Trailer Jack Problem

[80 Cruiser Rod]

I went camping last week and as I was trying to level my camper I bent one of my jacks. Is this common to this style jack? My other jack on the other side looks like it is stressed a little but not like this one. Should I replace it with the same style jack or something different and where can I find a replacement jack?

[JFlightRisk]

If those are manual crank jacks, I'd replace them all with scissor style stabilizers.
If they're electric, I'd STILL replace them with the manual scissor type...

The corner jacks are not meant or designed to level, just stabilize the camper to take out some of the movement as you walk around inside. You level the camper with boards or plastic legos under the wheels for side to side, and the tongue jack for front to back. Then drop the stab jacks.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by JFlightRisk

If those are manual crank jacks, I'd replace them all with scissor style stabilizers.
If they're electric, I'd STILL replace them with the manual scissor type...

The corner jacks are not meant or designed to level, just stabilize the camper to take out some of the movement as you walk around inside. You level the camper with boards or plastic legos under the wheels for side to side, and the tongue jack for front to back. Then drop the stab jacks.

This.

I had power stabs on my trailer, and I was waiting for them to fail so I could put scissor jacks on. Better design, more capacity, etc... They never did and I sold the trailer.

Also +1 to the jacks only being used to STABILIZE, NOT to level the rig.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by JFlightRisk

snip...
The corner jacks are not meant or designed to level, just stabilize the camper to take out some of the movement as you walk around inside. You level the camper with boards or plastic legos under the wheels for side to side, and the tongue jack for front to back. Then drop the stab jacks.

^^^This


and SNUG up the stabilizer jacks.

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by JFlightRisk

The corner jacks are not meant or designed to level, just stabilize the camper to take out some of the movement as you walk around inside. You level the camper with boards or plastic legos under the wheels for side to side, and the tongue jack for front to back. Then drop the stab jacks.

X2, I bent one of ours last year, actually the kid put it down while we were still unhooking and bent ours.

They are only stabilizers. I have seen many people level there rig with the scissor style and an impact driver, and have bent them too.

[80 Cruiser Rod]

Any suggestions on what kind and where I should get replacement scissor jacks? Also, are there any issues converting over to scissor jacks, like bolt patterns?

[mikegray]

Here is a set I bought. No problem so far. https://amzn.to/2MJtAtw
Mike

[JFlightRisk]

Originally Posted by 80 Cruiser Rod

Any suggestions on what kind and where I should get replacement scissor jacks? Also, are there any issues converting over to scissor jacks, like bolt patterns?

Any major brand of jack, like BAL, Domar, etc, will do the job. Most have a 24" extension range which is sufficient for most campers, but there are some that have a 30" range for units with frames higher from the ground.


You may have to do some drilling on the frame rails for the angle brackets, but they drill easily. Measure twice...drill once.

[Camper_bob]

Scissor jacks are available almost everywhere. I had a set picked out on Amazon for my trailer.

One word of caution: If you get high capacity jacks, be careful not to twist your frame with them. Yours is a relatively small, lightweight trailer. So it would be easy for upgraded capacity jacks to twist that frame around. Probably wouldn't cause permanent damage?

My trailer was 33 ft long, so my intention was to get high capacity jacks, and place one on each corner with another set just ahead of the axles amidships. It was hard to get that rig stable because it was so long.