camp-n-family wrote:
I've heard of Happijacks but not the Steadyfast system. Anybody use this system. Found it on amazon, looks like it may help my situation.
My 31' tt shakes so much that 2 of the bolts holding the jacks to the frame have snapped off. I think the Steadyfast stabilizers will help. The install looks pretty straight forward but I'm concerned with how the pads mount on the jack feet. Do the jacks have to be in line or perpendicular to the frame for this? My 2 front jacks are mounted to the A frame so they are angled about 30 degrees off of the main frame. Will it still work?
Thanks
I highly doubt that the system you linked to will work for your particular custom configured stab jack locations. It appears they are designed for the normal full width of typical frame rails since one side has a short bend based on typical TT frame rail spans and the attachment points between the stab jacks and the support system are based on a set orientation to each other. It looks like you have moved the factory installed stab jacks from the main frame to the "A" frame and have probably made the overall stability worse since you have not only reduced the "footprint" width you have now got the main non vertical strength not aligned with the same plane as that a normal trailer tries to "wiggle" in, but have now located the support further from one of the main sources of this "wiggle" the suspension and tires increasing the frame length subject to flexing.
I'm not a fan at all in these stab jacks that almost all manufacturers use because IMO they are just not a stable platform under load for movement in the plane perpendicular to the plane of the screw and even in the plane parallel to the screw they are lacking IMO. Because of costs and weight they don't have the stiffness in that plane and due to interference issues such as propane lines and waste drain plumbing are located IMO at the wrong places relative to the main source of "wiggle" and that being the suspension and tires.
If you really want to improve the stability of your trailer search here and read up on what others have done to varying degrees of success to improve their stability. I and a couple others have gone "ROGUE" with a completely different approach so I can't comment on what I can only call "bandaids" in improving these poorly designed and executed stability systems found on travel trailers.
Larry