Why We Ditched Manual Leveling After Our First Breakdown in Moab
We were parked outside Arches National Park in April 2019, our fifth wheel tilted at what felt like a 15-degree angle on a sloped gravel site. One of us was outside in the wind, stacking yellow Lynx blocks under the passenger-side tires while the other sat inside watching the bubble level on the counter. We drove forward. Too far. Backed up. Not far enough. Stacked another block. Drove forward again.
Forty-five minutes later, we were level enough that the refrigerator would not die overnight, but we were exhausted and covered in dust. That was the moment we decided manual leveling was not going to work for us long-term, and we began seriously researching automatic RV leveling systems.
The problem was not the time or the frustration. It was the inconsistency. Some campgrounds had firm gravel. Others had soft sand that swallowed our blocks. We camped at a site near Ocala National Forest a few months later where the ground was so soft our blocks sank three inches overnight, and we woke up to everything sliding toward the bedroom. Our absorption refrigerator was running off-level for hours, which we later learned can wreck the cooling unit and cost thousands to replace.
We started researching automatic RV leveling systems that summer. The prices were shocking—$5,000 for the Lippert Ground Control system, plus another few thousand for installation if we did not do it ourselves. We kept telling ourselves we could make manual leveling work. We bought better blocks. We bought a wireless level sensor. We practiced our technique.
None of it mattered when we hit a sandy campground in the Florida Panhandle in August and spent an hour trying to get level in 95-degree heat. The blocks kept shifting. The bubble never stayed centered. Maggie was panting in the shade under the rig, and we were drenched in sweat.
That night, we did the math. If we camped 60 nights a year and spent an average of 30 minutes leveling each time, that was 30 hours annually we were spending on a task a machine could do in two minutes. Over five years, that was 150 hours of our lives we would never get back. The $6,000 price tag for an automatic system suddenly felt reasonable.
We also started hearing horror stories from other RVers. A couple we met in Georgia told us their leveling jack punched through rotted wood at a state park because they could not see the ground condition under their rig. Another friend damaged their frame trying to level on uneven terrain without realizing one side was taking all the weight. Manual leveling is not inconvenient—it is risky if you do not know what you are doing.
By the end of 2019, we had made the decision. We were going automatic. Not because we were lazy, but because we valued our time and our rig too much to keep gambling on manual systems.
Automatic vs. Manual: What $4,000 in Mistakes Taught Us
We wasted close to $4,000 trying to make manual leveling work before we finally committed to automatic. That number includes three different sets of leveling blocks, a wireless leveling app system, jack pads we never used, and a set of stabilizer jacks we bought thinking they would help with leveling. They did not. Stabilizer jacks are designed to stop bounce, not to level your rig. We learned that the expensive way.
The biggest lie we told ourselves was that manual leveling was the budget-friendly option. It is not. You spend money on blocks, then better blocks, then pads to keep the blocks from sinking, then a level sensor because eyeballing it does not work. By the time you have a functional manual setup, you have spent $800 to $1,200 and you still have to do all the work yourself every single time you park.
Automatic RV leveling systems cost more upfront, but they pay for themselves in time saved and mistakes avoided. We have been running our current system since 2021, and it has leveled our rig over 200 times without a single failure. The system we installed cost around $6,500 with parts and professional installation, and we have never regretted it.
Manual leveling made sense when we were camping once a month. It does not make sense when you are on the road 60 nights a year and half those sites are uneven. The math is simple: if your time is worth anything, automatic wins. We have shared more about our full-time RV living experience and the gear that makes it possible over at RV Boondocker, where we break down what actually works on the road versus what sounds good in a catalog.
The Two Automatic RV Leveling Systems We Actually Trust (And Why Everything Else Fell Short)
We installed a Lippert Ground Control system on our Grand Design Reflection in 2021, and it has been flawless through sand, mud, gravel, and one terrifying lightning storm in Tennessee that fried the electrical system at the campground next to us but left our rig untouched. The system uses six independent jacks with a touchpad controller inside the rig. We press one button, and two minutes later we are level within a half-degree.
The installation was not simple. We paid a shop in Lakeland $3,200 to do it because we did not trust ourselves to mount the jacks without hitting a water line or a waste tank. The shop had our rig for three days, and when we picked it up, the system worked perfectly on the first try. We have used it at over 100 campsites since then, including a soggy site in the Smokies where the ground was pure mud and the jacks still held solid overnight.
The one time we thought the system failed was at a beach campground near St. Augustine. We hit the auto-level button and nothing happened. Turned out we had parked on sand so soft the jacks could not find stable ground. We moved the rig 10 feet to a firmer spot, and the system worked fine. That taught us to check ground conditions before we commit to a site, which is advice we should have been following all along.
The other system we trust is the HWH leveling system, which we have seen on dozens of Class A motorhomes at rallies and campgrounds. A friend of ours has been running an HWH system on their Tiffin Allegro since 2018, and they have leveled on everything from asphalt to desert hardpan without issues. The HWH system is faster than the Lippert—it levels in under 90 seconds—and it has a reputation for being nearly indestructible. The downside is cost. A full HWH retrofit runs close to $9,000 installed, which is why we went with Lippert for our fifth wheel.
Everything else we looked at fell short. The Bigfoot leveling system had great reviews, but we could not find an installer in Florida who was comfortable working with it. The Equalizer system looked promising until we read about multiple failures on soft ground. The BAL leveling system is manual-assist, which defeats the entire point of going automatic. The Camco PowerGrip stabilizer jacks are not leveling jacks at all, despite what the marketing says. The Ultra-Fab jacks are solid, but they are manual-only and we were done with manual. The Valterra system is cheap, but it maxes out at 4,000 pounds per jack, which is not enough for our rig. And the Beech Lane system works, but it still requires you to drive onto blocks, which is manual leveling with a fancier app.
According to the RV Industry Association, more RV manufacturers are including automatic leveling as a standard feature on mid-range and luxury models, which tells us the industry recognizes these systems are becoming essential rather than optional for serious RVers.
How We Installed Our Class C Auto-Leveling System Without Destroying Our Plumbing
We did not install the Lippert system ourselves. We paid professionals, and we are glad we did. But we were there for the entire three-day process, and we learned exactly how close we came to disaster.
The shop started by mapping out every water line, waste line, and electrical conduit under the rig. They used a borescope camera to check inside the frame rails before drilling any mounting holes. That camera saved us. The installer found a PEX water line running exactly where the rear passenger-side jack mount needed to go. If he had drilled blind, we would have flooded the underbelly and spent the next week ripping out insulation to find the leak.
They moved the jack mount three inches forward, re-checked clearance, and drilled. The mount went in clean. Then they hit a problem with the front driver-side jack. The frame rail was too narrow to fit the standard bracket, so they had to fabricate a custom spacer plate to spread the load. That added four hours to the job and $400 to the bill, but it was the right way to do it. We have seen DIY installs where people bolt the jacks directly to thin frame rails, and those jacks rip out the first time you level on uneven ground.
The wiring was the scariest part. The Lippert system uses a CAN bus network to communicate between the jacks and the controller, and if you wire it wrong, the whole system goes dead. The installer ran the CAN wiring through the existing conduit alongside the brake wiring, which kept everything clean and protected. He also installed a Southwire Surge Guard 30A Portable inline with the system after we told him about a story we had read online where a lightning strike near a campground had fried someone’s leveling system through the electrical hookup.
When the install was done, we tested the system in the shop parking lot. It leveled the rig in 110 seconds. We have been using it ever since, and it has never missed.
The Mistakes We Made (And the Ones You Can Still Avoid)
The costliest mistake we made was not checking ground clearance before we bought the Lippert system. Our rig sits low, and the jacks we ordered had 18 inches of travel. That sounds like a lot until you park on a site with a six-inch crown in the middle. We maxed out the jacks trying to level side-to-side and had to reposition the rig twice before we found a spot where the system could actually do its job. If we had measured our ground clearance first, we would have ordered the extended-travel jacks and saved ourselves the hassle.
The second mistake was assuming all campsites were solid enough for automatic jacks. They are not. We tried to level on a sandy site near Apalachicola in 2022, and the jacks sank four inches into the sand before we realized what was happening. Now we carry jack pads—12-inch composite pads that distribute the weight and keep the jacks from sinking. We should have bought those on day one.
We also underestimated how much the system would change our camping routine. Before we had automatic leveling, we would pull into a site, eyeball it, and decide if it was level enough to bother with blocks. Now we pull in, hit the button, and we are level in two minutes no matter what the site looks like. That has opened up campsites we used to avoid because they looked too uneven to deal with manually.
The one mistake we are glad we did not make was cheaping out on installation. We know people who tried to install leveling systems themselves and ended up with jacks that did not retract all the way, or wiring that shorted out, or mounts that cracked under load. A bad install can cost more to fix than it would have cost to hire a professional in the first place.
If we were starting over today, we would prioritize three things: ground clearance, jack pad compatibility, and professional installation. Everything else is secondary.
Before You Buy: The One Question That Should Change Your Decision
The question is not whether automatic leveling is worth the money. The question is whether you are willing to spend 30 minutes every time you park fighting with blocks and bubble levels, or whether you would rather press a button and be done in two minutes.
If you camp occasionally and you are always at level RV parks with concrete pads, manual leveling is fine. If you camp frequently, or you boondock, or you end up at state parks with sloped gravel sites, automatic RV leveling systems are not a luxury. They are a necessity.
Before you buy any system, check your RV’s ground clearance and your frame’s weight capacity. Not every rig can handle every system. A Class C RV auto leveling system is not the same as a 5th wheel RV leveling system, and a Class A system is different again. The jacks have to fit your frame, your weight, and your clearance, or they will not work.
Measure your rig. Call the manufacturer. Make sure the automatic RV leveling systems you are considering will actually fit before you spend $6,000 and three days in a shop. That is the one step that will save you more money and frustration than anything else we can tell you.
