Self Levelling System

Tiger Bear

Tiger Bear

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Joined
Jun 19, 2024
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Location
East Yorkshire, UK
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103,966
MH
Auto-Trail C72
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Since 2015 as a renter, since 2024 as an owner
Parked near to us is a Kontiki with a self levelling system. I mentioned it to our lass that may be desirable for us, and I may add it to the list of other mods for the future, the two main ones being air suspension and solar/battery/inverter upgrade. I told her how they worked.
She: "That sounds good; it'll save you the hassle of being in and out of the van, moving it back and forth, and fannying about with your spirit level. Anything to make it easier for you, you do enough already. How much would it cost to get it fitted?"
(Tippy tappy on t'internet)
Me: "Babe, guess how much it will cost"
She: "Well, you can go bollox with that! It won't hurt you spending a few more minutes doing yourself."


Joking apart, given that our van is a twin axle, and won't weight more than about 3900kg after the air suspension is fitted, and we don't plan to camp on the side of a mountain, is spending about £6,000 justified? I can see the benefit for the triple axle Kontiki, which looks like a Chinese bit of kit, but not necessarily for us.
 
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ChrisL said:
E&P had this as well, but Mick advised me it wasn't very accurate and was more trouble then it was worth, so I didn't have it fitted. I don't know if the Goldsmittch version is better but if anyone is considering it then maybe do some research first.
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With the Goldsmittch it was on the full air, if its set up well it's within about 50kg.
 
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TheMobileWanderer, this video popped up on YouTube today and while a bit long winded as they didn't seem to know too much about the process, it shows what can be done with a bit of enthusiasm ?
The total cost was under £2,500 and that includes the extra steel work that they decided to use as outriggers.
 
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jockaneezer said:
TheMobileWanderer, this video popped up on YouTube today and while a bit long winded as they didn't seem to know too much about the process, it shows what can be done with a bit of enthusiasm ?
The total cost was under £2,500 and that includes the extra steel work that they decided to use as outriggers.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping to do something a bit more refined but, thank you; I've learned more.
 
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Lenny HB said:
That's parts only there is a lot of labour involved with the fitting & with import taxes as well I think it would be more expensive.
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Yeah, my post was a bit of a lazy "why is everything cheaper elsewhere?" type thing, noticing only later that it was just the gubbins.
 
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We've just ordered a Kon Tiki 884 with factory fit levelling & full air suspension. Nearly £14k in total on the price.

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Tiger Bear said:
Joking apart, given that our van is a twin axle, and won't weight more than about 3900kg after the air suspension is fitted, and we don't plan to camp on the side of a mountain, is spending about £6,000 justified? I can see the benefit for the triple axle Kontiki, which looks like a Chinese bit of kit, but not necessarily for us.
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Only once in France, where we could not get onto the ramps for love nor money due to them sliding away from us every time, did we ever really wish we had self levellers.

Now that I've cottoned on to the technique of attaching a piece of old slip mat to each one to roll onto first (which holds the leveller still with the weight of the van), I only sort of wish I had them in the rain :)

If the G&T stays in the glass and the fridge stays on, we're level enough.

Horses for courses, of course.
 
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Hettie's Crew said:
We had air assist added to our Alko rear axle for exactly the same reason. We were at the 2000kg limit when loaded so adding the air assist and going up a size in tyres allowed us to have it reclassified by SV Tech as 2240kg.
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Did you need to increase the plated weight (assuming it was 3.5t). Ours is plated at 3.5t with 2200kg on the rear axle, 1650 on the front.
 
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herald_400rl said:
Did you need to increase the plated weight (assuming it was 3.5t). Ours is plated at 3.5t with 2200kg on the rear axle, 1650 on the front.
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Yes, it was 3.7 from new and went up to 3.85. The B544 is rear heavy having waste and fresh tanks, plus fridge, wardrobe and kitchen storage drawers all in the rear, so 2000kg max is a bit optimistic.
 
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ChrisL said:
E&P had this as well, but Mick advised me it wasn't very accurate and was more trouble then it was worth, so I didn't have it fitted. I don't know if the Goldsmittch version is better but if anyone is considering it then maybe do some research first.
Click to expand...
I have just had the new E&P pro system fitted by SAP Doncaster and was told that the weighing feature isn't available yet, and will get an update in the future. I wouldn't be without the levelling system though now that I have used it a few times.
 
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RedWolf, if you don't mind me asking, how much was it?

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RedWolf said:
I have just had the new E&P pro system fitted by SAP Doncaster and was told that the weighing feature isn't available yet, and will get an update in the future. I wouldn't be without the levelling system though now that I have used it a few times.
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Interesting, E&P must have removed the original weighing system because of the issues that Mick referred too and have been redesigning it. Mine was fitted in 2021 so a while ago now.
 
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ChrisL said:
Interesting, E&P must have removed the original weighing system because of the issues that Mick referred too and have been redesigning it. Mine was fitted in 2021 so a while ago now.
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The system I had fitted has only been available for a few months and can only be fitted by 2 companies for the first year, that’s why I think it’s not available yet, although I stand to be corrected.
 
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I have the Al_KO HY4 system on mine along with full air suspension.

Couple of things to think about.

If you got the full air, you "could" use it to level the van, my system does this rather well.
However,
What it doesn't do is prevent any movement of the van when making love or being in the wind, oh and when walking around. Not that there's a lot of movement in our when these things happen.

Obvioulsy Full air is also expensive, but-

I have had 4 different systems on motorhomes.
E&P-
Goldsmitt
M-Level
AL-KO Hy 4.

All much the same other than the M-Level which was "okish" but not a patch on my current AL-KO HY4 ..

I would rather have any levelling system than Air suspension as the first option.

Our Full Air suspension is "ok" but it's not like an amazing improvement for the 7k or whatever it cost. So it depends what air you are having? if it's just rear semi air bags, ok, but if its a full on job, I would do that later.
 
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We have the AL-KO system on our tandem axle, as would be very difficult trying to level a 6 wheeler with ramps. The AL-KO system can also be operated by mobile phone app, which can also calculate vehicle weight through the hydraulic pressures in the cylinders.
 
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Lenny HB said:
No mention of it on their .co.uk website
Only difference I can see is it can handle auto updates, unless the standard Level-M only has one pump where the pro has two.
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I was told that it is 5kg lighter than the earlier one.

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Lenny HB said:
No mention of it on their .co.uk website
Only difference I can see is it can handle auto updates, unless the standard Level-M only has one pump where the pro has two.
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And also has a hand pump mechanism to raise the legs in case of failure.
 
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Mine has the AL-KO HY4 system fitted and this is the first time away with it. Seems to cope with all I have needed it to so far.
It has the self weigh function as well which is operated by phone on al-ko app.
Rams can be used in pairs, F, R, L & R as well as a slightly raised sleeping function.



IMG_4241.webp
 
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Is there anywhere in the UK that fits the AL-KO HY4 system as from their website, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone…?
 
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Billybob56 said:
Mine has the AL-KO HY4 system fitted and this is the first time away with it. Seems to cope with all I have needed it to so far.
It has the self weigh function as well which is operated by phone on al-ko app.
Rams can be used in pairs, F, R, L & R as well as a slightly raised sleeping function.



View attachment 1053438
Click to expand...
I think mine does the same with the rams, probably very similar as E&P are now owned by Al-KO.
Billybob56 said:
Mine has the AL-KO HY4 system fitted and this is the first time away with it. Seems to cope with all I have needed it to so far.
It has the self weigh function as well which is operated by phone on al-ko app.
Rams can be used in pairs, F, R, L & R as well as a slightly raised sleeping function.



View attachment 1053438
Click to expand...
 
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Lenny333 said:
Is there anywhere in the UK that fits the AL-KO HY4 system as from their website, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone…?
Click to expand...
I think most E&P fitters do it now. We were offered it by Rosmia but already at the max on the rear axle and the rams are a lot heavier, otherwise we would have gone for it.
 
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