[77newell]

Mike: I can't say how others do it, but when I used wood to block it up I would put the blocks crosswise to the steel member that it would be holding up. I once put the steel lined up with the grain in the wood and it split the wood. It didn't completely collapse but I took that as a warning not to do that again. When I've blocked under the skids at the back I put a steel plate on top of the wood to prevent crushing the wood. In the end I found it easier to use jacks, though even with these when jacking on dirt a plate of 3/4" plywood reduces the jack being forced into the dirt. In the back, I jack under the skids at the rear or under the pedestals holding the front of the suspension tubes that connect to the rear axle. The reason I don't use just the skids is that point tends to force the front down as I jack up. With multiple jacks it is possible to minimize exposure to personal crushing, but I just raise the jack to the max that still clear obstructions on the way to my preferred jacking point and keep the jack under structural steel as much as possible on the way to that preferred point. Given how rare catastrophic air bag failures are when stationary and not actually doing anything to the coach, my approach is overkill, but I prefer that. I can understand others taking a different approach.

If your coach is dropping its rear in 24 hours you have a leak somewhere in the 6-pack or beyond towards the air bags. If it is dropping evenly side-to-side then something equally effecting both sides is going on. I don't have experience with tag axle suspension but I'm wondering if losing air in the tag's bags would drop the rear, and if the tag bags are interconnected side-to-side unlike the other axles when parked. Yes, you can run set it up in the level mode with the pump running, but I would not be happy unless my coach stayed level for weeks without additional air needing to be added. Again, that's just me. Others may think about it differently.