RV Leveling Blocks: How High Can You Actually Stack Them?

RV leveling blocks are the cheapest thing in the storage bay and the one most likely to be used wrong. The question every owner asks first is how many can safely go under a wheel, and the answer is not what the forums say it is.

This guide covers what the manufacturers of RV leveling blocks actually publish about stacking, the difference between blocks and a drive-on leveler, why the weight ratings are harder to read than they look, and five sets worth considering.

Quick answer. Only one manufacturer publishes a stacking limit. Tri-Lynx recommends no higher than five levelers when leveling under a wheel, and up to eight when stacking under a jack to stabilize. Andersen, Beech Lane, and Camco publish no limit at all. The familiar rule about never going past three or four blocks comes from nobody.

How high can you stack RV leveling blocks?

Tri-Lynx is the only one of the four brands here that answers the question in writing, and it gives two answers because there are two jobs.

Its FAQ says that for leveling in a pyramid, it does not recommend going higher than five levelers, and that for stabilizing, it does not recommend stacking higher than eight. The second number is the taller one because stabilizing means a stack sitting under a jack foot, not a stack being driven onto by a moving trailer.

Two things are worth being straight about. The first is that this is phrased as a recommendation rather than a prohibition. The second is that its own product page gives a slightly different figure to the FAQ, which is why this article counts blocks rather than quoting an inch measurement as though it were settled.

The other three publish nothing. Andersen, Beech Lane and Camco have no stacking guidance on any product page. So the rule you have read a hundred times, that three or four is the maximum, is not a manufacturer position. It is folklore, and the one company that did commit to a number allows more than the folklore does.

With three of the four saying nothing, the height is your call. Two things make a stack safer, and neither of them is a number. Build it as a pyramid, each layer a little narrower than the one under it, so the widest part is on the ground. A column of blocks stacked straight up has nothing bracing it against a sideways push. And keep the top layer wide enough that the whole tire is on it, because a tire sitting on the edge of a stack is what starts the stack moving.

Blocks or a curved leveler?

RV leveling blocks and drive-on levelers are two different tools that sell in the same aisle.

Interlocking blocks are the stacking kind. A Lynx Leveler is 8.5 inches square and 1.5 inches thick, and gives one inch of lift per layer once the interlock is taken up. You build the stack first, then drive onto it, which means guessing the height before you know whether it was right.

Curved levelers are the drive-on kind. You put one wedge in front of the tire and drive up it until the bubble sits where you want it, then stop. Andersen publishes a range of half an inch to four inches at any increment, which is the honest advantage of the design: you are not choosing a height in advance; you are stopping when it looks right.

The trade is that blocks go anywhere. Tri-Lynx rates its levelers for use under single and dual wheels, under tandem axles and under jacks, and sells a cap that gives a stack a flat top for that job. A curved leveler does one thing.

There is also a tandem axle catch that only one manufacturer admits to. Beech Lane states plainly that two of its curved levelers can be used on a dual axle trailer, but that up to four inches may need to be cut off the end of one of them. Andersen publishes nothing equivalent, which is not the same as the problem not existing.

How much of the tire has to be on the block?

Nobody says. Four manufacturers, and not one of them publishes a figure for how much of the tire has to sit on the block, how much overhang is too much, or how wide the stack should be.

That is the odd gap in this whole category. All four publish a weight rating in the tens of thousands of pounds. None of them says anything about the thing that actually decides whether a stack stays where you put it: how much of the tire is on top of it.

Three things can be said without inventing a specification. The tire should be sitting on the blocks, not perched on the edge of them. The stack should be wide enough that no part of the tread hangs over a side. And if you drive up and the tire ends up on a corner, back off and rebuild rather than leaving it there for the night.

Are leveling blocks the same as wheel chocks?

No, and the manufacturers are clearer about it than the retail listings are. This site covers that argument in full in the trailer wheel chocks guide, so here is the short version and where the products land.

Andersen ships a chock with its Camper Leveler and tells you to place it behind the leveler to hold your position after leveling. Read that carefully. The chock is holding the leveler in place, not holding the trailer.

Tri-Lynx draws the same line across two separate products. Its Stop N Chock is described as a wheel guide that cannot be used on its own because it interlocks with the levelers. Its Chock R Dock is described as a chock that can be used independently.

Camco is the one to watch, because its product is called the Curved Leveler and Wheel Chock and ships as two pieces: a ramp and a chock. Camco never writes anywhere that the ramp alone will chock a wheel. The name promises more than the copy delivers, and a reader skimming a listing would not catch the difference.

What do the weight ratings actually mean?

Less than they appear to. The numbers are large, they are published, and they are not all measuring the same thing.

Tri-Lynx publishes 40,000 pounds and does not say whether that is per block, per stack or per trailer. Beech Lane publishes 35,000 pounds for its polymer leveler. Andersen frames its number as trailers up to 30,000 pounds, which reads as a trailer weight rather than a block rating. Camco publishes 30,000 pounds for the curved leveler and, for its FasTen blocks, no capacity at all.

So three brands publish a figure in three different frames, and the fourth does not publish one for its best-selling product. Comparing 40,000 against 35,000 against 30,000 as if they were the same measurement is the mistake the numbers invite.

None of the four publishes what the blocks are made of. Beech Lane says polymer without naming it. The others say strong, durable, heavy-duty honeycomb, and nothing that could be checked.

The specification that is easier to use is the warranty, because it is a promise rather than a description. Andersen and Beech Lane both say lifetime. Tri-Lynx offers ten years with registration. Camco gives twelve months with a receipt.

Five RV leveling blocks worth considering

Every figure below is the manufacturer’s own. Where something is missing from a card, it is missing because the manufacturer does not publish it.

Restful RV is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

What did not make the list, and why

The Camco Super Tri-Leveler. It sells well and it was going to be the sixth pick here. Camco has no live product page for it. It does not appear in the company’s own leveling range, and the capacity and lift figures that turn up in search results come from retailer listings rather than from Camco. A product whose specification cannot be checked against the manufacturer does not get recommended on this site.

The unbranded multi-packs. Page one of any search for these is full of ten and twelve packs from sellers with no manufacturer site behind them. Some are probably fine. None of them publishes a capacity, a material or a warranty that could be verified, which is the whole basis on which the five above were chosen.

What about soft ground and hot asphalt?

One manufacturer addresses the ground, and none of them addresses the heat.

Tri-Lynx says its levelers should work on all surfaces except muddy ground that is prone to sinking, and asks owners to check for large rocks underneath before setting them down, because the point loading from a rock is what cracks a block. That is the only surface guidance any of the four publishes.

On soft asphalt in high summer, nothing is published by anybody. It is a real thing that happens to jack feet and blocks on hot days, and it is worth spreading the load on a wider pad when the surface is soft, but do not let anyone tell you that is manufacturer guidance. It is not written down.

Tri-Lynx does publish one more thing worth repeating, which is that it does not recommend pairing its levelers with other brands, or with wood and stones, because it cannot guarantee how the combination behaves.

Where the work stops

Leveling is one of the few jobs on a trailer with no wiring, no plumbing, and no gas in it. Three things still sit outside it.

Getting under the trailer. Blocks and levelers are not jack stands, and nothing here supports a trailer you intend to lie beneath.

Automatic leveling systems. Hydraulic and electric levelers are a different subject with their own controllers, pumps, and failure modes. None of this applies to them.

Anything that moved while you were under it. If a stack shifts as the trailer settles, the answer is to pull forward and rebuild rather than to nudge a block by hand with the weight already on it.

Quick Answers

Where to go next

RV leveling blocks are the first thing out of the bay on arrival, and the rest of the setup has its own guides here.

• Trailer wheel chocks, which covers the chock question in full, including what the standard actually says and how much force a chock is holding back
• Travel trailer tires, since the tire is what sits on the block, and its size decides what will fit
• Weight distribution hitches, for the other half of getting a trailer to sit right
• The RV towing guide, if you are working through setup from the beginning