Do You Lower Your Jacks When Parked

[sonuvabug]

Recently we saw a TC camped out in an RV campground with its jack posts lowered ... I suppose for additional stability when parked. We have never done this and if fact, never thought of doing it until we saw it for ourselves.

Do you lower your jack posts for stability when parked?

[spacedoutbob]

I have never done it.

Bob in Calif.

[CSG]

We had a Lance camper for something like 17 years (bought it new in 1989). Early on, we would mess with leveling using the jacks but they were manual Reicos and a PITA. When I first saw the little Lego type blocks, I bought a set and never looked back. I leveled the truck. The slight motion in the rig was a non-issue for us.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

We just bought a Lance 1172 in June.

Service guy who gave me the walk through stressed that Lance strongly suggests using the jacks all the time.

Seems on this particular model, considering the rear wall and most of the driver's side wall are two slides, Lance wants all the support one can get with the slides out. Service guy said some 1172's have actually cracked in the drivers rear corner area, which is between the two slides.

So slides go out after the jacks go down for me. So far, not an issue.

[1handyhubby]

We drop them just enough to stop the rocking. ????

[nycsteve]

No, no need.

[JimBollman]

I leave mine down all the time, they are leaning against the wall in the corner of the garage.

[DOITHARD]

work2fish wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

Paradox must like feeling like he's in a boat! Or he's rockin a pop up on a F650....
Quick, late stop, toss out the slide and everyone hits the fart sack, jacks stay up.
Pull over and make lunch, jacks stay up.
Making camp for a while and 4 people bouncing around the camper = drop the rear outriggers.

Same here, though I usually drop all four when camping for a while. I don't like extra motion when I am trying to sleep, even though I still think I'm feeling some after being out on the boat all day... 😉

LOL

[work2fish]

Grit dog wrote:

Paradox must like feeling like he's in a boat! Or he's rockin a pop up on a F650....
Quick, late stop, toss out the slide and everyone hits the fart sack, jacks stay up.
Pull over and make lunch, jacks stay up.
Making camp for a while and 4 people bouncing around the camper = drop the rear outriggers.

Same here, though I usually drop all four when camping for a while. I don't like extra motion when I am trying to sleep, even though I still think I'm feeling some after being out on the boat all day... 😉

[mike_kellie]

Yes I do if parked overnight. They are also used to fine tune any leveling. Not debating blocks, dangling fastguns or stress to corners.

[macdale4]

Almost always lower them. You don't have to, I just don't like the rocking when I'm moving around or tossing and turning in bed. If that doesn't bother you, then don't. You should NEVER level the camper in the bed. The jacks aren't designed for that. Yeah I know a lot of people do it and get away with it, but the leverage of the extended jack stresses the contact points to the frame of the camper. Level the camper with Lynx Levelers or similar blocks. Each block is 1/2 a bubble on your level. I carry two sets, 20 levelers, and that has taken care of probably 95% of our leveling needs.

[Grit_dog]

rickjo wrote:

Paradox123 wrote:
Usually it's silly to lower the jacks. I can get level with the plastci wedges from Camping World. The exception is when the campsite is so unlevel that I need more than four inches to level up. I've seen some say they lower the jacks because the camper seems unstable unless supported on the corners. That's double silly.

Unstable? That's not part of this discussion. It is given that springs and tires alone allow the movement inside the camper to jostle the camper. We don't like that and there's nothing double silly or unstable going on. Jacks stop that from happening.

Rick

Paradox must like feeling like he's in a boat! Or he's rockin a pop up on a F650....
Quick, late stop, toss out the slide and everyone hits the fart sack, jacks stay up.
Pull over and make lunch, jacks stay up.
Making camp for a while and 4 people bouncing around the camper = drop the rear outriggers.

[Fisher_Bill]

I use boards to level the camper on the truck, then I extend the jacks down to 4" x 8" header boards that are standing up about 14".

Then I push the slide out, if we didn't the 1150 will lean to the right hard and with it's weight even the dually rocks back and forth.

I am not lifting as much as I am stabilizing, not going up as much as an inch so no stress to the tie downs.

When we bought it the previous owner said he never planted the jacks but after the first season we saw others who did this and we were sold on the idea of not rocking around after we tried it.

[stevenal]

wnjj wrote:

stevenal wrote:
Way too time consuming even with powered jacks. My beverage is waiting.

Not with HJ4600's with quick release. Flip the lever, step on the jack and its down in 3 seconds.

No such animal in '98 the year of my 'foot. Something a bit scary about a quick release on a jack. Would hate for it to vibrate into the release position when underway.

Retraction would still be time consuming, unless that quick release goes the other direction too.:)

[rickjo]

Paradox123 wrote:
Usually it's silly to lower the jacks. I can get level with the plastci wedges from Camping World. The exception is when the campsite is so unlevel that I need more than four inches to level up. I've seen some say they lower the jacks because the camper seems unstable unless supported on the corners. That's double silly.

Unstable? That's not part of this discussion. It is given that springs and tires alone allow the movement inside the camper to jostle the camper. We don't like that and there's nothing double silly or unstable going on. Jacks stop that from happening.

Rick