Just bought our first popup. Need your opinion.

[brisma]

The wife and I just purchased our first popup.  It is a 1995 Starcraft Starmaster 1224.  It is in great shape and we are planning a few local camping trips before we head off to Arkansas for a week long trip.  The wife and "younguns" are excited and I am excited and a little nervous.  Can't wait to get it out of the burbs and into the sticks.  Now to my question.  Is the BAL leveler as great as everyone claims it to be?  Thinking about purchasing one but just want to make sure.
Thanks
Bris

[macfowl]

I've had one for over a year and it works fine by me. However there has been a select few that have had broken welds? The manufacturer suggest they are used for size 13,14,15 tires. My PU has 12's and has not been a problem. Some that had weld issues suspected wheel sizes on there particular PU weren't compatible with the BAL? I dunno, works fine by me tho.

[4campinfoxes]

IMO it has helped save my marriage.  Using the lynx levelers & backing up, positioning, checking level, repeat, repeat, repeat was pretty furstrating to say the least.  My DH & I do not do well together on the issue of backing & getting the trailer or wheels exactly where DH wants them to be.  

The BAL leveler solves all that, we get it in place once, crank it to level & we're done.  Quicker & with far less yelling & carrying on.

Sharon

[Johnowolf]

I was happy when I finally got my BAL Leveler, just thinking about no more guessing with the Lynx stacks or stacking wood. Then we went on our first camping trip with it. DD (11-yo) really wanted to help, so I set it in place, put the bubble level on the floor, handed her the handle and let her crank it up.

Once I found out DD can level the PU with a BAL leveler in less than 2 minutes, I went from happy to ABSOLUTELY THRILLED! IMO it's one of the best camping purchases I've made (second only to the Coleman Hot Water On Demand [])

[Steve-o-bud]

We really like ours. One slight bummer, is that the jacking screw is covered with grease, so... you need a way to store it so everything else doesn't get greasy. My wife found a canvas bag for it at Cheaperthandirt.com (she got the link hear at Arvee Club). It's about the size of a pizza bag.
 
A friend of ours saw mine, and bought one. He has a cordless impact wrench, and he uses it to crank it up, and that is way cool!

[hoppy]

Once you get over the initial shock of shelling out between $ 60.00 - $ 70.00 for one of these things and get the chance to use it a number of times, they are not too bad. Considering that they not only raise the low wheel to level the PU, they also chock that wheel also helps ease the pain some.

 Are they a must have for the PU equipment, absolutely not.

  I got bye the first 12 years using the boards and chocks with good results. The last 3 years I have been using the BAL leveler.

 Are they a good at what they do..... absolutely!

 Speaking from experience though, keep the screw and pinion gear well greased.  Also have a local welding shop add a few more welds to the saddle plates and lift bar. There have been a run of bad one's sold lately judging from other PU message boards. (failures for wrong diameter thread size in the pinion gear.....much too big, and popping welds on the saddle plates)

 Take note of the diameter of the wheel size it is recommended for .....13", 14", and a large number of 15's. Heard some certain models using 15" wheels would not fit under the tire size used on that rim.