Bigfoot Leveling Jacks Install and Review

Arriving at a campsite and realizing the site isn’t as flat as it looked in the pictures can be frustrating. If you don’t have a leveling system on board you are going to be doing it manually, or not at all, but you should.

The RV needs to be level for a couple basic reasons:

1. The water system and drains. Unlevel motorhomes won’t have the shower and sink drains completely draining and may leave standing water.
2. The fridge need to be relatively level to work properly. This is not necessarily the case for residential refrigerators, but the dual mode RV type refrigerators need to be close to level, or they just will not turn on and work properly.
3. Sleeping on an incline at a strange angle doesn’t bode well for good sleeping.

Leveling manually can be just fine, though sometimes very time consuming. When we go camping, we usually arrive later since we cannot leave during the day, because you know, full time jobs take precedence.

The first time out with the new motorhome was a couple of weeks ago and we had a very unlevel site. I had brought a few pieces of wood, but not nearly enough. The RV ended up not completely level, and not after some choice words and tense moments. Did I mention it was very dark? We have been so used to having the leveling jacks that I didn’t plan enough time for leveling the unit once we get to our destination. At that moment, I realized I should look into a leveling system.

I set out to do some research on what is out there currently in the hydraulic leveling jack arena. There appear to be 3 main competitors: HWH (Hard Working Hydraulics), Equalizer (Lippert), and Bigfoot (Quadra).

HWH is used by a few coach builders. I called them up to get some additional information and specs. I tried 4 times to call before heading back to their website, which appears to have been made with Microsoft Front Page. In what I could find they seem to boast about having water tight connections and a few options that will suit more needs with varying layouts. I never could find out how much they cost and the website wanted me to contact a dealer. No thanks.

Lippert makes the Equalizer system and had that system on my previous RV. Their system is $3,195. It uses a 4 jack setup that is auto leveling. The website only lists the one system for Ford E450 chassis. Warranty is 1 year. When I spoke with them on the phone they were friendly at first and gave me all the information I needed. Their cylinders are made overseas which is likely why there is a 1year warranty, but they did not respond to me on that question. My system only had one issue and required replacement of the cheap plastic connection between the electric motor and the pump. I believe it was a $5 part. Electrical connections are mostly uncovered and not waterproof. Install was going to cost $550 and they had availability right away.

Quadra makes the Bigfoot system. It was extremely similar to the Lippert system, except the Bigfoot system has a different control panel, bracket design and the limit switches are a cheap mechanical setup. Warranty is longer at 2 years and Quadra claims Lippert stole their idea and they have the best system in the business. Their system was $3,370. Quadra does make a cheaper version called “platinum” which does not have the auto level. Calling something normal and platinum for most people would think platinum is better, but this is the opposite and was confusing at first. I was told the cylinders are all made in the US, but they did not elaborate on the pump or other electrical components. If you would like them to install the system the wait is months and they charge $850. If you want to pay with a credit card, add 3%. If you want to have the system shipped that is $175. All in for them to install it you are looking at north of $4,500.

After looking everything over, I chose the Lippert system. I already had experience with their system and there was the price difference. I was going to pony up for the install as well. Unfortunately, Lippert never answered the phone, nor returned any of my phone calls. I am not going to hound people to buy stuff from them. So, I called Quadra up and they were more than willing to take my money. Given the significantly higher cost of install and the fact I had to wait until October to get an appointment, I decided to install on my own. Jayco thankfully welds all the brackets needed to install the system when they build the coaches so most of this would be bolt on. Now I wait for the system to get here.

In typical pandemic fashion, the jacks did not arrive when they were supposed to and I had to call them to find out what was going on. The sales guy said I should give him a call back in a couple days. I’m not sure what happened to, “I have your contact information and I will call you when they arrive. I expect them to be here on X date and if they aren’t here by then I will call to update you.” I mean, that sounds simple.

They did finally arrive and I drove down to White Pigeon to pick them up. Relatively easy pickup and drove home. Oddly, I saw no RVs in the shop which made me wonder why they couldn’t schedule anything. Maybe they were in between appointments?

The unboxing was fairly uneventful. Only things to note:

1. Many electrical connectors that sit under the motorhome are not waterproof with Molex style connectors. These WILL corrode and fail.
2. Fittings and fasteners are a MIX of SAE and metric. Who does that?
3. Instructions do not have a part/fastener list
4. No zip ties included (you need a lot of zip ties for this)
5. No hydraulic or ATF fluid included

Before you start….unplug and remove the battery cables. Even the Cab battery underhood.

First thing up was to figure out where to put the controller pad and the brain box. In the 31F floor plan there are a few spots for the control pad and you can really mount it anywhere as long as the supplied 8 pin connector will reach. The controller brain (level sensor) can also be mounted anywhere though Quadra recommends under the driver/passenger seat. They do include a bracket that will allow wall mounting, but that was not needed for this installation. I found a good spot with the rest of the electrical switches and used the mounting flange as a template to cut the hole with the Dremel. Note: The thin wood board the RV places use seems to have a lot of chemicals in it and the dust is pretty bad so a shop mask/respirator may be useful here. I ran the cables under the cab. Typically the RV OEMs will use a hole saw and drill a large 2" hole just behind the driver seat for most of their cables to come through.

Next up was mounting the pump assembly. Quadra supplies a bracket that bolts right to the existing frame. It is unpainted and needs to be primed and painted to prevent rust. I’d recommend Rustoleum Pro rust remover/preventer. A great youtuber Project Farm did a review of quite a few paints recently and the Rustoleum Pro brand did very well. The bracket holes didn’t quite line up where I wanted so I ended up measuring and drilling another hole to mount the bracket. Mounting the pump assembly was a bear. It is not light. Quadra only supplies 2 bolts to mount this and I believe this to be inadequate given the thin wall of the steel used here. With chassis vibration, 2 fasteners may cause premature failure of electrical components or fatigue cracking of the metal. I grabbed 2 more bolts/nuts and it definitely feels more secure.

Next up was to run the power cable and here is where it started to go south. They just didn’t include a cable long enough. I read through the instructions a few times. They list a couple of locations to install the pump. Unfortunately, the way my coach was built (and every Jayco/Entegra/ForestRiver) with the single super slide the pump really only had one viable location. The power cable was about 3–4 feet too short. After speaking with their tech guy he agreed I needed a new cable and sent me to the sales guy. It took him a while to call me back. Quadra would be willing to send me a correct length cable, but I would need to pay shipping. This was a shock and quite frankly upsetting since the kit should have included everything needed to install it. The sales guy commented that this is a universal system and sometimes this happens and they can’t predict all the coaches and builds. I’m sorry, but this is your only business is to make leveling systems for RV’s and that is not an excuse. This is the kind of response from a terrible company with zero focus on customer service. I did just happen to have 4 gauge cable at the garage and enough to make the run with some left over. It does really suck that I had to use $50 of my own cable to install a system that is supposed to come with everything.

The kit comes with an 80 amp circuit breaker. This can be installed anywhere, but again with open connectors it is recommended (not by quadra) typically that you install somewhere that will not get wet or sprayed with salt. There was just enough room in the step well near the battery to install the breaker. I then used the too short cable from the kit to make the run from the breaker to the battery. I then went back to the pump assembly to make the ground connection. The instructions say there is a ground block/point near the rear axle. I could find no such ground, so I just made my own on the frame. The frames are coated with some relatively heavy paint (which makes it odd they rust so fast) so you need a wire wheel to clean it up first. After putting the ground on, I sprayed it with primer and will likely spray with undercoating as well later.

Onto the electrical harness routing. There is one giant wire harness. Really, this should be broken up into several sections. I would be curious to know what percentage of people install themselves vs. having them install. The harness should first go up into the cab through the 2" hole just behind the drive seat. Once the connection is made to the controller box, you need to run the yellow wire that sticks out of the main harness to an ignition “on” source. The manual does NOT call out the correct wire colors for 2020+ coaches. For these models you need to find the purple wire with the orange tracer and not a yellow one (on the ford harness). The ford harness does not have plastic sheathing on it and just has electrical tape. I did probe the wire first to check for power with ignition on. I used a water tight in line connector that uses a heat gun to melt the solder and the glue/sealant. They work really well and are cheap. Under the chassis is where the zip ties are needed. A lot of them, but hold off until after the hydraulic lines are on. There are sections that branch off to the jacks themselves for the “up” sensors. Route them in places where they will be away from hot and rotating components. This harness appears to be universal and there will be additional wiring that needs to be tied up in bundles. There are two holes cut into the top of the pump metal to route the harness into. Oddly, this run of wires was more than enough and I had to actually route the main harness around the chassis braces for a loop because it was too long. Once the wire harness was basically laid out it was time for the jack install.

The jacks can be assembled mostly on a bench. First install the foot pads with a 1 1/16" socket and impact driver. Then put the rod through the barrel just above it and then attach the limit sensor and tighten with a 3/4" wrench.

Pull the upper and lower caps off and install the 90 degree elbows supplied in the kit. You will use the male/male fittings on the E450 and the 9/16" nut side goes on the jack. Once those are put together take each one over to its respective corner. These are heavy so if you feel like getting a workout you can do this by hand or grab the floor jack to position it. Quadra recommends 6–9" of clearance from the bottom of the foot pad to ground. The fronts are not likely to meet this and will be somewhere in the 5–6" range given the clearance to the body. Later on I found that I will need to adjust an additional one slot down as the coach could not get level even at full extension. There is no good way to attach these fasteners. I ended up using a long ratchet with a short (3/4" or 19mm) and an open end. It says to torque to 70ft. lbs, but there is almost no way to get a torque wrench in there. A long socket will not fit so I put the bolts in facing out toward the wheel. Paint everything after. One note: leave the fronts off, but the rears can go on. The upper fitting (hydraulic) will be very difficult to tighten when it is installed.

After the jacks are in place, its time for the hydro lines. Green = pressure. Black = return. The fronts are easy to run. The rears were a huge pain. There is no good spot to feed the rear through on the driver side where they connect to the pump. Connect the return lines with a……15mm, but leave the green pressure lines disconnected.

Once all the lines are run, go back and zip tie everything. Carefully. Really plot out the shaking of the vehicle and how the coach builder ran everything. It is likely the wiring job was really bad, so you may end up spending a few hours under there like I did unscrewing up a lot of the wiring. Once you finish tying everything up; go back and check it all again. Pull on the harnesses a bit to make sure nothing is going to sag down while bouncing down the road.

If you haven’t already gone to buy ATF fluid for the pump go get some Dextron 3 (at a min). I was going to call Quadra to see if a good synthetic would bee good with a higher Dextron rating, but I doubt they would know their own product well enough. The whole system will take approximately 5–6 quarts. This all depends on how the next step goes.

Time to see if it actually works. The system needs to be bled. I started with the furthest line. Turn the panel on. This panel is SUPER SLOW to respond. It needs to be in manual mode. You have to actuate each solenoid to get fluid in the system. Basically, get a drain bucket and put it under the line. Quadra recommends 2 people for this. Yes that would be helpful, but not necessary. Run the jack you have the bucket under until you hear the pitch of the motor change. That usually tells you fluid went out one end. Check the bucket. Fluid there? Great, connect the pressure line to the jack with your…..15mm and move to the next jack. Once you are all done, go bolt the front jacks up to their final resting place. Time to test the whole system.

The system still needs to bleed so Quadra asks you extend the jacks fully for 15 minutes. I actuated the rears first and then the fronts and just let it sit. As it is hanging out, go check for leaks. After the 15 minutes, retract all the jacks and check for leaks. If not leaks, congrats you are done except for putting everything back together in the RV and don’t forget to put the cover on the pump assembly.

Reviewing the operation was frustrating to say the least. The supplied instruction manual is archaic. It is not laid out in any sort of real order and had almost no trouble shooting guides. The system itself when it does operate in extend mode seems to do a good job and actually sounds more substantial and higher quality than the lippert system. Maybe the pump is better. Retract is a different story. The whole coach initially thunks down before the pump kicks on and feels as though the rig is going to fall. The noise level is on par with the Lippert system, but I was hoping it would be quieter. When you pull into a campsite at 11pm on a Thursday people don’t want to hear dump truck like noises next door as you level your RV.

The control panel is not very informative and is extremely slow to respond to inputs. In fact, the whole system is really slow. There is a 15–20 second delay between the time you press auto level and when it actually starts the process. Pressing the manual button usually does nothing and sometimes I am surprised to come back and find it had eventually illuminated manual after 5–10 minutes. Again, almost no information in the manual about most of this.

Update: Before the system would level, the “air bleed” light would come on and nothing would happen for the 15–20 seconds. For some reason after 10–15 times leveling that light does not illuminate any more and leveling starts after about 5 seconds.

As talked about earlier, the initial position I selected for the front jacks is not sufficient to level the coach even on my slight slope driveway. I did manage to do the relearn procedure for “true level” but the front jacks are completely maxed out and it still is slightly off.

If your time is money and you’ve never done an install like this I would say it is worth the cost to have the company install it. The battery cable issue would not have come up as they would have just fixed in house. Same thing with the fluids. The ATF fluid was $58 and I probably spent $5 gas getting there and back. I used probably $15 in zip ties and other brackets I have laying around. My time is of course not worth anything so I’d rather save the money. If you are OCD about how things are put together I would do this on your own. As wise people have said in the past, “If you want it done right, do it yourself.”

So, here is a rating (1–10 scale):

Part Quality — 6

Non waterproof connectors for many parts. No fluid. Wrong parts. Some cheap components. Mix and match SAE/Metric. Why use SAE at all on a motorhome that was built with all metric parts? Company seems stuck in the dark ages.

Ease of install — 4

With incorrect parts and terrible customer service from sales (tech department was actually good) hard to give a higher ranking. First timers will likely spend 10 hours on install. Multiple sizes of fasteners and multiple types.

Cost — 6

Other systems are cheaper and appear to deliver the same experience. With the cost, it should have included fluids. The nickel and dime for using a credit card and shipping was annoying. Also highest cost of install.

Performance — 6

Once the jacks were doing the auto level procedure it did go faster than previous leveling jack systems. However, retracting the jacks always made me jump and think the RV was going to come crashing down. Again, control pad way to slow. Manual mostly unhelpful.