Level your vehicle
Read inclination, calibrate BRAIN, and display height compensation in centimeters.
The BRAIN measures how tilted your vehicle is, lengthwise and sideways. Using track width and wheelbase, the app converts the angle to centimeters and tells you where to place wedges or ramps. This guide shows you the way using a van as an example.
What you need
- Revotion app 1.2.14 or newer and BRAIN firmware 2.4.0 or newer for display in centimeters.
- A Bluetooth connection to the BRAIN. The app won't show inclination via REMOTE.
- A BRAIN with an inclination sensor. The BRAIN Lite doesn't have one and therefore won't show an inclination angle.
- "Camper" is selected as the vehicle type. There is no height compensation for boats.
- A level parking spot for calibration and a measuring tape for track width and wheelbase.
The three places in the side menu
Open the sidebar menu using the three lines at the top left. For leveling, you need three entries there:
- ① Configuration: Here you select the installation position of the BRAIN, calibrate, and read the compensation with instructions.
- ② My Vehicle: Here you enter track width and wheelbase. Tap on your vehicle's image to do this.
- ③ Add Widget: Here you add the "Inclination Angle" tile to your home screen.
Open inclination angle
Tap Configuration in the side menu. You'll land in the "My REVOTION® Network" overview.
Under "System Settings", tap the Inclination Angle tile.
If the tile is missing, the BRAIN firmware is too old or your BRAIN doesn't have an inclination sensor. How to update the firmware is explained in the article How do I update my Brain?
Select installation position
The BRAIN needs to know how it sits in the vehicle. Scroll in the dialog to the Brain Position in Camper section.
- ① Selection: Each row represents a surface: floor, ceiling, front wall, rear wall, left wall, or right wall. In the appropriate row, tap the image that is oriented the same way as your BRAIN.
- ② Selected: Your choice appears here in plain text, in the example "Floor · Connector facing rear". Compare the sentence with the installation in your vehicle.
If the installation position is incorrect, the system will calculate the tilt incorrectly. The choice is transferred to the BRAIN as soon as you start calibration in the next step.
Calibrate
Park your vehicle level before you calibrate. The BRAIN will remember this position as the zero position, and all future readings will be based on it.
- ① Start calibration: Keep the vehicle still for at least 10 seconds afterward, so don't get in and don't move anything. The app shows "Keep vehicle still…". It can also take a bit longer.
- ② Delete calibration: Discards the zero position again. The app then won't show any inclination until you calibrate again.
When calibration is complete, the card shows Calibrated with a green checkmark. If the vehicle moved during this time, the app will report it. Just start the calibration again.
Read inclination in degrees
After calibration, the measured values appear at the top of the dialog.
- ① Measured inclination: "Longitudinal · X-axis" is the inclination from front to back, "Lateral · Y-axis" is from left to right. Below that is the rating, in the example "Slight inclination".
- ② Height compensation: As long as track width and wheelbase are missing, only a note appears here to enter them in the vehicle data. A centimeter value only appears once you have these measurements.
The app deliberately doesn't make a recommendation here. Without your vehicle's measurements, any centimeter value would be a guess.
Measure track width and wheelbase
For the compensation, what matters is where your vehicle stands, not how large the body is. So measure at the chassis:
- Track width: the distance between the two wheels of an axle, from tire center to tire center. This doesn't mean the width of the superstructure.
- Wheelbase: the distance from the center of the front axle to the center of the rear axle. This doesn't mean the length of the vehicle.
- You can usually find both values in the vehicle manufacturer's technical data as well.
The difference is significant: using the body's width and length, the compensation would be about a quarter higher sideways and almost twice as high lengthwise.
Enter measurements
Open the sidebar menu and tap the image under "My Vehicle." "Enter Vehicle Data" opens.
Under "Dimensions", first enter length and width if they're missing. Then scroll to the Leveling section.
- ① Track width: in meters, in the example 1.81.
- ② Wheelbase: in meters, in the example 4.04.
- ③ Wheelbase reference: "Axle ↔ Axle" for motorhomes and van conversions, "Axle ↔ Support wheel" for travel trailers. This determines which instructions the app will give you later.
Scroll all the way down and tap Save.
Track width cannot be greater than width, and wheelbase cannot be greater than length. If you enter more, the app will set the value to this limit and notify you.
Add tile to home screen
Open the side menu and tap Add Widget, then Instruments.
Scroll to the tiles titled "Tilt angle" and tap the one you want. It will appear on your home screen immediately.
There are five variants: one large with both axes and rating, one wide, one tall, and two small ones that show only longitudinal or only lateral tilt.
Close the selection afterwards using the arrow and X at the top left.
Read compensation
The tile displays the tilt continuously. With the measurements from step 7, the compensation in centimeters now appears below each angle.
- ① Rating: "Vehicle level", "Slight inclination", or "Strong inclination".
- ② Longitudinal: the angle, the direction (
- ③ Lateral: the angle, the direction (
The number is the height difference between the two support points. The lower side must be raised by this amount.
Place wedges and ramps
The dialog tells you exactly where you need to place shims. Open Configuration and Tilt Angle again. The tile on the home screen won't open it.
- ① Longitudinal:
- ② Lateral:
- ③ Dual axle: Place wedges under both wheels on that side. If only one wheel is ramped, the body lifts only about half as much.
In the example, this means: ramp the front axle by 9 cm and place shims under the right side by 7 cm.
Check the result
Drive onto the wedges or ramps and look at the tile again. The values follow the vehicle's movement.
When the vehicle is level, the tile shows Vehicle level, and the compensation is at 0 cm.
Anything under 1.5° is considered level. If a small remainder remains, you can usually leave it as is.
Reading the display
- Under 1.5°:
- 1.5° to 2.9°:
- 3° and above:
- The rating is based on the steeper of the two axes. The centimeter value always takes the color of its angle.
- Below 0.2°, the tile doesn't show a direction. This prevents the text from jumping back and forth with the slightest movements.
- The drawing tilts somewhat more than the actual vehicle so you can see even small angles. The numbers next to it are the real values.
- If a dash appears instead of a number, the BRAIN is not calibrated or no measurement values are currently available.
How the app calculates
- Lateral: Track width times sine of lateral tilt.
- Longitudinal: Wheelbase times sine of longitudinal tilt.
- Rule of thumb: One degree of tilt equals roughly 1.7 cm per meter of track width or wheelbase.
- The app rounds to whole centimeters.
Caravan and dual axle
- Caravan: Select
- Dual axle: Measure the wheelbase to the midpoint between the two axles, not to the rear one. When compensating laterally, place the wedges under both wheels on that side.
- No reference selected: The app remains neutral and writes
Good to know
- Tilt only comes via Bluetooth. If you're connected via REMOTE, the tile shows
- If you need both directions, the values add up at the wheel that is lower in both directions. In the example: front right 9 + 7 = 16 cm, front left 9 cm, rear right 7 cm.
- If only one of the two measurements is missing, the app still shows the compensation for the other direction.
- If the
- Calibration is tied to the installation position. If you move the BRAIN, select the new position and calibrate again.
- Where the BRAIN is located in the vehicle doesn't matter for the calculation. Only its orientation counts.
- If the app reports
- The info icon in the top right of the dialog starts a tour that explains each area.
- Tilt can also be used as a condition, for example for an alert when the vehicle is tilted sharply. How to do this is explained in the article Set up automations.