Happijac failed while driving down the interstate!

Thanks for posting Chris. If it were not for this forum and the wisdom that experienced TC owners post I would have a tough go of it. I value their input highly.

I have travelled with the TC loaded through a chinook front - road speed of 50mph against front quartering winds of 50mph to 65mph - lots of rudder input to maintain heading but we are used to that in The Open Country - never felt like the unit was going to blow over -

My major "stability" concern with DRW is once the wind blows you up on two wheels on the one side, how do you stay on the road with the tires in contact so far out of line with each other? Is this why dually wind mishap pictures often show them in the ditch facing the opposite direction?

BradW wrote:
Actually based my comment on having owned both srw and drw trucks and also a fellow I worked with for many years experience with initially towing a 5'ver with an srw Dodge Cummins before trading for a drw.

Good Luck,
Brad

I may be drinking the Kool-aid here Brad, but from a safety stand point I feel much much better having my load (although be it greater) spread over 4 axles instead of two. Now I have around 1800 lbs on the bed instead of nearly 4k.

I was heading from Oregon to Sacramento in the wind a couple of weeks ago and could barely feel it with the 5er... with the old TC I probably would have pulled over and hunkered down.

Always good to read your posts! (sorry for the bird walk)

Actually based my comment on having owned both srw and drw trucks and also a fellow I worked with for many years experience with initially towing a 5'ver with an srw Dodge Cummins before trading for a drw.

Good Luck,
Brad

BradW wrote:

I have never liked that either. But I believe I would be just as concerned about a 15K lb toy hauler behind an SRW at interstate speeds. :)

:h Don't base your concern on the number of wheels. Look at the front of the next concrete mixer you meet packing 20,000lbs on those two single wheels.

rkortes wrote:
This is one of the reasons I chose to get out of the TC and into a fifth wheel. I was always a little freaked when I had 4K pounds sitting 5 feet of the ground on those Happy Jacks... Always felt like I was one click (or clunk) away from disaster. Won't miss that!

I have never liked that either. But I believe I would be just as concerned about a 15K lb toy hauler behind an SRW at interstate speeds. :)

This is one of the reasons I chose to get out of the TC and into a fifth wheel. I was always a little freaked when I had 4K pounds sitting 5 feet of the ground on those Happy Jacks... Always felt like I was one click (or clunk) away from disaster. Won't miss that!

monkey44 wrote:
I can remember looking at a HJ at a TC show once - the salesman showed us a pin-lever that allows the jack to release directly to the floor, "So, you don't have to spend the time lowering it" was his smiling statement. Correct, a time-saver ... unless it fails, like here, then you have a dangerous situation.

Don't know if HJ still has that, but doubt it because it won't take many dropping down at highway speeds to get the engineer's attention.

Good idea to share that experience - and talking to HJ is a better idea.

You are describing the HJ 4600, still available on line. To be clear, mine do not have this feature, something that sounded like a poor idea to me when I purchased them. When my 4500 dropped to the floor I realized I got the feature at no extra charge.:)

Joe417 wrote:
That was in front of a lot of Lance customers(Lance uses Happijac)and I felt like he was blowing me off.

I have owned 4 different Lance campers, my son has a Lance, and my wife's cousin has a Lance. They all have Atwood jacks on them.

Personally, I have never seen a Lance camper with Happijacs installed.

Joe417 wrote:
I had read this post and since my 05 AF has Happijacs I questioned the Happijac rep at the South Eastern TC Rally. Can't remember how many years he had been with them but said that was the first he had heard of one of their jacks dropping and it wasn't necessary to put safety cables on them. That was in front of a lot of Lance customers(Lance uses Happijac)and I felt like he was blowing me off.

Doesn't Lance use Attwood jacks?