Built in Jacks

[tylerbes]

Folks

Thought you might like to see my built in stabilizers. I got the idea from my wifes uncle who did something similar on his 61 airstream. It makes setup a snap. lower the front of the camper, drop the two pipes in, tighten and raise the front to level. Its crazy fast an easy.

Attachments:

[tylerbes]

This shows you how they work

Attachments:

[tylerbes]

what the bumper looks like with the pipes removed

Attachments:

[universalexports]

nice idea!

you could weld a small lever/handle on the set screw (so no wrench would be needed) and you could drill some "dimples" in the pipe for the nut to tighten down into and keep it from sliding with less torque on the nut to make setup even quicker and simpler.

[Bow_Tied]

It'd have to be pretty tight to hold my fat behind! neat idea.

[tylerbes]

Good ideas Universal. I really crank them down so dont know if I would get enough torque with the handle style bolts. I also dont have alot of room to make much of a large handle. I did consider it.

Ron, you might be suprised, I used a real large bolt, and tighten it down. I can pick the camper up off its wheels with these. I dont think the largest of rear ends can make them slip.

[universalexports]

if you drilled some holes or "dimples" in the pipe, you could finger tighten it and it would hold,
but it might be a PITA to get the holes lined up with the bolt. unless you painted a line on both of them, then just line the lines up,, but I have a habit of doing things to excess and over thinking things, some times it's best to keep it simple.

[tylerbes]

Hmm maybe I will try that with a spare pipe... I would like to have a positive engagement to make sure they are safe and can't slip. I can tell you this though they are 100 times stronger than those skimpy stablizers that came with the camper. I know they are vintage and everything but man are they wobble all over the place... no thanks. Of course the intent of all of these is jsut to stablize the trailer, not lift it, so the load on them really should not be that much.

I should probably sell my original set of stabilizers.

[61 Shasta]

Come on guys, you are over engineering a great idea. thanks tylerbes, its simple, versatile and will do the job. I am restoring a '61 Shasts that had been retro'd with a hunk of iron that I couldn't for the life of me see what use it had. So was contemplating a retro bumper but didn't want to use the old type stabilizers on the unit. So, this looks like a viable alternative. Unless I find something better this looks like the way to go.

[txmcook]

I really like this idea. Adding the dimples to the pipe would add extra holding power and would be easy enough to do.

[cowcharge]

Oct 24, 2011 20:40:45 GMT -5 tylerbes said:

Good ideas Universal. I really crank them down so dont know if I would get enough torque with the handle style bolts. I also dont have alot of room to make much of a large handle. I did consider it.

Ron, you might be suprised, I used a real large bolt, and tighten it down. I can pick the camper up off its wheels with these. I dont think the largest of rear ends can make them slip.

Plus, everything I've read says that jacks are only to prevent movement, not to support much weight.

[11kestra11]

Are the attachments still available? Can't see the photos ...

[Deleted]

Check out Tyler's blog...

www.nastyshasty.blogspot.com/

Click the Astrodome restoration tab, the photos of this are about 1/3 the way down, under October 24, 2011. By the way, the whole blog is worth a peek...