This has been a useful thread. For me, it just LOOKS like your combined body weight will tip the white whale forward and off the rear jacks. Oh, your lyin' eyes. Lately, and only if it's a short time off the truck, I'm too lazy to lower the jacked up camper to the bottom position on sets of very H.D. saw horses, metal strap 'X' braced to the max. My Happy Jax were not made for a 3" lifted, larger tired, 4WD Dodge Ram, so they don't lift the TC high enough or compress low enough to meet terra firma. I use 12x12" blocks to raise the TC high enough to pull away. In the down position I keep most of the weight on the saw horses, placed under the extreme front and rear of the floor area. I keep the jacks snug on the blocks, only there for stability. At one time I was so paranoid about the jack feet slipping off the blocks, I would put a few double head nails or drywall screws next to the round feet to keep them from migrating. When unloaded, I'm using four sheet rock jacks, placed at a 20 degree angle, legs away from the box; two underneath the bedroom and two about midway on the floor area as sway braces. There is not much static load on them, but if wind or 4 feet of snow or other calamity strikes, the side loading can increase dramatically. How much of this is just eye engineering, I don't know. I do know that we've had more than 350 pounds in the bedroom and the unsupported TC did not tip forward. The only time I was ever worried about tipping over was in Death Valley about a decade ago when we were broadsided by one of the famous D.V. straight winds in the middle of the night right here.
I really thought the whole 10K pounds was going to go over. With all those leaves and overloads on the rear axle we never feel any side winds on the highway or at rest.
regards, as always, jefe
