It’s evidently a superpower I never knew I had. I can hop out of our truck, survey the situation before us and – within seconds – determine where the most level parking area probably is located.
Sometimes it requires some weird hand gestures tracing the contours of the terrain, but I always find it. Look! Near that drain in the upper right side. If we straddle it just right, we’ll be level.
Then I hop back in the truck, pull into the location site and make a final call. Are we level enough in this spot for the night? Note that perfectly level isn’t the objective. We are fine with level enough.
What is level enough? If we get in our non-slide camper and don’t feel like the camper is leaning in any particular direction, we are level enough. We do not have a bubble level in our truck, on our camper, or in our camper. If we feel level, we start making dinner. That’s that.
If we are assigned a campsite that feels un-level, we will either ask for a more level site or (if that’s not possible) unhook and remove the turnbuckles and level the camper with the jacks. Once the camper feels level, we make dinner. It’s all about making dinner.
When we first started truck camping back in 2005, we read online that propane refrigerators need to be level. For months we were obsessed with making sure our camper was perfectly level wherever we camped.
Then a service tech at an RV dealership literally laughed at us and said, “Hey, if you feel level, your refrigerator is fine. Just don’t regularly park off level and leave your refrigerator running.” We haven’t looked at a bubble level since.
Above: A level-checking mod by fellow truck camper, Bill Elwell
When we’re out camping with fellow truck campers, we have noticed that quite a few folks perfectly level their campers. Some have bubble levels in their trucks. Others have bubble levels on their campers. Whatever the case may be, they get the bubble in the center every time they camp.
This week’s Question of the Week is, “Do you level your truck camper rig every time you park?”
If you do, tell us how you do it, and why. If not, why not? Are you level-headed, or do you just judge the horizon – and make dinner?
This QOTW is now closed. Responses will be in TCM next week.
