Bent Leveling Jack Mount

[Joan617]

Hey Gang
I need some opinions. On the way home from our last trip, we had a catastrophic blowout of the left rear tire (Goodyear Endurance E). Even though our TPMS alarmed right away and Joan pulled over quickly, the tire was a mess. Because this was more than a common tire change, I called AAA for help. It took the service tech over an hour with an angle grinder and cutting wheel to cut away the steel belts and sidewalls that were wrapped tightly around the axle. Besides a cracked wheel wheel trim piece there appeared to be no other collateral damage.


Weeks later, on a weekend trip to have disk brakes and shocks installed, it was then noticed that the right rear leveling jack was at a funny angle. The jack itself is not bent and it works fine, but the mounting bracket appears bent outwards a few degrees.



Anyone thing this is a problem (pics attached)? We normally use the red bucket Andersen 8" jack blocks, so with normal use, the stroke of the jack is short and the stress on them is not great.


Thanks All
Angus

[RobPotter]

I hit a rock making a turn the first year we went south and bent my left rear jack. I have not replaced it and it has worked fine since then. The welds look fine. Hope this helps.

[Radar57]

That sucks. I know what it's like having a blowout. We have had 3 over the past 20 years.

The front and rear jacks are the ones carrying the bulk of the weight during leveling. The mounts are normally "perpendicular to the ground". If they are bent outwards I would think, over time, it COULD put a stress on the mount that MIGHT lead to cracking. That's just my opinion.

[citgodan]

Yes, my passenger rear landing gear had a slight bend outward. I got worse with time. Campingworld had to re-weld the mounting bracket. not sure how it was bent or the mount was messed up, but good to go since then.

[muckinfuss]

Here's how a shade-tree mechanic would solve that: With the trailer parked near enough to a tree or other immovable object suitable for attaching a come along....connect one end to the tree and the other to your drop leg so that the line was pulling perpendicular to the bend. Gently ratchet back to plumb. Now, you can inspect the head cradle for any crack or weld break and that's easily corrected with three or four stitch welds and some paint. Good luck.

[Learjet]

Originally Posted by muckinfuss

Here's how a shade-tree mechanic would solve that: With the trailer parked near enough to a tree or other immovable object suitable for attaching a come along....connect one end to the tree and the other to your drop leg so that the line was pulling perpendicular to the bend. Gently ratchet back to plumb. Now, you can inspect the head cradle for any crack or weld break and that's easily corrected with three or four stitch welds and some paint. Good luck.

I would NOT do that...good way to ruin your jack or cause frame problems.

[Topperace]

I thought the same with ours after getting a couple of bent pad feet from trying to stabilize/level, on a very unlevel site on one of our first trips...asked around and validated that the back levelers/stabelizers of the Ground control 2.0 system we have is welded on at a slight angle, thus the helping to further stabilize the back... here is the thread I started on it...
https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ged-81113.html

Also validated that there should have been six bolts on the mounts rather than only four that Jayco put on ours...so added two more bolts on each stabilizer to rectify that.