Not essential but definitely worth the cost
Quote:
Originally Posted by APerkins
I know several folks have mentioned it, but any one else found it pretty essential to upgrade from the manual tongue jack to an electric model? Is it worth the moola?
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I went for about a season and a half with the manual jack so, no, the electric jack is not essential unless someone is in very poor physical condition. I'm in pretty good condition...my Doc says I'm in about the top 2% condition-wise of all guys over 40...but I'm super glad I converted to the electric for these reasons: - It's a lot, lot faster to raise/lower the tongue with the electric than manually. This alone trims 1 to 3 minutes off my total time to hook or unhook.
- During hookup, if you've got a heavy duty electric (3000 lb capacity or greater), you can use it to raise the rear of the tow vehicle (with trailer attached) to a high enough position that attaching the WDH spring bars will take almost no effort or leveraging. I often can attach the spring bars without even having to use the lever tool at all. By taking tension off the spring bars during hookup this also lets you easily use a higher spring rate bar for better tongue weight distribution.
- On a hot sunny day, I don't get all sweaty doing the hookup. Here at home my driveway angles such that the truck and trailer don't have the same horizontal attitude...so it takes a lot of jack cranking to get the trailer hooked up. With the manual jack, all the cranking on a hot sunny day would get me sweaty enough that it was mandatory I took a shower and had a change of clothes before jumping in the truck to depart. With the electric, it's literally a "no sweat" proposition...just hookup and go.
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Ray
I use my TM as a base camp for hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, and climbing Colorado's 14ers
The Trailer: 2002 TM Model 2720SL ( Mods: Solar Panels (170 Watts), Dual T-105 Batteries, Electric Tongue Jack, Side AC, Programmable Thermostat, Doran TP Monitor System)
The Tow Vehicle: 2003 Toyota Tundra V8 SR5 4X4 w/Tow Package (Towing & Performance Mods: JBA Headers, Gibson Muffler, 4.30 gears, Michelin LTX M/S Tires, Prodigy Brake Controller, Transmission Temperature Gauge)
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