Winter Storage - Legs or No Legs

**walsht** · 11-12-2023, 10:55 AM

Hello All,
New comer to the site and first time Grand Design owner. This is not my first trailer but my first with the automatic leveling. My trailer is outdoors in the Catskill Mountains of NY so cold and snow will be the expectation for the next 5 months. I'm not sure what is best - keep it fully on the legs, keep it fully on the tires, put it up on jacks? All advice is appreciated.

**Calbar** · 11-12-2023, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by walsht

Hello All,
New comer to the site and first time Grand Design owner. This is not my first trailer but my first with the automatic leveling. My trailer is outdoors in the Catskill Mountains of NY so cold and snow will be the expectation for the next 5 months. I'm not sure what is best - keep it fully on the legs, keep it fully on the tires, put it up on jacks? All advice is appreciated.

My owners manual from Grand Design says no landing gear for winter storage so I don't. I also never did with any of my other trailers.

Rob

**Second Chance** · 11-12-2023, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by walsht

Hello All,
New comer to the site and first time Grand Design owner. This is not my first trailer but my first with the automatic leveling. My trailer is outdoors in the Catskill Mountains of NY so cold and snow will be the expectation for the next 5 months. I'm not sure what is best - keep it fully on the legs, keep it fully on the tires, put it up on jacks? All advice is appreciated.

Thread moved to Leveling Systems.
@walsht - you don't say which model RV you have. Does it have the hydraulic or electric leveling system? As full-timers, our landing gear/leveling struts are down 100% of the time when the trailer is not moving. We have spent about half our winters in a place that gets snow and low temps; the other winters in a place that gets the low temps without much snow. In any case, we've never had an issue with leaving the landing gear/leveling system down full-time. I put a piece of pressure treated 2 x 12 under each pad to protect them from water accumulation on the ground. Our struts are hydraulic, so every six weeks or so I wipe them down with a clean cloth and silicone lubricant.

Now - welcome to the forum! You can create a signature block with your RV and tow vehicle information (see mine below). That way you won't have to repeat that information whenever you post or ask a question - and others won't have to ask. You can create a signature by going to:

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Rob

**xrated** · 11-12-2023, 11:39 AM

I have a triple axle Momentum that I store at my house, under an RVport. Front/landing gear is down all winter and trailer is level front to rear, and pretty close to level side to side. What I do though, is air up all the tires to slightly over the tire psi rating of 110 lbs......somewhere in the 112 to 113 psi for all six of them. I also use tire covers on the the street side of the trailer because those will get afternoon sun. The curbside is right next to my detached garage and the sunlight is never an issue on that side.

**Hoopy Frood** · 11-12-2023, 12:16 PM

FWIW, I put ours in storage with only the front legs down. My thought is why expose metal parts to possible corrosion unless necessary. Yes, the hydraulic rams are hard-chrome plated, but why push your luck?

**COGrandDes** · 11-13-2023, 04:02 AM

My fiver is under an RV port and covered on all four sides. No more tire covers for me. It's resting on the front jacks and tires all winter here in CO. I never level it and it sits where it was when I unhooked it. I've never had any issues with storing it this way and never leveled it nor used the leveling jacks in the winter. Before I had the RV Port I always left the nose high to ensure the snow drained off easier from the roof. RV ports are the way to go if you can........

**Scott'n'Wendy** · 11-13-2023, 04:50 AM

I use the electric leveling jacks. The manual says don't, but I see no good reason for that. But I do see a good reason for limiting the pressure on the tires and springs. Because I get a couple feet of snow on the trailer, I want to limit the amount of compression on the suspension. Similar to xrated I "air up" the tires. A lot more though. Goodyear recommends 25% over inflated. I go about 10 to 15%. So I air up my 80psi Endurance to 90psi. Other manufacturers may not have the same recommendations though.
I don't 'auto level' though. I manually have the rear jacks just toughdown. That way the trailer is sitting mainly on the suspension points, but won't be able to compress from snow load.
Like Rob says, actually I better say Second Chance..a lot of Robs around here..full timers often have them down for months, some never move and the jacks have been down for years.

**Steven@147** · 11-13-2023, 06:18 AM

Originally Posted by walsht

Hello All,
New comer to the site and first time Grand Design owner. This is not my first trailer but my first with the automatic leveling. My trailer is outdoors in the Catskill Mountains of NY so cold and snow will be the expectation for the next 5 months. I'm not sure what is best - keep it fully on the legs, keep it fully on the tires, put it up on jacks? All advice is appreciated.

Between the two vastly different leveling systems, Electric or Hydraulic they both seem to work great. If you're just storing the RV for the winter, slides closed, setting on a fairly level site or pad, I should think just using the front landing gear is fine enough. But if you wanted to take some of the weight off the suspension, then using the front and rear jacks would be OK as well. However, If you had the slides out then I would use the full leveling system, all jacks as you want to keep the slides level so they don't get in a bind. And don't use jacks under the slides as these will definitely cause the slide to bind and warp as the rv settles.

We full time so when we stay at a campground for months on end our 6 Way Electric leveling system is fully in use. I can't see any difference in using the leveling system for us fulltimers and those that park the rig just over the winter. But I will say you can read a lot in owners manuals that don't seem to make a lot of sense.

Maintenance of the different systems, yes, will that would be different. The Electric system has individual motors and worm gear shafts inside the tubes on each jack that run the pads up and down, managed by the controller. There is not much you can do with this system as far as maintenance on each jack is concerned, because you can't get inside the jack cylinder tube to re-grease the worm gear shafts. Wish you could.

We have never had a Hydraulic system but I have read, as Second Chance says, you need to wipe down the hydraulic cylinder shafts that are exposed to the elements as these shafts extend and retract through Orings inside the hydraulic cylinders. You don't want anything damaging or contaminating those Orings, if that happens then I would think you start having hydraulic fluid leaks passed the Orings.

**trailrydr** · 11-13-2023, 07:36 AM

4 sided storage here as well. No tire covers because of no direct sunlight. Front cap faces the only opening but still is under shade most daylight hours of the day. Only landing gear is used for storage. Trailer is left fully closed in unhitched position with nothing in tanks from last event - most likely not level front to rear. No problems.