OzLevel Motorhome & Caravan

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How to level a motorhome properly (and why most people do it wrong)

I built OzLevel after years of watching people — including myself — spend twenty minutes shuffling ramps at campsites. Here's the method that actually works, whether you use my app or not.

The problem most people have isn't the ramps. It's the sequence.

The standard approach: park, guess at the lean, put ramps under the wrong wheel, drive on, it's worse, shuffle ramps, repeat. Twenty minutes gone before the awning's out.

The correct approach is three steps: measure first, place ramps right, drive on once.

That's it. The entire trick is measuring before you touch a ramp.

Step 0 — solve most of it before you park

As you pull in, watch the cross-fall from the cab. Grass and gravel sites have a slight crown for drainage. Park with your long axis following the crown rather than crossing it.

Roll (side-to-side) is easy to fix with ramps. Pitch (front-to-back) often means repositioning the whole vehicle. Make roll your primary problem to solve.

Step 1 — measure with the engine still running

Apply the park brake. Put your phone flat on the kitchen bench or dinette table. Read your roll and pitch.

You're looking for how many millimetres of rise each low-side wheel needs. OzLevel converts that reading into an exact ramp block count for your specific ramps. A spirit level and some maths does the same thing if you're patient.

Step 2 — place ramps on the low side

Put ramps in front of the wheels that need to come up — the side your reading told you. Set the step height before you touch the vehicle again.

If you're on sand, soft grass, or clay: put plywood or a rubber mat under each ramp. Ramps sink unevenly under a heavy motorhome and the whole calculation goes off.

Step 3 — drive on slowly. Stop. Done.

Walking pace or slower. Ramps can kick sideways on smooth surfaces if you rush.

Stop when you're on the correct step height. Apply the park brake. You're level — because you measured before you placed, there's no recheck loop.

The mistake that wrecks chassis rails

People use stabiliser legs to lift the vehicle level. Don't.

Stabilisers are thin-walled steel designed for light dynamic load — people moving around inside. Not for lifting a 5-tonne motorhome. Wind them down hard and you buckle them. Wind them down very hard and you crack a chassis rail.

Level with ramps first. Stabilisers go down last, to firm contact only.

Solo levelling

No spotter needed. OzLevel has an audio mode — beep frequency increases as you approach level. You watch the ramps in the mirror, the app tells you when to stop. One person, one pass.

Without the app: read your measurement, note the exact step, set the ramp, drive on until you feel both wheels on the platform, stop. Recheck from inside.

The target isn't perfection

RV fridges are rated to ±3°. That's about 105mm of rise across a standard motorhome track width. OzLevel reads to better than 0.5° — six times finer than your Dometic or Thetford actually needs.

If you're within 1–2° you're done. Stop fussing.

Full step-by-step guide (dual-axle, slideouts, soft ground) at ozlevel.com.au/blog/how-to-level-a-motorhome.html

Happy to answer questions — I've been levelling motorhomes long enough to have made every mistake in this post personally.

— Ross, OzLevel 🇦🇺