Parking (storing) Question - Page 3

11-13-2010, 04:35 PM

Where are you located? Our dealer (Custom RV in Anaheim CA) brought one to our house prior to purchase to see if it fit. Don't know how steep your hill is, but the main limitation to setting up on a hill is your strength in raising the uphill shell. There is no mechanism like you had on your popup. I suspect you could figure out some way to raise the downhill end of the TM to level it, after careful blocking of course!

**Bill** · 11-13-2010, 04:38 PM

Regarding opening (as opposed to getting it into the garage):

The TM itself must be close to level when it is opened. If the driveway is slanted (as mine is), you'll need to lower the nose enough to level the trailer before opening it. Will the tongue jack crank it high enough? If your driveway is very slanted, the answer may be no.

The problem isn't damage to the trailer (though that can happen). The problem is that when you open the TM, the front shell lifts UP, and then FORWARD. The torsion bar lift system is designed to take care of the UP part of the motion, but has no effect on the FORWARD part of the motion. If "forward" is also "down", it is your own muscle power that will have to pull it uphill. And it is HEAVY. Closing is just the opposite - it will try to zoom closed, and you probably won't be able to hold it back.

Similarly, opening and closing the rear shell will be very hard, since it will try to zoom open, and you'll have to pull it uphill to close it.

Hope that makes sense. Take a look at the "Opening the TM" video at trailmanor.com, and envision pulling the shells uphill and downhill.

Bill

**ShrimpBurrito** · 11-13-2010, 05:02 PM

As you see can from the pics earlier in this thread, I too park my TM on an incline such that I back the TM uphill. I wanted to be able to open the TM while parked as well, so I built a riser from the tongue jack. I just took an 8-foot long 2x12 of pressure treated lumber, cut it into 1-foot lengths, and stacked them up with the grain changing direction with each board, and screwed them together as I stacked them. I neglected to glue them together as well, so some of them warped a bit, but it still works fine. If I did it over again, I probably would use untreated lumber on all but the board that touches the ground, to help prevent the warping, and glue AND screw them together. But I also live in SoCal, where it rarely rains.

See the below pic -- the tongue jack is not fully extended. IIRC, my driveway slope is about 8-9 degrees, which is fairly steep. I can verify that if you'd like to compare it to yours.

Dave

Trailblazer · 05-27-2023, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShrimpBurrito

As you see can from the pics earlier in this thread, I too park my TM on an incline such that I back the TM uphill. I wanted to be able to open the TM while parked as well, so I built a riser from the tongue jack. I just took an 8-foot long 2x12 of pressure treated lumber, cut it into 1-foot lengths, and stacked them up with the grain changing direction with each board, and screwed them together as I stacked them. I neglected to glue them together as well, so some of them warped a bit, but it still works fine. If I did it over again, I probably would use untreated lumber on all but the board that touches the ground, to help prevent the warping, and glue AND screw them together. But I also live in SoCal, where it rarely rains.

See the below pic -- the tongue jack is not fully extended. IIRC, my driveway slope is about 8-9 degrees, which is fairly steep. I can verify that if you'd like to compare it to yours.

Dave

Newbie TM owner here, resurrecting this older thread. I have a question about parking on a 5.5 degree sloped driveway!

I am wanting to park mine in our driveway, and am concerned about the safety and the process of raising the tongue jack. With the TM hitched, I'd first chock the tires, then slide blocks under the tongue, and raise the jack to take weight off the hitch to disconnect the TV. With the TV out of the way. I'd extend the jack to max, put the the front stabilizers down on blocks to support the weight of the TM by thise and the tires alone, as I retract the tongue jack so that I can then add height to the tongue jack support. Then extend the tongue jack onto the heightened jack support to raise the TM to level wiithout the jack being hyper extended and up off the front stabilizers. Then I'd drop all the stabilizer jacks on supports to further prevent movement, stabilize the level TM to permit opening and access.

Aside from the TM rolling down the driveway, as has previously discussed in the thread, my safety concern is whether the front stabilizer jacks and tires are actually capable of holding the full weight of the TM, while I add height to the tongue jack so that it is not hyper-extended, as I raise it to level. I have not tried to extend the jack to it's maximum, so not sure how high it is able to go above level, but I calculate that I need a front support that needs adds a minimum of 1.4 feet in height for the jack to sit normal at level. I don't believe a 1.4 foot support will fit under the jack, with the TM and TV hitched and jack retracted.

Would like to be able to access the TM in our driveway to avoid the hassle of municipal bylaws that only allow parking on the street a couple days. Appreciate any thoughts or advice from TM veterans, who've experience actually doing this! Would prefer to learn from someone elses's mistakes and not my own!

**Kidkraz** · 05-27-2023, 02:30 PM

Do you know the size and rating of the tires and the axle of the TM? I'm sure the tires have been replaced since it's a 2010, but what size and rating are on it currently? The axle "should" be a 3500 LB Dexter. If you have a copy of the blue owners book, you might find that in there. Some have 5000 Lb axles, but most are 3500 Lb.
The stabilizers should also be rated to support the camper. I don't know what was the OEM version on my camper when I recieved it, but I always had extension/retraction issues, even after lubing several times. I ended up installing BAL 24002D has 4" to 23-3/4" extension. 7,500 lb. capacity.
Your tires carry the majority of the weight.
What version is the tongue jack? Mine is Husky 87641 rated at 4500 LBs, again possibly over kill, but I'd rather have more power or support capabilities then just maybe enough.
My driveway has kinda steep, but I've never worried about the jacks or tires not being able to support or handle the grade. I did try to make the wooden supports for the front jacks to have an angle to minimise the steepness. That would be my suggestion in your case, until you know more info on the tires, jacks and such.
This pic is before I installed to electric jack. One thing I find is the slope makes it a bit easier for me to lifting the front shell when I open the camper up.

Shane826 · 05-27-2023, 05:37 PM

Regarding the tongue weight it’s VERY overkill. Remember it’s lifting the tongue weight not the total weight of the camper. So maybe 500-600lbs max? But yeah all those power jacks are rated for stupid amounts of weight.

Unstable_Tripod · 11-13-2010, 05:05 PM

Hi Scott O. Thanks for the response. I am just outside Seattle. The closest Trailmanor dealer is in a suburb of Portland, OR, almost 200 miles away. I suspect they won't bring one up here.

Hi Bill. Thanks for your response as well. I've seen the videos and am familiar with the opening process. I would never try to set it up in the driveway because that is at least a 30 degree slope. The street in front of the house is about a 20 degree slope. Unless I created some sort of ramps to back the Trailmanor onto I suspect there is no way I could get it level out there. On the street, it would be the front that is uphill and the back that is downhill.

We will have a big RV show here in Seattle in February. I hope Trailmanor will be there. If so I'll talk to the sales reps about this issue. It may be that off-site storage is my only option if I want one.

PS: Hi Shrimpburrito. Thanks for your response. You must have posted while I was composing my response. I looked at your picture and my slopes (driveway and street) are much more extreme. My issue is not parking it level -- I can do that if I can get it in the garage. My issues are getting it in there without dragging the tongue on the pavement and getting close to level to open it while parked in the street. Thanks again.

**ShrimpBurrito** · 11-13-2010, 05:13 PM

Umm....are you sure about that grade? The steepest street in the world is supposedly in New Zealand, with a grade of about 19 degrees. How did you calculate it? Are you talking about % grade? If so, that's a much different number. A 100% grade is a 45 degree climb.

Dave

Unstable_Tripod · 11-13-2010, 05:33 PM

OK, perhaps my terminology is off. I just went outside and measured it with a level and a ruler. The slope is 2" per foot, so that is 16.7%.

**ShrimpBurrito** · 11-13-2010, 07:02 PM

That is very steep. But theoretically, you could still make the trailer level and safe if you build a wide enough riser for the tongue, and you prevented the wheels from moving. I presume you've already read at the beginning of this thread what I did to address the latter issue. Neither is hard to do, but it will take some work.

However, even if you could get the tongue stabilized at whatever height is required to make the unit level, you still need to make sure the rear bumper doesn't bottom out and prevent you from raising the tongue high enough.

When my TM is level in my driveway, the rear edge of my rear bumper is about 9.5" from the ground.

I just measured my driveway, and it is a 6 degree slope. Your driveway, with your measured 16.7% slope, is 9.5 degrees. (the equation is arctan of percentage slope = degrees)

Thus, according to my calculations, if I parked my 2720 TM in your driveway and leveled it, the rear bumper would clear by roughly 3 inches. And note that my 2720 includes the 2" lift kit, so the frame on my TM is about 17" off the ground at the axle. The newer models already have the lift kit installed.

So while it would take some work, you could level a TM in your driveway.

Dave