Elec Lippert stabilizing jacks. How do YOU use yours...

Both of my other rigs had manual type scissor jacks... 5k lbs lifting each... This setup has proven rather interesting.... Some setups have no wobble... I just got back from a trip and did rather well. It seems easier to get the front settled first and then "tighten" up the back end of the rig.... I'd sure like to see an auto leveling setup on these things.... Wow. Why the hell no

Wonder if we lost weight would the wobble go away? :D

Personally as long as there is no movement when I am sleeping I don't care about a little movement otherwise. So what if it moves a bit when someone comes in the door. It settles down so enough. This is an RV not a house.

To each his own of course.

Our Lippert Electrics have turned out to be just too flimsy for our 7500# trailer. I too use them to lift it about 1" to stabilize, but even that little bit has caused the front jack's to crimp a bit and now they wobble. The rear jacks are totally bent as I once lifted the front tongue when they were down and put a lot of weight on them.

Think we're going to switch to manual jack stands.

The Lippert elect. stab. jacks are rather flimsy and move around a lot. Have someone walk in out of your TT and watch them move and flex. The horizontal beam flexes and the bolt that connects the main arms (that go up and down) to the flat-ish angle braces flexes a lot as well. About the only thing you can do is buy a set of stabilizers for your stabilizers like the BAL lock-arm braces. Only another $300 or so... Not sure what to do with ours. May give in and buy the BAL lock-arms or I may see if I can strengthen the Lippert jacks. I like our elect. jacks for convenience but am not thrilled about the idea of having to reach down to do the extra braces all around.

I like the structural design of this one and should be fairly sturdy in comparison but it is NLA and not self-levelling. http://www.ebay.com/itm/ELECTRIC-STABILIZER-JACK-RV-CAMPER-TRAILER-MOTORHOME-/320905518872?pt=Motors_RV_Trailer_Camper_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4ab7759f18&vxp=mtr

Manual scissor jacks aren't bad for vertical movement but you can still get side to side and fore/aft movement. X-chocks help and so does a set of bottle jacks ahead of the axles. Some have even added scissor jacks there. Sensing and controlling movement depends a lot on factors like your trailer length, weight, frame, etc. Our old 20' TT did fine on just 4 scissor jacks but when we went to a 29' TT with elec. stab. jacks, bounce and movement was awful in comparison.

Confessions of a jack torturer:
I use my jacks to lift and stabilize my TT. There, I said it!! (boy it feels good to get that off my chest)
These "jacks" are just that, jacks like cars have come with for many, many decades.
So what happens, if you overload them? One time I had to use them to jack my TT up on the side of the road (because of soft sand, I couldn't use my bottle jack). I had to really stress the jack and sure enough, the jack screw bent slightly but still worked fine.
I've even lowered that backs and then used the fronts to nearly take the tires of the ground. No problems at all doing so.
For 10 years I've been using them to "lift" and have not had any problem with them. They didn't break, pop or otherwise fail. The Jack screws on a couple of them bent slightly but a tap of a rubber hammer straightened them right back into shape.

So I say if you feel the need, go ahead and jack with your jacks. The world will not come to an end. In the years I've been reading this forum I have not heard of a jack collapsing because of mis-use. Maybe it has happened but it must be very rare.
I accept the fact though that if they bust, it's my own doing.

BTW, I have the cheapest and lowest capacity jacks. They are not the type that are threaded and bushed at both ends.

Scott

^^^^^ funny I do what he says not to:) ^^^^^^^

After I level side to side, I set my front jacks down about 1.5" to 2" under level. Then I set the rear jacks down until the rear raises .5" to 1". Then I raise the front up to level. All jacks on pads to spread weight on ground surface.

Everything is locked in hard. I have a 5th wheel now, but used to use the same basic concept with my TT. Although on the TT I installed a set in the middle as well.

Considering having the 6 point auto level install next year.

What you DON'T want to do is put down the rears stabilizers, then decide that its not quite level, then raise the nose with the tounge jack, then hear a loud popping noise at the rear, then let out a long string of expletives.

wmoses wrote:

bigcitypopo wrote:
these things aren't designed to lift your rig ... but how do you get minimal wobble/shake..any idears....

I use mine as designed ... to stabilize the rig (i.e. remove large scale displacement from side too side / end) I set them down onto plastic pads then snug them up so that the trailer is lifted maybe 1".

There is still "wobble/shake" but no "tip over tendency". To get rid of any more movement you need a combination of X-chocks and vertical supports between the span of the stabilizers preferably in way of the axles.

Of course this type of question will again attract a lot of responses and hopefully by the end it will become clear. ;)

I use mine the same way as wmoses does. Lately I've been wondering if a pair of heavy duty bottle jacks under the frame behind the axles would help to alleviate some of the remaining wobble. Does anyone do this?

They self adjust to uneven terrain. With that said I absolutely hate them. They dont do nearly as good of a job "stabilizing" the trailer as the cheaper manual type. When mine finally break or quit working I will most certainly replace them with the manual type. They are also loud and take alot longer to put down than the manual type if you use a drill.

Most self adjust for unlevel campsites