Lippert ground clearance issue

bobbyg123 wrote:
Hey guys.

So I used my new 5th wheel for the 1st time last weekend, and everything went pretty smoothly. It was my first experience with an auto leveling system, and man is that a cool feature.

The leveling system worked perfectly, but I do have one concern. The rear jacks are installed to where there is very little ground clearance in their neutral (ready to travel) position. I'm talking like they're maybe only 6-8" off the ground.

I asked the dealer about it during my PDI, and they said that they can't be raised, but after looking at them more closely last weekend, I'm not sure why. There are several available bolt holes on the bracket that would (I would think) allow me to raise them up another 6", but perhaps that would max out the available travel of the jacks?

I'll try to snap a couple of pictures next weekend, but I'd sure like to figure out a way to raise these up a bit. Makes me wonder if the dealer said they couldn't be raised because they didn't want to deal with it on my delivery day.

Assuming you have a 4-pt system, you do need to watch those jacks a bit. I have a 4-pt on my KZ and was worried enough about them when taking it to my dad's shop for storage, that I had someone watching, and on the phone with me, as I drove off the road and down the sloped drive that the city felt was necessary to build. I have about 2-3" to spare and just take it slow. (I was also worried about dragging the tail of our new 30' GN flatbed trailer in and out of the same gate, and we watched it carefully, too.)

Issue is, the =manual= access, if you ever need it, is on top of the motor, so you'd lose that access if you raised the jack. I know on mine, if I had one of those ratcheting box-end wrenches, I could =maybe= get another inch of height by moving up a hole, but I don't think I'll ever need it. Just be careful in your driving and, if you ever aren't sure, have someone get out and spot for you and to hell with traffic, if it comes to that.

You also asked about the stroke on these and, yes, it's pretty short. I have to put 4" under my RR jack in the street in front of my house to level, as the crown on the street is pretty high and that jack will =just= run out of stroke and throw an error if I don't. Since the first time this happened, I've just used the same piece of cut off glue-lam as "feet" on both rear jacks, and I don't have a problem.

I have seen folding jacks on MHs and I've also seen telescoping jacks, also on MHs. Not sure why they couldn't be used on FWs, too. :h

Lyle