Manual jacks?

[Canonsue]

I am looking at an Adventurer camper to purchase. The camper in question is a good price and has exactly what I want or best to say it does not have expensive features that I do not want. However, it has manual jacks, I was wanting electric jacks.

Can you comment about your experience with manual jacks? I like the fact that it is less complicated but how much more time is spent taking camper in and out of truck using a drill to lower and raise jacks?

[Oldtymeflyr]

My electric jack controller went out this spring in Phoenix and had to use the hand crank. Just as I thought, I really like those electric jacks. I would not be without them.

On a recent 3 week trip we loaded and unloaded the camper 4 times. Its quick and easy, its more work to remove the hitch and front bike rack.

Good luck.

[JacintoKid]

bcbouy wrote:
has anyone ever went from electric to manual on purpose?

My first two campers had electric jacks (Lance 835) (Arctic Fox 990). My new camper is a pop-up and has just the manual jacks. It typically took me about 25-30 minutes to load with the electric jacks with remote. It now takes me about 45 minutes with the manual jacks. I would love to upgrade to electric jacks on the new camper but not at the cost it would take to make it happen. I think it was around $ 1200 to upgrade my manual Reico Titans. I don't load/unload this camper nearly as often as the previous 2 so, it's just not worth the cost to me. Would be nice though.

[Lancey]

I just made the switch from manual to electric......never going back...ever...lol

Having a nice even stable lift, rather than tranfering weight corner to corner to corner seems like less stress on the camper itsel, as well at my wife haha

[bcbouy]

has anyone ever went from electric to manual on purpose?

[realter]

Save $$ and weight. Go with manual. I rarely use the electric jacks, sorry I bought them.

[Reality_Check]

Jump in here late in the game..

Had manuals and used a cordless gun too. Loved it. In fact, when we got the AF, I complained that the remotes were slooooooow. Fact is, I could run around and raise the thing faster..but probably not as fast as I thought. It's just that when you're doing something, time goes by quicker.

That being said, it wasn't a big deal. I've watched folks, and they raise the thing 1", run to the other side, raise it 2", run back, raise it another inch or two... good God, kills me to watch. It's not that technical nor should it be that slow. BUT, I do like the remotes now... especially for loading it back on the truck. I can run them from the drivers seat.

But for just getting a camper up and down, they are quick, it's easy and I never had a problem with them. BTW, most campers will raise with three. The back is pretty rigid and lighter, and you could ignore one and get away with it. A 25% savings in time there...

Thought for the day: my doctor said that red wine is good for me. Said something about exercise too. "More the better". I think he was referring to the wine...

[bcbouy]

my old sun lite had manuals.can't tell you how much i hated those things.huge pita.the first thing on the list for our new camper was remote cordless electric jacks.to say i love them is a collosal understatement.press a button to stabilize afer arriving at camp,priceless.

[ramlinwillie]

For me it's about fifteen to twenty minutes more, moving around one leg at a time and trying to stay somewhat level takes time and is nerve racking. Lucky I don't take it off anymore, and won't unless some emergency comes up. My Lance I owned had wireless electric, and you could operate all at once and individually when needed, I always removed the camper if I was staying for more then a day or two.

[hedge]

My last one had manuals and this one has electric, they're nice but not a big time saver to me. I still make trips around to check it as it's going up anyway. The manual jacks weren't that bad if you had someone on each side. It did get tougher as it got farther up as my wife couldn't reach the jack handle anymore so I had to go to each corner. If you're short I imagine that would be a real pain dragging a stool around.

[ugh]

I need to pay attention to which group. Your question is for truck camper, I was thinking this is for TT. Please disregard my comments as it was for my TT. I don't know much about truck camper. My Bad.

[mnormand]

Yesterday I viewed a friends camper, first time I looked closely at a TC. He mentioned he had electrics and a remote. Can you run all four jacks up down at same time? Are they used to stabilize the rig while camping to minimize movement?

sorry...I'm new to TC, but starting to warm up to them as they fit my mode of occasional camping very well.

[RWDIII]

This is all you need
It takes a little time,but then I only take the camper off twice a year

[ralphnjoann]

Canonsue wrote:
Thanks for the responses. I had the dealer send the equipment sheet on the camper to me and it does say that it is prewired but of course the salesman told me that converting to electric jacks would be very expensive to wire. I don't think he has looked at the equipment sheet. The camper is at a blow out price but just missing a few things I want. Other campers I have seen have too many features that I don't want. When I ask about ordering a camper both dealers discouraged it. Of course I know they want to sell what is on their lot.

You don't need the entire jack, just the motorized heads.

[tonymull]

Yeah a cordless with some oomph is all you need. If you have 2 and a helper....even better. Power stuff is just something else to break. It's just not that hard. 1/2 hr start to finish.