New homemade chocks

[flintsters]

Originally Posted by North of 49°

I have since retired my home made chocks. I found that the threads on the rod act as an abrasive against the wood, making the hole bigger and the chocks "sloppy", making it so they require constant tightening -- until you want to leave, and then the blocks are so tightly wedged between the tires that it requires herculean effort to remove them.

Instead, I invested in a pair of BAL X-Chocks, which work quite well. After backing into the site, I install them as tight as I can make them, unhook and finish my set-up, then tighten them again. It's pretty rare that they need tightening again. And removal is pretty easy too.

Even better, they work great with the Andersen levellers!

This is my exact set up (Anderson Levelers with BAL X Chocks). The combination of the two are super quick and easy, which is one of my primary goals while camping. I actually have found that they were a little disappointing in that it seems like there is still a quite a bit of movement after they are installed. Perhaps I am not tightening them enough....like someone else said, I am a little weary about over tightening so it's entirely likely that I am not really using them correctly. How does one know when they are "tight enough?"

[RAurand]

Originally Posted by flintsters

This is my exact set up (Anderson Levelers with BAL X Chocks). The combination of the two are super quick and easy, which is one of my primary goals while camping. I actually have found that they were a little disappointing in that it seems like there is still a quite a bit of movement after they are installed. Perhaps I am not tightening them enough....like someone else said, I am a little weary about over tightening so it's entirely likely that I am not really using them correctly. How does one know when they are "tight enough?"

Good question. One thing I am concerned about is if you make the x-chocks too tight, what is the chance of pushing the axles further apart. Now you have mis aligned axels?

[North of 49°]

I would think that the forces imparted on the axles, springs and wheels while running down a bumpy highway at 60 mph far exceeds what we can do with an X-chock and an 8” wrench. Even the twisting forces placed on these components when backing into a tight spot is considerable. I’m not an automotive engineer, but even my basic understanding leads me to believe that it takes more than just hand tools to do harm.

[Bob The Camper]

I took your comment and happen to have some stainless pipe that fit the ready rod perfectly. I over drilled the upper hole and drove the pipe through. Now the wood can’t chaff. Also picked up some over sized wing nuts that work real well. I may invest in the x chokes some day, but until then these are working great with very little movement in the trailer (with stabilizers down as well).
Cheers!

[North of 49°]

Glad it’s working for you!

[Colorado]

Originally Posted by RAurand

Good question. One thing I am concerned about is if you make the x-chocks too tight, what is the chance of pushing the axles further apart. Now you have mis aligned axels?

You are way over thinking this. The axles take far more abuse going over pot holes, speed bumps, rough roads etc.

[michael.g]

Wheel chocks of any type really only keep the trailer from sliding forwards or backwards. They won't take the bounce out of the trailer, which is caused by the trailer's suspension. If you don't have slides, you won't have as much bounce. We have 4 slides. The kids bunks are both on opposing slides. When either one of them moves on the bunk, we feel it.

The only solution that worked for us was to lift the trailer off it's wheels. Fortunately, we camp seasonally, so it isn't an issue. It would be a pain for weekend or week long trips. We used cinder block towers under the stabilizers and placed a tower directly in front and directly behind the axles. Even then, we still had some bounce, but not too bad. We have thought about adding 2 more towers on each side, halfway between the axles and the stabilizers. Looking at 32' mobile homes, they use towers every few feet. Our camper is 40' long.

As the ground settled under the cinder blocks, the street side wheels are back on the ground and we are bouncing again! Time to get the bottle jack back out and raise the street side.

-Michael