Tongue jack collapsed, TT nose crashed down - ouch!

[BobsYourUncle]

After 3 weeks of wonderful holidays, had to pack up yesterday and drive home.
Looking at the skies, dark grey rolling in, better hit the road soon.

Usual stuff, put things away, disconnect services and all that.

Retracted the stabilizer jacks, backed the truck close to the tongue, leaving just enough room for me to stand and operate the crank. Nose has to be fairly high to get it on the ball so I start cranking.

Meanwhile, the skies opened up big time and I'm getting soaked.

This thing has been giving me some issues starting on this trip. Crank has a tight spot part way up. Even posted a thread here about lubing it as it was getting hard to crank.
And another thread about suggestions for an electric jack replacement.

Well, I had it up almost high enough to get it on the hitch when suddenly, with no warning, BAM!!! The jack failed and the nose of the TT came crashing down onto the landing block. This happened so blinking fast and sudden, there was no time to react. It was on the ground right now! Wow, just wow. It fell about a foot.

Took me about an hour and a half with a bottle jack and a bunch of wood blocks to pick it up and get it hitched.

And the thing I am most thankful about is that when I do this, I ALWAYS position my feet, body, hands in such a way that if something happens, I am out of the way. Years of doing this paid off, no injury to me because I stay right out of the way. Sure did startle the heck out of me though.... This could have done some serious damage to me.

Got home last night, parked out front and went out and bought a replacement today. After 3 weeks off work and spending a bunch on the vacation, a fancy electric jack isn't in the budget yet. Bought another hand crank.

Perhaps a little warning to others, pay attention to your tongue jack, if it's starting to bind, don't fool around, replace it!

[BobsYourUncle]

Wow Steve, my head hurts with your math! Lol!
I never was any good at those kind of calculations....

[subcamper]

Acceleration due to gravity is 32 feet per second SQUARED.

(Final velocity)squared = 2*(acceleration)*(distance)

plugging in 32 ft/sec squared for acceleration and 1 foot for distance gives:

(velocity)squared = 2*32*1 =64

velocity = 8 ft/sec (about 5.5 mph)

Steve

[BobsYourUncle]

shum02 wrote:

BobsYourUncle wrote:
Truck is getting old, starting to break. 392,000K on it.

That's not old! 450K+ kms on my daily driven F350 🙂

Guess I better put the hammer down and catch up to you! :B

Buddy of mine has a 2006 300 series SRT8 Chrysler with the 6.2 hemi, about the same K as your truck. His is 467,000K. Amazing, especially since his foot is made of lead.

[shum02]

BobsYourUncle wrote:
Truck is getting old, starting to break. 392,000K on it.

That's not old! 450K+ kms on my daily driven F350 🙂

[stevemorris]

we had a jack fail!
i ignored the binding and squeaking(fix it this winter scenario)
on a slope, wheels poorly chocked
trailer rolled back, off the block under the jack, the jack bent and totally failed, trailer came down with a bang, the A frame on the ground

wasnt pretty!

[BobsYourUncle]

BFL13 wrote:
Yes tricky with TTs which can roll forward if conditions are right when the tongue jack comes off the ball or whatever. You can be crushed between the truck and the TT. Ouch! Chock those tires!

Meanwhile BobsYourUncle seems to be having run of bad luck--with the truck and now the trailer. Might have been his fault for moving back East to Alberta. 😞

Best stay on this forum, so we can bail you out from whatever happens next!

Yes, I only remove the chocks after it's on the hitch. I've had trailers roll in the past. I'm more careful now as I age.

Hah, yes I've been ribbed about moving to CowTown, but at least I'm a happy guy now. I do love BC, and hope to retire to the Okanogan. I may be back! But for now, I'm an Alberta boy. 🙂

And yes, im not going anywhere from this forum. Check my start date. 🙂

The kind folks here have helped me out a lot. And I have met quite a few forum members too. Truck is getting old, starting to break. 392,000K on it.

[pianotuna]

Not quite right.

That is the rate at which they accelerate until terminal velocity is reached.

popeyemth wrote:
32 feet-PER SECOND
That’s the speed things fall.
Darn right it’s fast!

[BFL13]

Yes tricky with TTs which can roll forward if conditions are right when the tongue jack comes off the ball or whatever. You can be crushed between the truck and the TT. Ouch! Chock those tires!

Meanwhile BobsYourUncle seems to be having run of bad luck--with the truck and now the trailer. Might have been his fault for moving back East to Alberta. 😞

Best stay on this forum, so we can bail you out from whatever happens next!

[MR_MAC]

Happned to me once, just missed my foot, no time to react it came down so fast. Jack wwas up to its max when it fell. Best to be arms length when pushing butten or crsnking. Mby there should be a warning on the lift.

[BobsYourUncle]

popeyemth wrote:
32 feet-PER SECOND
That’s the speed things fall.
Darn right it’s fast!

Interesting....
So, using your figure, based on the fact it fell about a foot, I can say it took 1/32 of a second for it to hit the ground!

Yes, that's fast. No time to react.

But we know it takes a little time to reach that speed.

Thanks for the interesting thought!

[popeyemth]

32 feet-PER SECOND
That’s the speed things fall.
Darn right it’s fast!

[pianotuna]

Glad you are safe.

[Lwiddis]

That’s no fun...dangerous. At least you were prepared with a bottle jack and blocks.

[Jack_Diane_Free]

x2 on Princess Auto. Much cheaper than purchasing an electric or hand crank jack at an RV dealer.