How Do Australians Level Their Motorhomes? We Asked 141 of Them.

The question

Every motorhomer levels — or decides not to. But there's surprisingly little Australian data on how people actually do it. Manufacturer marketing tells you what they'd like you to buy. Forum threads tell you what the loudest voices use. Neither tells you what's typical.

So in March 2026 we asked, plainly: how do you level your motorhome? We posted the question across Australian motorhome Facebook groups — Avida owners' groups and general communities for Fiat-based and other motorhomes — and categorised every response.

141 motorhomers answered. This is what they said.

The results

What stands out

1. The market splits into $10 people and $7,000 people — with almost nothing in between

The two biggest groups sit at opposite ends of the spending spectrum. Nearly a third of respondents level the traditional way: drive on, check a bubble level from Bunnings, adjust, repeat. Meanwhile 28% have hydraulic or electric systems — overwhelmingly Redfoot, with EQ Smart and Bigfoot also mentioned — fitted at a cost that respondents themselves put in the thousands. One respondent was blunt about why they'd never go that route: no interest in "spending $7,000 on levellers."

Between the $10 bubble level and the multi-thousand-dollar hydraulics sits a strange gap. Bluetooth sensors ($190–$350+) occupy part of it at 13%. Smartphone apps — which measure the same thing a Bluetooth sensor measures, using the same class of accelerometer, at a fraction of the cost — barely register at all.

2. Only 1 in 50 uses a smartphone

Two respondents out of 141 level primarily with a phone app. That's not because phones can't do the job — a modern smartphone reads the tilt of a stationary vehicle to better than half a degree, comfortably inside the ±3° tolerance that fridge manufacturers specify. It's because most motorhomers don't know phone-based levelling exists as a serious option.

The strongest evidence for that came from the responses themselves. Several people described their Bluetooth sensor as "an app" — "Savvy Level app on my phone, so easy," as one put it. What they value is the phone experience: a clear screen, numbers instead of a wobbling bubble, guidance instead of guesswork. The $350 box bolted to the chassis is just how they assumed you get it.

3. Australians have invented an entire folk science of levelling

Fifteen per cent of respondents use no instrument at all — and their methods are wonderful. Across the groups we heard every variation of the gravity test: a wine bottle rolled on the floor, a tinned can, a golf ball, a can of beer on the table, water in the sink, whether the fridge door swings itself open, whether coffee stays in the mug. One couple uses two internal doors that open in perpendicular directions — if both stay put at halfway, the van is level in both axes. It's an inner-ear-and-physics approach refined over thousands of nights on the road, and honestly, it works — approximately.

The common thread: all of these are verification methods. They tell you whether you're level. None of them tells you what to do about it — how much to raise, which wheel, how many ramp steps. That gap between "am I level?" and "what do I do?" is where most of the actual time and frustration lives.

4. The pain points are consistent — and specific

Reading 141 responses in a row, the same frustrations repeat:

Bubble levels diagnose but don't prescribe. As one respondent who eventually fitted hydraulics put it, the bubble "told you you were or were not level but did not level it — you had to keep moving the van until the bubbles lined up." That trial-and-error loop — drive on, walk inside, check, drive off, adjust, repeat — is the single biggest time cost in manual levelling.

Hydraulics cost payload as well as dollars. One respondent would love a hydraulic system but noted it "chews into the payload too much." On a motorhome already tight against GVM, a hydraulic levelling system's weight is a real trade-off that the brochures don't dwell on.

Solo levelling is genuinely hard with traditional tools. One respondent asked the group a question their bubble level couldn't answer: how do you gauge the level of the bed from the driver's seat when you're travelling alone? With a spouse calling out corrections it's merely tedious. Alone, it's a walk back and forth for every adjustment.

Everyone has a tolerance — it's just personal. "Close enough" respondents weren't careless; most had a clear standard. Heads above feet. Shower drains. Wine stays on the bench. Compressor-fridge owners were explicit that ditching the 3-way fridge lowered the stakes considerably. Levelling precision is a spectrum, and people sit where their gear and their sleep demand.

What the poll options got wrong — and why that matters

Our original poll graphic didn't include a hydraulic/electric option. We expected it to be a niche answer. Instead, 28% of respondents wrote it in unprompted — which tells you two things: first, hydraulic systems are far more common among Australian motorhomers (particularly Avida owners) than the caravan-centric coverage of levelling suggests; second, people answer honestly when the options don't fit, which gives us more confidence in the rest of the data.

The honest disclosure

But the finding stands on its own: 31% of Australian motorhomers are doing trial-and-error laps of their vehicle with a bubble level, 15% are rolling wine bottles across the floor, and 11% have given up entirely — while carrying, in their pocket, a sensor that can measure both axes at once and tell them exactly which wheel to raise and by how many ramp steps. Not because the phone can't do it. Because almost nobody has told them it can.

Methodology

Survey period: March 2026.

Where: Australian motorhome Facebook groups, including Avida owners' groups and general communities for Fiat-based and other motorhomes.

How: An image poll asking "How do you level your motorhome?" with five suggested options (manual blocks, bubble level + guesswork, existing hardware system, smartphone app, don't bother). Responses were free-text comments, not structured poll votes.

Sample: 141 usable responses after excluding duplicates (respondents who answered in multiple groups were counted once), non-answers, and aspirational answers (people describing gear they intend to buy).

Categorisation: Each response was binned by the respondent's primary measuring method. Where multiple methods were mentioned (e.g. a Bluetooth sensor plus ramps), the measuring method took precedence over the adjustment method. Hydraulic/electric systems were not a poll option and represent write-in responses. "By eye / improvised" covers respondents using no instrument — visual judgement, feel, or household objects.

Limitations: Facebook group respondents skew toward engaged, active travellers; comment-based polls over-represent people enthusiastic about their method (particularly premium hardware owners). Percentages are rounded and sum to 99%.

Questions about the data, or want to cite it? Contact us at support@ozlevel.com.au — we're happy to share the breakdown with journalists and publications.