Over reaction to low clearance?

[travelingjw]

Went to look at new Class C's today. Had our eyes set on a Redhawk 26m as we thought it would be a great boondocking unit. I was shocked when I measured the distance from the ground to the leveling unit, 6.75 inches, and 9 inches to the lowest bracket holding a tank and 9 inches to the bottom of the tank drain pipe connection.

Am I missing something. The levelers were all the way up. and the unit was on flat ground. This seems way too low for even driveway use.

[Happy wife / happy life]

I can think of a couple three places I would be gun shy of taking that unit to in our next of the woods! Lawson’s landing, couple of places in Bodega Bay, Ocean Cove, and a couple a places in Fort Bragg.

[Ttlanders]

We have Greyhawk 29 and I agree it all looks low. We have put 5,000 miles on ours and levelers have never hit anything! The steps are lower and have been bent twice!

[JimD]

My 2017 Greyhawk's levelers were installed too low. They did drag at times when I was going off road with my rig. Dug a few holes in the dirt with those jacks.

I downloaded the manufacturer's installation instructions which clearly gave the height spec, which mine did not meet. I forget if I had to raise them 1 or 2 holes. I have never had any problems with leveling. I can even raise the tires off the ground. Can't imagine how high I could have gone with the jacks too low.

In any event, get the install instructions and use the manufacturer's spec. They would be the best judge of the height. I attached the manual for my levelers just in case you have the same model.

[travelingjw]

Thank you. Are your tank drain valves 9" off the ground. I will contact Jayco for the spec's. This looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

[norty1]

I recall seeing several threads on this subject. I think the solution was to raise them as JimD noted.

Here is one: https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...cks-23502.html

[JimD]

Originally Posted by travelingjw

Thank you. Are your tank drain valves 9" off the ground. I will contact Jayco for the spec's. This looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

Don't know how high they are but I did raise them because they scraped going into my driveway. I cut the pipes and installed rubber couplers to allow a little flex in the lines. Not sure if that actually helped or not. I shoved the valves a couple of inches higher so they were close to the side of the motor home and secured it at that point. It has been awhile but I think I just screwed in the hanger up higher to keep them raised. No drain problems.

One other item I addressed at that time was to tension the leaf spring helper spring. It too was installed incorrectly with no real tension being applied. I think there was a spec as to separation distance from the other leaf springs but I am not sure what the actual spec is. Some people tightened it so there was 2" separation but I was chicken and only set mine to 2-1/2". That stiffened up the rear a tad but I don't think I got any noticeable additional ground clearance.

[pconroy]

As JimD said - I too was able to raise mine up a bit. Not a lot. Maybe an inch or so. But what I did was attach a 'scrape block' to the bottom of the waste gates.

When it does hit and scrape, I'm scraping on the wooden block and not the gate.

[Whitt757]

I bought the Redhawk 26M last week. I'm a new RV'er, but still thought the drain pipes were too low... sure enough, it scraped on the drive way. I adjusted the support strap and got up to 9in. I need to get it higher. is it ok cut the pipes to make them shorter (and further under the rig)? I hope to raise it a couple more inches. I saw someone mention using flexible couplers. Where did you get them? It looks like my pipes are 3in ABS. Hard to find ABS anywhere.

[mini4mw]

As long as there is a downward angle from the tank to the trap door you should be fine. You don't want any part of the trap path going back up. A larger angle is a little better for black tank so it all slides out easy.

Should just be a rubber coupler like the below from HomeDepot's site

https://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Plum...2843/305473572

[Whitt757]

Awesome, thanks!