Parking Navion 24J on sloped driveway

[RealPatMurph]

Good afternoon! I am a new member here and prospective Winnebago owner in the future. Apologies if I posted in the wrong sub forum.

My brother in law purchased a 2019 Winnebago Navion 24J. His family will be staying at our home in August for about a month. A question we had was how doable is parking it on our sloped driveway for that month and still maintaining usability from it. Some details about my concrete driveway:
- 29’ in length from garage to sidewalk (measuring from eve to account for height of Winnebago)
- Approximate 27’6” drop in height (slope) from top of driveway to sidewalk

I will attach some photos to get some expert opinions here.

[Morich]

The slope is always a question but there may be one that comes up and harder to solve!
Are you in a city and will HOA or city regs be aproblem.

We live in a small suburb outside of Austing , Tx and it seems "Karen" lives on every corner. We like topre-cool the frig by pluggin in the night before trips and often don't want to unload the frig the night we come back from trips, so we connect the Rv with cords at those times.

Karen has turned us in twice for "living in the rv". Not hard to explain to the police and it is okay but we also do not have regs nor HOA to be breaking any rules!
With the homeless population, folks in this area are getting really quick to assume we are sheltering somebody!

But if we assume no problems in that area, I would look at these other factors on the slope. The overall length of the RV is not as important as where the end of the RV and the front wheels space out to be as those are the two controlling how high it goes.
With that slope, going with the rear on the high side will be important as you DO NOT
want to lift the rear wheeels off the ground and lifting the front tends to be much safer and more stable than lifting the rear.

Part of the question will take some testing/looking at how the Rv is built. Does it allow lifting the front high enough to get somewhat level without the rear being bottomed out on the drive?

But the level measured doesn't need to be at the sidewalk, only at the point where the front wheels will set as a fair amount of the length is in front of the wheels and not a factor.

I judge it to be an open question that needs more testing/looking.

[RealPatMurph]

Thanks for the response!

No HOA, Karens, or city regs to worry about in my neighborhood.

So backing in the 24j is probably the safest bet. Then measuring from where the wheels would be because of the amount of “travel” or “play” they have when on an uneven surface?

Would it be ideal to back up the driveway partially, then place ramps behind the front wheels and back up the rest of the way on to the ramps to level it out.

Originally Posted by Morich

The slope is always a question but there may be one that comes up and harder to solve!
Are you in a city and will HOA or city regs be aproblem.

We live in a small suburb outside of Austing , Tx and it seems "Karen" lives on every corner. We like topre-cool the frig by pluggin in the night before trips and often don't want to unload the frig the night we come back from trips, so we connect the Rv with cords at those times.

Karen has turned us in twice for "living in the rv". Not hard to explain to the police and it is okay but we also do not have regs nor HOA to be breaking any rules!
With the homeless population, folks in this area are getting really quick to assume we are sheltering somebody!

But if we assume no problems in that area, I would look at these other factors on the slope. The overall length of the RV is not as important as where the end of the RV and the front wheels space out to be as those are the two controlling how high it goes.
With that slope, going with the rear on the high side will be important as you DO NOT
want to lift the rear wheeels off the ground and lifting the front tends to be much safer and more stable than lifting the rear.

Part of the question will take some testing/looking at how the Rv is built. Does it allow lifting the front high enough to get somewhat level without the rear being bottomed out on the drive?

But the level measured doesn't need to be at the sidewalk, only at the point where the front wheels will set as a fair amount of the length is in front of the wheels and not a factor.

I judge it to be an open question that needs more testing/looking.

[lenore]

Be careful about your thought of backing on to ramps, one slip and thru the garage. Do you have a floor jack? I would jack front end and place the ramps. Lots safer. Dont forget to chock the rear wheels first.

[wyocamper]

From the picture it almost looks like the slope is a bit less at the top, nearer to the house. If you get backed up as far as possible you might be able to level it without grounding the rear end on the driveway. You might need blocks under the front jacks, and possible a stool to reach the steps. I would definitely chock the rear wheels. Some people don't like having the front tires off the ground but it doesn't really bother me, especially if it's just a few days.

The only issue I see with backing up onto ramps is that you will be backing toward the house and you have to kind of gun it to get up onto the ramps. Easy to imaging how things could go wrong there.

[Morich]

QUOTE:
So backing in the 24j is probably the safest bet. Then measuring from where the wheels would be because of the amount of “travel” or “play” they have when on an uneven surface?

I'm sure I did not make myself clear on this!
What I meant was the amount of drop at the driveway end is notthe important point but where the front wheels wind up is where one needs to ook at the amount of drop.

Pictures can be very misleading but it looks like the upper part of the drive drops at less angle than further from the house??? Looking between the two cars, the slope doesn't look like much but it does look like the further out it goes, the quicker it drops, so the one way to get a real idea is to have the Rv there and take a look at how it fits.

And that is likely to be one of the things you would like to get worked out, before committed to it staying there.......Just another complication to work around!

Reason for saying rear wheels on the ground is that is where the trans. and park brake work and if you lift them off the ground there is far less to keepthe whole thing from running down hill. If the rear is up and the front rolls, it can topple off anything holding the rear and that is bad news!

[Sparky19053]

We live on a slope and have the 2021 24V model. Our model model has hydraulic leveling. We can manual control any one for the four corners/ jacks. Like others we like to pre cool the firg the night before so we back in and chock the rear wheels. Next I use three 8 x 8" wood blocks under the two front jacks. This enables me to gain 4.5" of height plus the six inches the jacks offer. When lifted it looks like a moon launch about to happen. When backing in remember to leave enough room behind the RV to allow for the tilt back when you raise the front. Whatever you do don't lift the rear on a hill.

[bigb]

I have put the front of mine on ramps (same chassis as Navion) I made of solid wood, be very careful with the store bought plastic ramps, they work OK if you jack the vehicle up and place them but can slide/crush when trying to drive onto them with a 10,000 lb motorhome. I would not attempt to back onto them but rather jack the front end up. Be careful as there are specific lift points on that Sprinter, if you want to know the exact spot to lift the front end I can get you a pic. Do NOT try and lift the entire front end with a floor jack on the center of either of the two front cross members, they will bend. Either one side at a time or use a cross beam.

[Podivin]

To me it also looks like the top of the driveway is more nearly level than the bottom.
I see that the 24j is about 26' long, with a substantial rear overhang. The average double wide driveway is 20 - 24 feet wide. There isn't a picture that shows what's beside the white car, but it might be able to back the RV up the driveway and then park it across the driveway at the top, with the rear overhang over the yard beside the driveway. It might take a bit of wiggling to get it into the space, but once it's there leveling should be easy.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by RealPatMurph

- 29’ in length from garage to sidewalk (measuring from eve to account for height of Winnebago)
- Approximate 27’6” drop in height (slope) from top of driveway to sidewalk

Surely that is wrong.

A 27 foot 6 inch drop in a 29 foot driveway? The driveway is at an almost 45 degree angle? The RV refrigerator is not going to work unless it is all electric and people are going to have a really hard time walking.

Unless you meant a 27.6 inch drop.

[rreynolds51]

No problem parking and using it, except the fridge. I wouldn't use the fridge when it is unlevel like that but the rest should be okay.

[Rick 99037]

I've seen this topic come up before. And it was mentioned the hydraulic leveling systems are not designed for holding the wheels off the ground, changing tires, or for long term high loads.

Example warning:
DO NOT USE LEVELING JACKS (OR AIR SUSPENSION) TO SUPPORT VEHICLE
WHILE UNDER COACH OR CHANGING TIRES. THE HYDRAULIC LEVELING SYSTEM
IS DESIGNED AS A LEVELING SYSTEM ONLY. DO NOT USE AS A JACK OR IN
CONJUNCTION WITH A JACK. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT, SHOULD A
TIRE CHANGE BE REQUIRED, A KNOWLEDGEABLE AND TRAINED PROFESSIONAL
PERFORM IT. ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE TIRES WHILE SUPPORTING THE VEHICLE
WITH THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM COULD RESULT IN DAMAGE TO THE MOTOR HOME AND RISK CAUSING SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH.

OPERATION CAUTION NOTES!
CAUTION - CHECK THAT POTENTIAL JACK CONTACT LOCATIONS ARE CLEAR OF OBSTRUCTIONS OR DEPRESSIONS BEFORE OPERATION.

CAUTION - KEEP PEOPLE CLEAR OF COACH PRIOR TO TURNING THE LEVELING SYSTEM ON AND WHILE THE LEVELING SYSTEM IS IN USE.

CAUTION - NEVER EXPOSE HANDS OR OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY NEAR HYDRAULIC LEAKS. HIGH PRESSURE OIL LEAKS MAY CUT AND PENETRATE THE SKIN CAUSING SERIOUS INJURY.

CAUTION - PARK COACH ON REASONABLY SOLID SURFACE OR JACKS MAY SINK INTO GROUND. ON EXTREMELY SOFT SURFACES, USE LOAD DISTRIBUTION PADS UNDER EACH JACK.

CAUTION - NEVER LIFT THE WHEELS OFF THE GROUND TO LEVEL THE COACH.

[Sparky19053]

Rick, thanks for posting your comments. Foolishly I recently use the aft jacks to lift the rear wheels off the ground and install extended valve stems on the inter tires. I should of know better too.

[thataway4]

Years ago, we had probably the first Winnie Adventurer 38' Diesel pusher. Had to park in MIL drive, backed in, and rear down hill. Rear tires on blocks, and chocks behind the front tires, jacks down with blocks under also. This was in Mississippi in the middle of winter. There was no parking brake, and the only "Hold" in "park" on the Allison transmission was a single pawl.

One night at about 2 AM, I fell out of the bank as the RV shook violently. Being from Calif. I shouted the immediate response "Earthquake". My wife was still in the bed, and laughing her head off. Somehow the chocks slipped, the blocks failed, and the rig rolled about 100 feet down the hill stuck between two pine trees with no damage to the coach.

The next morning, we got a wrecker with a long cable out to winch us out. He told me that this happened far more often than might imagine!

In your situation, I would be very careful, use heavy chocks under both rear wheels, which stay on the ground--be sure there is rear clearance as you bring the front up. We have faced the same issue with our 25' VIA, also on the Sprinter Chassis. We did use Harbor Freight ramps for the front wheels, but backed up as far as possibles and then went forward onto the plastic ramps.

I also don't see where there is a 27'9" drop in the about as 26 foot driveway. You could not back your car or truck up a 45* incline safely. The RV has to be within 8* of being level fore and aft for the adsorption refrigerator to work properly. If excessive there could be damage to the refrigerator.

[NYBobbo]

my driveway slopes down also... I just leave it there and don't worry. The night before I head out I put my 24J in the street and turn on the fridge which is always cold by morning.


Getting home from a trip I leave it in the street if I get home too late and deal with the fridge etc. in the AM


BTW... I've noticed that my front end is lower than the rear, therefore, to level my 24J I actually look for a bit of an uphill slope to pull into before I drop the HWH.

[DrMack]

A bigger challenge than leveling might be scraping the rear end when entering the driveway.