Thread: Cracked Frame
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Old 08-28-2023, 05:42 PM   #115
Bill
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Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DanSTL View Post
Reading through this , are people using the scissor jacks to hold the weight? I thought they weren’t made for holding weight?
This is an urban legend that refuses to die. If you check the specs on the jacks (please do), you will find that they are rated to hold 5000 pounds each, and a TM has four of them. Since the entire TM weighs about 4000 pounds, packed and ready for camp, it's hard to see how you could overload them. However, although they can certainly hold the weight, I recommend that you do not use them to lift the camper up off the ground. It is OK to use them to raise the corners of the camper a couple inches as part of leveling, but if you need to change a tire, for example, use a bottle jack to raise the tire off the ground, then use the scissors jacks to hold it there.

Quote:
Also once you swing hitch over without weight I’m reading it’s still not a good idea to put the weight back down on electric hitch.
As noted in the previous post, once the swing tongue is unlatched, do not put any weight on it.

So to summarize, DON'T LOAD THE TONGUE JACK AT ALL WHILE THE SWING HITCH IS OPEN.

While the swing hitch is closed, you can use the tongue jack to raise the tongue as high as you want it. Once you have it up where you want it, drop the front scissor jacks to hold it there. With weight supported on the scissors jacks, pull the tongue jack up off the ground. Once the tongue jack has no weight on it, you can open the swing hitch,and swing it over. This leaves the trailer supported on four points - the two wheels and the two front scissors jacks. Perfectly safe. If you want more stability, you can drop the two rear scissors jacks, too.

Takes longer to tell it than to do it, especially if you get a battery-powered drill to raise and lower the scissors jacks.

Bill
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