Jack Question

[surfib]

I am getting ready to get my old camper off so I can take my truck to the shop. After that I'll take my old camper and send her on her way to Mexico! I am purchasing the Rieco tripod jacks, can these be used with an ATC instead of the permanent corner jacks?

Here is a link to the jacks:

http://www.riecotitan.com/camperjacks/standardtripod.html

I like the fact that I don't have to unattach them from the camper when it is loaded, just drop and remove. Keeps me from ripping one off!

I'll have four so weight capacity should no be a problem. They are about $400bucks and if they work for both it will save me some money!

 

[craig333]

I don't know about the jacks, but I'm curious why you're taking it off to put the truck in the shop. No ones even raised an eyebrow when I've had my truck in the shop with the camper on.

 

[jimjxsn]

You should be fine. The fellow I purchased my FWC Ranger from used the tripod jacks. He only had two and stuggled with balancing the camper to load it on the truck. He finally gave up and went with the corner jacks. If you have three or four you should be just fine.
Jim

 

[surfib]

Here is why:

It is a monster, camper weighs 2200lbs+.

 

[HERR42]

how tall is the rig....to the top of the lights?

 

[surfib]

I'm 5'9" and my head doesn't even get close to hitting the cabover part when I stand next to the truck. I figure I'm pushing close to 9ft. I can stand straight up in the camper and put my hand up and lay my palm flat. It is a big sucker, that is why I want to keep it for my plot in Baja.

 

[John D]

I started to write you a long explaination of some of the problems but decided not to. You may not get any comments on how to jack your camper because a lot of people will not want to say anything in case your camper falls and hurts someone. If you don't have experience with jacking up your camper, I would have an experienced professional do it, or I would have the correct jacks without any consideration about using them on my new camper. You need to have the correct jacks for your camper, even though your goal to save money is laudable. Have the correct jacks for your new camper without any compromises. (I dislike comments like this. I very much want you safe.)

I do not like cable jacks, but they have their place.

 

[benburnett]

jacks

Well to be safe I would go with 4 instead of three. I have heard too many stories of the 3 jack system failing over time.

Will they work with one of our campers? Good questions. We have never mounted that type before. The weight rating on them is fine. It looks like they mount on the underside of the camper though. I assume they swing up then and that you store the bottoms in the camper somewhere.

I will show Jeff tomorrow and see if he has ever put a set of these on something before. Will let you know more tomorrow.

 

[surfib]

My buddy has a pair on his 1700+ lb skamper, they work for him just fine. He has the plates permanently mounted to his camper and removes the two bolts that hold the plate to the jack. These are not cable jacks, they are worm gear. When I get back from Hawaii tommorow I'll take pictures of how they are mounted on my buddies skamper unless he sold it.

Now to the answer of using the correct jacks, what if there is no mounting point on the camper, leaving the question, what is the correct jack? There are no plates on the corners, no mounting brackets of any kind to be found. So what is to say that the jacks I'm about to use are the correct jacks for my camper? Or even that these where the type used by the owner before me?

Now hopefully they will work for the ATC. I don't see them having to be mounted directly to the camper, could the camper just set on the plates it self and then be raised or lowered?

And to ease everyones mind, I will be using 4 jacks, one for each corner, to make sure everything is stable.


Mike

 

[benburnett]

jacks

I would prefer to mount the plates on the camper. Would be a lot safer to use then.

When you use a set of cable jacks, as you raise one side it puts pressure on the other side.

When you raise just one corner of the camper it puts pressure on the opposing corner from it while at the same time lifting the camper off of the other two corners. It would be very tricky to use four corner jacks that are not attached to raise the camper.

 

[John D]

Cable jacks were probably used on your camper.

 

[surfib]

well when i order my camper, I could send you the plates to see if they are safe to attach to the camper. If not, I can always go with your set instead.

 

[benburnett]

jacks

That would probably be the best solution. From what I can see it looks like they can be mounted. Would just have to get some in hand to tell for sure though.