Self-levelling legs for caravans

Self-levelling has been a feature offered on motorhomes for some years, but now you can specify a similar remote-controlled system for your new caravan, or have it fitted to an existing van thanks to caravan industry veteran G&S Chassis, which recently showed off its new system at Melbourne’s Leisurefest.

The fold-down self-levelling legs, which are available through both G&S and Hume Caravans and Camping Accessories in Campbellfield (Victoria), draw their power from the caravan’s own 12 volt battery and they are actuated by an infrared hand-held remote control.

Rather than level the caravan’s suspension, the legs do the heavy lifting, first raising the front of the van, then the rear so that they, rather than the van’s suspension, take the load.

G&S says the levelling accuracy is +/- 0.5 degrees and the whole process takes about 30 seconds on average.

As a failsafe, the legs can be operated manually if required, while individual legs can be remotely lowered and raised. However G&S emphasises they're not designed as a substitute for a wheel jack to change a tyre, as employing them individually can transmit undesired stress to sections of the van.

As the legs are located at each corner of the chassis, this makes the van exceptionally stable when raised and avoids the ‘bounce’ you can get in larger vans with conventional drop or wind-down legs.

Large base plates are fitted to allow stability on softer surfaces and G&S also supplies ‘packers’ in different sizes where the site is particularly uneven.

When retracted, the legs fold up out of the way, parallel to the chassis.

The legs are available in three sizes, 510mm, 570mm and 630mm, to suit different caravans from on- to off-road models and are expected to add around 45kg to the weight of a caravan.

They're expected to add $5000 to the cost of a new caravan and around $5500 if retrofitted by G&S to an existing van.

That’s a lot in a budget $50,000 caravan, but a practical and relatively affordable convenience in a large luxury caravan, for which getting a level set-up is both harder and more critical.

Showcasing the Melbourne company's 38 years in the caravan industry at Leisurefest, family-owned G&S also displayed its latest all-aluminium chassis – which it says saves approximately 150kg over a comparable steel chassis – along with its latest 2750kg ATM single axle and new lightweight tandem 3495kg GTM Control Rider suspension systems.