Safety wire for jacks?

I think the friction in the acme screw jacks would hold them up. The ball screw units are so smooth they will spin and drop under their own weight. A single broken roll pin will cause them to drop. Luckily, it happened to me while stationary.https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29012203/

I'm sorry I should have included that they are Happijacks. I hadn't considered the possibility that they could drop on their own until I read a post that it happened to someone. All of the posts have been helpful.

Thank you

Photomike wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:
I don't quite comprehend the jack leg falling. On my RT jacks, the leg is actuated with a ball screw and the lower leg at the top has a welded in insert that engages the screw so, the only way the leg could drop would be for the insert to fail or the screw failed at the top where the gears are and both would render the leg inoperable anyway. Never had one drop on 3 TC's (first was Atwood's, second was HJ and now RT. I guess anything can happen. Seems odd to me.

There are also hydraulic jacks that do not use the screw system.

The OP was not specific as to type so I assumed it was a ball screw jack.

I've seen pictures of hydraulic units but only pictures. Thought that was something 'old school'.

I believe if I had them (hydraulic jacks), I'd fab up something to keep them up as well. Hydraulics tend to 'bleed off' as a rule.

My thought is that if this is something that is even marginally common, we would hear about it more often.

SidecarFlip wrote:
I don't quite comprehend the jack leg falling. On my RT jacks, the leg is actuated with a ball screw and the lower leg at the top has a welded in insert that engages the screw so, the only way the leg could drop would be for the insert to fail or the screw failed at the top where the gears are and both would render the leg inoperable anyway. Never had one drop on 3 TC's (first was Atwood's, second was HJ and now RT. I guess anything can happen. Seems odd to me.

There are also hydraulic jacks that do not use the screw system.

Thanks for the replies

I don't quite comprehend the jack leg falling. On my RT jacks, the leg is actuated with a ball screw and the lower leg at the top has a welded in insert that engages the screw so, the only way the leg could drop would be for the insert to fail or the screw failed at the top where the gears are and both would render the leg inoperable anyway. Never had one drop on 3 TC's (first was Atwood's, second was HJ and now RT. I guess anything can happen. Seems odd to me.

I did with some light aircraft wire and a couple clips. Saved me a few times. Thought I had a post about it but cannot find it. Total cost was around $10 if I remember correctly.

This is close to what I did Jack wire

NEOK wrote:
Has anyone rigged some type of safety wire or something to keep their camper jacks from accidentally dropping down while traveling?

There is a link in this thread to some (top of page 2).

http://www.rv.net/Forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27092816