trailer blown off jack stand
I have been a stalker here on rv.net for a while but this is my first post. We own a Coleman 262bh. January 9th we had a terrible wind storm with winds over 100mph. this past weekend I went out to my...
Forum Discussion
100 mph is quite a wind. Many owners get their TTs blown clear over so you are lucky in that respect.
Wondering - did you have chocks in place? If you didn't, it would be a lot easier for the tongue jack to get pushed around. Scissor jacks or elec. stab. jacks? Scissor jacks aren't very stable in a fore/aft and left right direction, esp. the higher they are off the ground. If you happened to have stabilizer struts for the stab. jacks, that might have helped.
You need to have the tongue jack deployed but it will help to have it extended as little as possible and can use blocks, cribbing, etc. From an engineering point of view, the most stable setup would be to have the base twice as wide as the height of the jack's foot is off the ground in a pyramid shape. For ex., if the foot was 24" off the ground the base of the built up "stand" would be 48" x 48". Could be a pyramid shape and should have a lip so the foot can't slip off. Just stacking up some layers of 6x6 or 2x6 will not help. If the ground is not a hard surface and is soft material, putting down some crushed gravel would be a good idea.
Also, if you look at how a tongue jack is bolted to the A-frame, it is only held in place by 3 bolts through a flange sitting on top of the A-frame tubing. This is not all that stable and the foot of the jack can move around as a result. If you were handy and can weld, you could make up another flange that would be at the height of the underside of the A-frame tubing and attach there. I'm planning on doing this to our TT.
Frame is unlikely to be damaged.
Wondering - did you have chocks in place? If you didn't, it would be a lot easier for the tongue jack to get pushed around. Scissor jacks or elec. stab. jacks? Scissor jacks aren't very stable in a fore/aft and left right direction, esp. the higher they are off the ground. If you happened to have stabilizer struts for the stab. jacks, that might have helped.
You need to have the tongue jack deployed but it will help to have it extended as little as possible and can use blocks, cribbing, etc. From an engineering point of view, the most stable setup would be to have the base twice as wide as the height of the jack's foot is off the ground in a pyramid shape. For ex., if the foot was 24" off the ground the base of the built up "stand" would be 48" x 48". Could be a pyramid shape and should have a lip so the foot can't slip off. Just stacking up some layers of 6x6 or 2x6 will not help. If the ground is not a hard surface and is soft material, putting down some crushed gravel would be a good idea.
Also, if you look at how a tongue jack is bolted to the A-frame, it is only held in place by 3 bolts through a flange sitting on top of the A-frame tubing. This is not all that stable and the foot of the jack can move around as a result. If you were handy and can weld, you could make up another flange that would be at the height of the underside of the A-frame tubing and attach there. I'm planning on doing this to our TT.
Frame is unlikely to be damaged.
