolled out of bed either. :D[/quote

 

Bet your shower has two drain holes too ?

[Mel B]

hallii - 2013-07-09 7:52 AM

 

I did see some "jacking ramps" whilst abroad. You drove onto them whilst flat and then wound them up on a screw jack. I thought they were an excellent idea. I couldn't see a makers name and I wondered if they had been home made.

 

To answer Pampam's question though, yes, I think they should be a bit wider, my tyres sometimes look a bit "uncomfy" sitting on them.

 

H

There's nothing new about these 'screw jack' type things, they're called caravan levellers and have been around for yonks.

 

Caravan Levellers

[pepe63xnotuse]

Pampam - 2013-07-09 7:25 PM

 

.... but sometimes the little devils spin at a slight angle but I'm sure ill think of something to stop it..

 

Pam'

 

In case you missed my previous post...take a look at this link:

 

http://www.fiammastore.com/Levellers/Fiamma-Anti-Slip-Plate-for-Fiamma-Levellers

 

[laimeduck]

Just as an extra to this thread - I have a plumb line suspended from where the rear view mirror is/should be, and a mark on the dash which is dead level. All I do is reverse up in one hit (a la Brian or Bruce) the come down on the brake until the plumb bob is spot on. Hand brake on, reverse engaged, awning rolled out, chairs & table out, glass of white for the boss & beer in hand for me. 5-10 minutes total (most times)!

[Guest pelmetman]

I use a less fussy method of being level ;-).....................if my wine slides across the table when eating diner we're not level 8-) ...............................so next day we move :D

[Gwendolyn]

Crumbs. How many of you have camped? Can you remember curling up in a sleeping bag, on a groundsheet, in a bell tent… and finding yourself, come the morning, curled up in a sleeping bag, minus the groundsheet, at bottom of slope of tent, right up against the brailing? Or even worse, brailing has worked loose and you are outside the tent?

 

Slopes? After all that, a slope in a motorhome is negligible. Levelling ramps? Go with the slope….

 

Cheers,

Gwen

PS Please excuse trip down memory lane… been romping on Gower beaches today, and reminiscing about Girl Guide camps there circa 1959 or so.

 

[Pampam]

PEPE63 yes thanks I looked at the fiamma anti slip .and it looks a good idea I have the milenco triple (wish I'd got the four but they weren't out at time) so don't know if it would fit will sort something out along similar lines .dont use them that often but was at whitby on cliff top and wanted rearend to look over sea otherwise would have driven into hill and it would have been level had "guests"so tried to make it as level as possible lol thanks for going to trouble to post constructive advise .pp I don't know how to take a quote out of someone's posting as I am not very up on Internet again thanks pp

[Muswell]

Our ramps, stolen with the van, are/were quite low because of the need to reduce bulk. If the site permits I quite often park across the slope because the shorter distance beween the wheels makes it a more effeicient way of getting the level right......but we aren't too fussy. I just open the door, line up the edge with a"landmark" on theground and go.

[pepe63xnotuse]

Pampam - 2013-07-10 7:47 AM

 

PEPE63 yes thanks I looked at the fiamma anti slip .and it looks a good idea I have the milenco triple...

 

Sorry Pam',my mistake(I'd missed that you'd said you had the Milenco levellers... :$ )

Having said that,we havn't actually got those Fiamma"Anti slip plates" ourselves..I've just cable tied a small piece of old rubber car mat to the front of ours and it has stopped them from skitting about(which they sometimes did when on tarmac/concrete)..

 

Gwen'..

...but it's the vertical and horizontal lines in a motorhome(you don't get many of those in a tent ;-)), that accentuates any "unlevelness"....(good word eh? :-D )

 

Although, talk of plumb lines,bits of wood and placing coins on steps etc, is taking it a bit far even for me.. (lol)

As long as my head is slightly higher than feet when sleeping..and as Dave said, the beer/wine glass doesn't skid across the table..then we're level enough. ;-)

[dencol]

Thanks for the wood and coin idea. I now solo camp so no boss to tell me when to stop, get a bit worried about going over the end of the levellers. I tried sticking my head out of the window to see the leveller, not recommended as cracked my head on the door frame much to the amusement of the caravanner next door (no offer of help I should point out just watched).

 

I don't bother too much about being level but hate to spill my wine and I agree always thought these ramps could do with being slightly wider

 

colin

[BGD]

dencol - 2013-07-10 8:10 PM

 

Thanks for the wood and coin idea. I now solo camp so no boss to tell me when to stop, get a bit worried about going over the end of the levellers. I tried sticking my head out of the window to see the leveller, not recommended as cracked my head on the door frame much to the amusement of the caravanner next door (no offer of help I should point out just watched).

 

I don't bother too much about being level but hate to spill my wine and I agree always thought these ramps could do with being slightly wider

 

colin

 

 

 

Colin - Fit narrower tyres?

 

Seriously guys, c'mon. They ARE plenty wide enough.

 

It ain't even a problem if you fall off the other end of them ( other than hurt pride).

 

If you're that worried, screw some ply against the far face so it sticks up a bit, so that your wheel hits that before you roll off them.

[Derek Uzzell]

Pampam - 2013-07-10 7:47 AM

 

PEPE63 yes thanks I looked at the fiamma anti slip .and it looks a good idea I have the milenco triple (wish I'd got the four but they weren't out at time) so don't know if it would fit will sort something out along similar lines .dont use them that often but was at whitby on cliff top and wanted rearend to look over sea otherwise would have driven into hill and it would have been level had "guests"so tried to make it as level as possible lol thanks for going to trouble to post constructive advise .pp I don't know how to take a quote out of someone's posting as I am not very up on Internet again thanks pp

 

The dimensions of a Milenco "Triple" leveller are 18cm high x 24.5cm wide x 61cm long with 'step heights' of 4cm, 8cm and 12cm. The weight is 2.5kg.

 

The dimensions of a Milenco "Quattro" leveller are 21cm high x 25cm wide x 81cm long with 'step heights' of 4cm, 8cm, 12cm and 16cm. The weight is 3.8kg.

 

You'll see from the above that a Quattro is a good deal longer, higher and heavier than a Triple, and pair of Quattros in their storage bag makes a very sizable package. You'll note, though, that a Quattro is only 0,5cm wider than a Triple, so unlikely to solve your tyre-overlapping dilemma.

 

Quattro preceded Triple in Milenco's product range but, unless one feels the need for a leveller to cope with a really steep slope, the Quattro is probably best avoided simply because it demands so much storage space.

 

There's also the recently-introduced Milenco MGI T3 Triple

 

http://www.justmilenco.co.uk/MILENCO-MGI-Triple-MAXI-Level-Twin-Pack

 

that's wider (26cm), longer and higher than Quattro, so even more bulky. Having said that, if maximum 'lift' is the primary requirement, this might be a better choice than Quattro.

 

As far as I'm aware, the only reasonably compact leveller that's significantly wider than a Milenco Triple is (as Mel B said earlier) Fiamma's "Level System Jumbo", a traditional wedge-shaped leveller that's 12cm high x 26cm wide x 60cm long.

 

Uniko 6-in-1 is an amusing multi-purpose system

 

http://www.vantracks.co.uk/details.php?Clv=3&C1=1&C2=2&C3=52&id=100

 

but, with a width of 25cm, little wider than your Milenco ramps.

 

The vast majority of motorhomes will have tyres with a tread-width less than 24cm, so any leveller with a greater width than that should be positionable so that the tyre's tread doesn't overlap the sides. The important thing, of course, is to ensure that the leveller is accurately positioned to begin with.

 

My Hobby's tyres are 21.5cm wide and I've never had any difficulty positioning my Milenco Quattro levellers so that the tyre-tread doesn't overlap. (I don't think you've ever said what motorhome you own, but I'd guess its tyres will be around the same width as mine.)

 

What I do find tricky is positioning my Milenco levellers so that the tyres sit in the 'pockets' on the levellers' upper surface rather than on the upper surfaces' protruding ridges. The pocketing element of the Quattro/Triple design has been discussed at length in the past and, if I were really worried about 'tyre comfort', I'd be far more concerned about the tyres not having the ridges digging into them than a bit of tyre-tread overlap.

[Rayjsj]

It ain't even a problem if you fall off the other end of them ( other than hurt pride).

 

.

 

 

I agree that the pride does get hurt (especially as all the curtains twitch at the 'crash') but as I said earlier a 'milenco' being jammed forcibly up into the wheelarch or behind it, with the full weight of the motorhome propelling it DOES cause a 'problem' , two broken abs side panels at £££ a 'pop' for a start.

8-) Ray

 

good tip, by the way BGD.

[Pampam]

My mistake we bought them at a show two years ago and never saw any quatro only the triple we bought the triple ones and some time later saw the quatro and thought they'd just come out. BGD I don't worry about going over top because he goes to top then drops back down . It's me lining them up I just never see m to get them STRAIGHT !! I don't know ask a man for an extra inch you'd think you were asking for the moon. Lol pp

[Derek Uzzell]

Rayjsj - 2013-07-12 2:04 PM

 

BGD - 2013-07-10 10:30 PM

 

It ain't even a problem if you fall off the other end of them ( other than hurt pride).

 

 

I agree that the pride does get hurt (especially as all the curtains twitch at the 'crash') but as I said earlier a 'milenco' being jammed forcibly up into the wheelarch or behind it, with the full weight of the motorhome propelling it DOES cause a 'problem' , two broken abs side panels at £££ a 'pop' for a start.

8-) Ray

 

good tip, by the way BGD.

 

The Milenco website has a video-clip relating to the Quattro/Triple levellers.

 

http://www.milenco.com/products/levelling-ramps/milenco-quattro-level-pair/

 

A number of things should be apparent from this:

 

1. Just how big Quattro levellers are.

 

2. That the 'pocketing' concept inherent in the design becomes questionable when tyres are larger in diameter than the 215/70 R15 size commonly fitted to motorhomes.

 

3. That the far end of a Milenco leveller is significantly raised, providing some protection against driving over the end. Conversely (unlike many conventional 'wedge-type' levellers) the far end of a Milenco leveller has a vertical, not angled, end-face and - if you do drive over the leveller's end - there's every likelihood that it will tip up. It would be practicable to fix plywood against the end-face, but then it wouldn't be possible to insert the levellers into their storage bag.

 

It's far more important (as Ray found out the hard way) not to drive over the end of a Milenco leveller than to have the tyre perfectly aligned on the leveller's upper surface or to have the tyre accurately 'pocketed'. A tyre fractionally overlapping the edge of a leveller won't matter, and inaccurate pocketing, although aesthetically displeasing, shouldn't cause harm to the tyre in the short term. But driving over the end of a Milenco Triple/Quattro leveller can seriously deplete your bank balance.

 

This webpage describes how to DIY levellers

 

http://jodysrv.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/home-built-leveling-ramps.html

 

and (even though the advice relates to American RVs) the width suggested is much the same as a Milenco Quattro's. Given that the maximum width of commercially-marketed levellers is around 10", it's fair to assume that few people feel a need for more.

 

(There are quite a few jacking systems nowadays that can be retro-fitted to European-built motorhomes to simplify levelling, but these don't come cheap. I saw a large tandem rear-axle motorhome at a French campsite recently that had such a system at the front, but using this seemed to involve a good deal of preparatory scrabbling around beneath the vehicle to place pads beneath the jacks to stop them sinking into the soft ground.)

[Patricia]

mike 202 - 2013-07-09 4:47 PM

 

Following on from Brians advice, which I might add I had never thought about, one thing that I do use for levelling is a piece of wood 11/2" x 1/2" by 24" and have marked the maximum travel to take me to a safely top of the Fiamma wedge style ramps.

 

I use it as follows:- Leave the drivers door open and place the wood on the ground just below the drivers step. I then place a coin on the drivers step to align with the first mark on the wood.

Then drive until the coin aligns with the second mark and there you are safely at the top of the ramp. NO chance of the wife (or husband) shouting stop a bit early or heaven forbid too late.

Brians technique can the be applied.

Mike

Thanks Mike. This sounds like a good idea to me. It's amazing how many people sit and watch me struggling without offering any advice. I did actually go off the end once - fortunately no damage to the van but the ramp suffered a bit!