Traveling without Jacks - contingency plan?
For those that travel without jacks mounted on the their slide-in truck campers, do you have a contingency plan for how to get the camper off the truck if needed unexpectedly?
Forum Discussion
The only decent contingency plan is to have them stored in a location where a friend could grab them in a pinch and ship them to you. With my Lance, if I were to travel without them, I could in a pinch get a set from lots of places shipped in 2-4 days but would run about $800 to do so.
I don't really see the saving of 150 pounds worth the possible inconvenience. Need a water pump changed in the middle of nowhere small gas station, may only be able to get it done if you take the camper off. Even a number of car dealerships won't be able to get to it without insisting you take the camper off. What may have been a day or two inconvenience becomes a week plus simply because you can't unload the camper. What about if the truck gets in a wreck where you have to buy another vehicle to get home? At least with the jacks, I can always unload the camper, usually in the mechanics parking lot, through some pallets under it for support/stability, and stay in it for a few days while the vehicle is being repaired.
As a kid we travel in a '69 Franklin which had the jacks twist up but stick outside the camper. We traveled all over the place, my father even took it out west a couple of times. Having the jacks on was never an issue despite going through some nasty place.
I don't really see the saving of 150 pounds worth the possible inconvenience. Need a water pump changed in the middle of nowhere small gas station, may only be able to get it done if you take the camper off. Even a number of car dealerships won't be able to get to it without insisting you take the camper off. What may have been a day or two inconvenience becomes a week plus simply because you can't unload the camper. What about if the truck gets in a wreck where you have to buy another vehicle to get home? At least with the jacks, I can always unload the camper, usually in the mechanics parking lot, through some pallets under it for support/stability, and stay in it for a few days while the vehicle is being repaired.
As a kid we travel in a '69 Franklin which had the jacks twist up but stick outside the camper. We traveled all over the place, my father even took it out west a couple of times. Having the jacks on was never an issue despite going through some nasty place.
