SnapPads are rubber pads that snap permanently onto the feet of an RV's leveling jacks and landing gear, so there is always something between the metal and the ground. They are one of the cheapest upgrades on our rig and the one we think about the least, which is exactly the point. We would put them on the next rig on day one.
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One more disclosure while we are at it: RV SnapPad is a channel partner of ours, and the partner link at the bottom of this page is part of that partnership. Everything above and below it is what we would tell you anyway.
Why we bought them
Our Brinkley Model Z 3515 has hydraulic auto-leveling. Press a button, the jacks come down, and the rig levels itself. It is a great system, and those jacks hold the RV up and level every single time we camp. What the button does not do is put anything under the jack feet.
So early on, every arrival had the same extra chore: crouch down and slide a block under each jack before leveling, then crawl back around and collect every block before leaving. Forget one in the grass and it stays at that campsite forever, and the next stop your bare metal foot is pressing straight into the dirt. After sites like our muddy arrival at Johnson County Park, where the whole goal was to get settled without sinking, we were done managing a bag of loose blocks for the jacks. SnapPads fix that by making the pad part of the jack.
How we use them
Honestly, we don't. That is the review. They snapped on once and now they are simply there for every auto-level, which on our schedule means a new site every week or two, plus overnight stops in between. Our arrival routine is auto-level, chocks, done. You can see the whole sequence in our first Hipcamp boondocking week, where we walk through auto-leveling the Brinkley and the chock setup on a farm site.
They matter most in the situations you did not plan for. Quick overnight stops still involve real leveling, like the night we paid $74 at a Love's RV Stop and ran a level test to see if we could stay hitched with the slides out. And the jacks carry serious load: on one sloped parking lot the auto-level lifted our wheels clean off the ground, which means everything was riding on those feet. With permanent rubber under them, none of those moments require us to remember anything.
On soft ground they spread the load and slow the sinking. They have not made mud irrelevant, but the jacks dig in noticeably slower than bare metal.
What to know before buying
Permanent means permanent. They snap on and are not designed to come back off, so they belong to the trailer, not to you. That is what you want for jack pads, but it is worth knowing before you commit.
They only cover the jacks. We still carry Tri-Lynx blocks for under a low tire on a sloped site, because no jack pad helps a wheel. Our towing and setup gear article covers how the blocks, chocks and pads split the job.
They protect the foot, not the hydraulics. At the three-month mark one of our leveling jacks developed a hydraulic leak and needed a full replacement under warranty. SnapPads had nothing to do with that, in either direction. The jacks are the expensive part of the system, so treat pads as ground protection, not insurance.
Check fit before ordering. SnapPads are made for specific jack foot shapes and sizes, so use the fit finder on their site to match your rig's jack model rather than guessing.
Where to get them
Order directly from RV SnapPad through our partner link, which supports the channel at no extra cost to you.
SnapPads are one piece of our arrival-day routine. The rest, from the hitch to the chocks, is in our full towing, hitching and setup gear list, and the hitch that starts every one of those travel days has its own review here.