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Originally Posted by NYJeff
I am under the impression that these sorts of jacks are meant to stabilize the trailer & not intended to actually lift the tires off the ground. I would be concerned that the trailer frame is not built to carry the load only on the 4 corners.
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Earlier TMs had corner stabilizers mounted on the four corners of the body, not the frame, much like a tent trailer. However, for quite a while, TMs have had honest-to-gosh jacks, mounted on the frame - each one good for 5000 pounds if I remember correctly. Both they, and the TM, are perfectly capable of lifting the TM. I don't like cranking them very much - but that is another story. A search on "stabilizer" ought to turn up half a dozen threads - it is a popular topic. It also comes up in the context of changing a flat tire - why do I need to carry a jack if the TM has built-in jacks?
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If you keep the tires properly inflated, I don't see the benefit to putting down the jacks when simply storing the TM in the garage. Am I missing something?
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You might want to take a minute to read the Goodyear tire brochure in the TM Reference Library (aka TM Info You Won't Find Anywhere Else)
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=5323
Tire manufacturers seem to agree universally that getting the weight off them during long-term storage is a good idea. I'm not sure that you actually have to get them up in the air, but if you can substantially reduce the weight on each tire, it ought to do some good. And cranking the jacks as Scott describes is a good way to do it. On the other hand, I'm not sure that one-month storage qualifies as "long term", so I'm with Wayne on that score. Bobby at wmtire, chime in here if I need to be updated.
If I recall, at least one of our members bought a garage-type floor jack - they're not too expensive at Harbor Freight, etc. From the accessible side of the trailer, you can slide it under the far-side frame (NOT THE AXLE!) and jack it up quite easily. Then a bottle jack works under the near side.
And JBrooks, most any husky size Allen wrench will do. I use a 1/4 inch, others use 3/8 inch, some dispense with the Allen wrench and use a foundation bolt. A Search on "foundation" ought to turn up at least a couple of threads on the topic.
Bill