Jack Failure Disaster
I had a terrible experience yesterday when I tried to unload my camper which resulted in my camper falling over on its side in my front yard. It happened so fast I'm not exactly sure where it went wro...
Forum Discussion
Thanks for the replies and the link to post pictures.
I can say the wood frame is 100% free from rot. I removed all the skin up above the windows and replaced all the bad wood last year. During my retrofit I learned a lot from reading the posts on this site from another Travel Queen restoration and know he successfully used corner jacks after beefing up the mount points which I also did. I do wish I had through bolted the brackets in hind sight. Regardless of the mounts though I know it was the twist that yanked the brackets out and preventing twist is most interesting to me. My 1968 Travel Queen is similar to an Avion in looks and age however I know little else about Avions. I don't know which end was higher when I began, although I will keep that in mind going forward. I did start lowering from the rear first which may have been a factor. In the past it seemed unavoidable to keep all four legs on the ground. There was always one leg unseated as I worked my way around. Sometimes by an inch or more. Maybe I have been retracting too much at once with an estimated two inches. I'm sure the feet didn't sink, but I didn't use anything under the feet, just dirt. I'm sure the original system was three wing mounted brackets using tripods and I am thinking about going back to it. I've jacked many aircraft with 3 points and it makes sense to me, but I have wondered if it's more stable why modern camper use 4. I saw the Stable-Lift system and thought that would be a solution till I saw the price tag. Maybe I'll weld my own system up to mimic it. Thanks again for everyone's input and I agree the most important thing is no one got hurt.
I can say the wood frame is 100% free from rot. I removed all the skin up above the windows and replaced all the bad wood last year. During my retrofit I learned a lot from reading the posts on this site from another Travel Queen restoration and know he successfully used corner jacks after beefing up the mount points which I also did. I do wish I had through bolted the brackets in hind sight. Regardless of the mounts though I know it was the twist that yanked the brackets out and preventing twist is most interesting to me. My 1968 Travel Queen is similar to an Avion in looks and age however I know little else about Avions. I don't know which end was higher when I began, although I will keep that in mind going forward. I did start lowering from the rear first which may have been a factor. In the past it seemed unavoidable to keep all four legs on the ground. There was always one leg unseated as I worked my way around. Sometimes by an inch or more. Maybe I have been retracting too much at once with an estimated two inches. I'm sure the feet didn't sink, but I didn't use anything under the feet, just dirt. I'm sure the original system was three wing mounted brackets using tripods and I am thinking about going back to it. I've jacked many aircraft with 3 points and it makes sense to me, but I have wondered if it's more stable why modern camper use 4. I saw the Stable-Lift system and thought that would be a solution till I saw the price tag. Maybe I'll weld my own system up to mimic it. Thanks again for everyone's input and I agree the most important thing is no one got hurt.
