Bent the jack mount and opened up the front corner of the camper

[jennyly]

Lazily left the jack stands on for a quick weekend trip and had planned to take them off this weekend - yes, we know better than to do this. Clipped a blue mailbox tonight and bent the mount back and barely opened up the front corner of the camper. Is this something I can trust a local RV repair shop with? I had a local shop re-seal the roof last winter and they did a great job and seemed competent, but the tiny pop up campers are totally foreign to them. I have many winter ski trips planned for this season in this rig.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

First call ATC to see if they can recommend anyone local. If not, I would take it to Jeff and Marty. If they have a delivery in Oregon, they might be able to transport it. Looks like there are broken frame members.

 

[Vic Harder]

Agreed on the broken frame members. If the shop you took it to can weld aluminum, then they can fix it. Nothing permanent looking in that hole.

 

[PokyBro]

From what I can see in the photos, it looks like the mounting bolts have pulled through the aluminum tubing and likely also bent. The tubing also appears twisted loose out of shape. I’m betting it will require at least some removal of the siding on the front and the side to inspect for broken welds, and very possibly needing several of the corner tubes removed and replaced so jacks can again be safely attached for camper removal. Sorry to say, but it looks like it could be a pretty involved repair, but I hope not. Sorry it happened, good luck with finding the best place to do the repair in a timely manner!

 

[jennyly]

Thanks so much for the responses. We will call ATC today. Then we need to figure out how to get it straightened out in the bed of the truck without unloading and reloading it - it got dragged a bit during the mailbox incident.

 

[Jon R]

One of the tripod style jacks that lifts on the edge of the camper would be best, but if you don’t have access to one, this idea occurred to me:

You’ll have to figure out the details of how to push horizontally on the camper to shift it based on where and how far it needs to move, but one way to lift the damaged corner without loading the actual corner area (while lifting the other corners with the three good jacks) would be to put a bottle jack in the turnbuckle area via the access door, use wood blocking to spread the load out along the edge where the turnbuckle attaches to prevent damage, and set it up so the jack can tilt when you shift the camper. I would only jack it 1/4 inch off the bed floor, and shift it in small increments resetting the jack to vertical each time if you have to move it a lot.