I found this article in this weeks RV Newletter I get. Thursday, August 14, 2014 Properly using your fifth wheel or travel trailer stabilizer jacks I said shake, rattle, and roll Well you never do nothing To save your doggone soul As RVers, we may easily identify with those old Charles Calhoun lyrics. Our rigs are built to travel light and easy, but even in camp, they do tend to do a bit of shaking and rocking. And the bigger they are, the more they rock. Enter stabilizer jacks. On a fifth wheel, the landing gear acts as a stabilizer up front, but additional stabilizers are typically found at the rear. Travel trailer fans, if you unhitch from your tow vehicle and rest the trailer on the jack foot, youll certainly know the lack of stability. Many travel trailers have at least four stabilizer jacks, some have more. How can you safely and effectively use your stabilizer jacks? First, try and park on level ground as much as possible. That saves you from having to a lot of wheel blocking. Prior to unhitching either a 5er or travel trailer, chock your wheels to prevent any rolling. Stabilizer jacks are just that: Theyre for stability, and many jack manufacturers warn their product arent intended for leveling, so youll need to handle that leveling process before deploying the stabilizers. Hopefully youll have the jack manufacturers instruction manual available to you. If not, we provide some general guidelines. First, on the subject of jack pads. Its not a bad idea to slip a piece of wood between the bottom of the jack and the ground. It can protect asphalt from damage, and on mooshy ground, prevent the jack from digging into the terra not-so-firma. HOWEVER, there is a danger of using too much blocking. Heres a position weve had to repent on: Scissor style stabilizer jacks have their rated strength ONLY after being extended out so far. Heres a quote from one jack manual: This jack’s weight capacity is 5,000 lb. only between 13-3/4” and 23-1/2”; the weight capacity drastically reduces as the height drops below this level. Do not apply a load to this jack below 13-3/4” in height. R&T De Maris We confess, in the past weve used high level blocks under our jacks, in part because there was less work involved--dont have to run the jack out so far. But with this information in hand, we now use much less in the way of blocking. Yes, scissor jacks can get wobbly if extended w-a-y out. Therefore, a higher stack of blocking might be in order if you have a long way to crank out the jack. So crank out the scissor jack until you hit resistance. Then turn the crank another rotation or so and call it good. Dont try to crank the trailer up, and NEVER use a stabilizer jack to raise your trailer for tire changing. If it lets go at the wrong time, serious damage to the jack (not to mention the jacks owner) can occur. We also have a few stacker jacks that we stash away in our storage area. These critters are portable units that use a screw type device for assisting with stabilizing. Here, place the head of the jack directly under the trailer frame, NOT under an axle. Crank the jack to the resistance point, and then add another turn or two.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 02:10:14 +0000
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