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!

[DutchmenSport]

Glad you did not get hurt. And glad your camper did not get hurt either.

I never had any of my tongue jacks fail on any of my previous TT's, but I did have the wind blow one once and it slipped off the block of wood I kept under the jack. I did not have a wheel or foot on the jack, so it sunk into the dirt (yes, it was grass), clear up to the bottom of the A-frame. It was a real challenge getting a jack under the frame anywhere to raise it. First, it was soft mud, second the frame was so low to the ground. Well, as you can tell, I finally got it off the ground.

Glad you are OK.

[shum02]

Princess Auto always has them on sale. Have had mine on for close to 5 years with no issue.

[LarryJM]

IMO the most dangerous time is when one unhooks the ball from the trailer and here is where an electric jack is a HUGE HELP. When doing this I always stand as far to the side and towards the trailer when raising the tongue to disconnect it from the ball and am ready to jump further out of the way side ways if necessary.

Larry

[jfkmk]

That stinks! Good thing you kept your body out of harms way.

[opnspaces]

Wow, that is downright scary, glad you kept your body out of harms way. A jack can be replaced, you cannot. 🙂