Pushing your PUP around by hand
I started out with a Jayco PUP that was fairly light-weight with a 10 ft. box. After unhitching it, I was able to push it around in the garage on the smooth, level floor to position it where I needed to finesse it out of the way.
Well, fast forward to today with a PUP that is about 3,000 pounds instead of the 1,700 pounds of the previous unit and that task has become much harder to do, to the point I just about can't do it. I purchased a heavier duty tongue wheel to deal with the increased tongue weight over the included wheel as that was definitely not workable. Still, it was a major effort to move and navigate the PUP around.
However, I decided to take the wheel for the tongue jack apart and to lubricate every contact surface - the sleeve bearing and axle, the ball bearings, where the body pivots on the bolt, etc.
That was a major improvement in how it now works. Night vs. day. I have to actually pull back to stop the momentum now. Technically, I would say that it is easier to move this one around versus the first one, simply by liberally applying grease to the tongue wheel components. I did notice that the heavy duty wheel uses a large bolt to hold it together that allowed me access to the ball bearings and other surfaces and the standard duty wheel had a rivet holding it together, making access more difficult. I fear too many of the standard issue wheels are like the second one.
I finally picked up an old bathroom scale so I can weigh the tongue to see exactly what I'm dealing with. For some reason, the DW doesn't want me using the glass top digital bathroom scale from the house...???
So if you're one who is able or would like to be able to move your PUP by hand without using other methods, try lubricating the tongue jack wheel.
And I am still on the hunt for the rest of the components to make my own electric trailer mover. No rush now, though.
Well, fast forward to today with a PUP that is about 3,000 pounds instead of the 1,700 pounds of the previous unit and that task has become much harder to do, to the point I just about can't do it. I purchased a heavier duty tongue wheel to deal with the increased tongue weight over the included wheel as that was definitely not workable. Still, it was a major effort to move and navigate the PUP around.
However, I decided to take the wheel for the tongue jack apart and to lubricate every contact surface - the sleeve bearing and axle, the ball bearings, where the body pivots on the bolt, etc.
That was a major improvement in how it now works. Night vs. day. I have to actually pull back to stop the momentum now. Technically, I would say that it is easier to move this one around versus the first one, simply by liberally applying grease to the tongue wheel components. I did notice that the heavy duty wheel uses a large bolt to hold it together that allowed me access to the ball bearings and other surfaces and the standard duty wheel had a rivet holding it together, making access more difficult. I fear too many of the standard issue wheels are like the second one.
I finally picked up an old bathroom scale so I can weigh the tongue to see exactly what I'm dealing with. For some reason, the DW doesn't want me using the glass top digital bathroom scale from the house...???
So if you're one who is able or would like to be able to move your PUP by hand without using other methods, try lubricating the tongue jack wheel.
And I am still on the hunt for the rest of the components to make my own electric trailer mover. No rush now, though.
