Size wood for landing gear

[Cougar Campers]

Storage facility requests pads under fifth wheel landing gear. Picking up a new Cougar this Saturday, and want to cut wood for this ahead of time, if possible. Can anyone advise size of cut wood? Thanks so much...total newbies as you can tell, but eager to learn! This forum gives wonderful info!

[laidback]

12 in. peices of 2x6 or 2x8 should work just fine. congrats on the new trailer I'm sure you will really enjoy it.

[LittleJoe]

I use 12" pieces of 6x6.

[mikell]

Variety package of about 6"x 12" by various thicknesses

[Pmedic4]

I had some I used on my TT, and just upgraded to a new 5ver and bought the plastic ones. So I have a set just for you, unfortunately I'm 400 miles away. I used 2x8s 10 inches long, found scraps of treated lumber from someone building a deck.
The feet of the jacks/landing gear about about 5"x5" to 6"x6", (some are even larger ) so that's what the minimum size you need.
Perhaps the question is, does the storage facility require something larger, like a 2" x 10" 12 inches long to protect their asphalt?

[TomHaycraft]

No real science to it, many options.

Without a real plan, I stumbled into a solution that has offered me nice variation. I used 2x10 and cut them into 10" squares, have 8 of them. These have a slightly larger surface area than the Lynx levelers (which I have 2 sets of) and are slightly thicker. For a 5er's landing gear, when the ground isn't quite level, I can use combinations of the wood and Lynx levelers to get the stack height so that the feet touch down at the exactly the same time. Maybe a little OCD, but my landing gear motor and gears don't complain!

[Fastback]

I do something similar to Tom. I use the 2 x 10 square them and add a piece of plywood to each side. I then paint them (black) and I install eye hooks in one side so I can pull them out using my awning rod.

So to answer your question, you can do whatever you want.

[RGRTim]

we use 2 X 8 and 5/4 X 8 treated. The wife found bins that 12" pieces of both fit down in and they are stored in the front compartment by the battery. Works great.

[Bob Landry]

I use these for the stabilizing jacks on my TT, but they will work as well on a fiver. Each one is made from three thicknesses of 3/4" treated plywood with a rope handle in the middle section. You can stack as many as needed.

[SteveC7010]

Originally Posted by Cougar Campers

Storage facility requests pads under fifth wheel landing gear. Picking up a new Cougar this Saturday, and want to cut wood for this ahead of time, if possible. Can anyone advise size of cut wood? Thanks so much...total newbies as you can tell, but eager to learn! This forum gives wonderful info!

You are going to need this stuff for a lot more than protecting the storage facilities pavement. Many campsites are not particularly level. Some of them will have very soft ground where you park the trailer. So you'll need some flexibility to help set up your camp.

First, you'll need something to drive the trailer up on to level it side-to-side. Some folks use the plastic leveling blocks. Others prefer 2x8 or 2x10 stock. I use 2x8's cut to about a foot in length for under the tires.

Second, I've never been a fan of extending the scissors jack style stabilizers more than about 50%. I think they become wobbly after that. So I use 4x4 lumber cut to a foot in length to build up under the jacks. It also spreads the load out if the ground is soft.

Third, landing gear or nose jack, doesn't matter as you'll definitely want to put something under them from time to time for various reasons.

Fourth, I also carry a few pieces of 1x4 cut to about a foot in length. They're half the thickness of the 2x stock so you can fine tune leveling if needed.

Some folks camp on sand or very sandy soil from time to time. It's very desirable to place large pads under the tires and all supports when doing this to spread out the load and prevent anything from sinking. If you put the stabilizers down with out sand pads, you're guaranteed that they'll sink in and be totally ineffective. Same goes for the landing gear or nose jack. I like to use several wide boards under each tire for the same reason.

The real way to look at all this is that you primarily need the boards or blocks for camping set up. Keeping the storage guy happy is just an added benefit.

[SteveC7010]

If you have the SteadyFast stabilizing system, they recommend that you place a "V" of 2x4's or similar under each foot. Another good reason to have some lumber pieces in your kit:


And here's how I build up under the stabilizer jack to prevent extending it too much. Also notice that this particular site is sloped a bit and the jack would never reach the ground, even if fully extended. The blocks were essential in this set up.

[RGRTim]

Originally Posted by Bob Landry

I use these for the stabilizing jacks on my TT, but they will work as well on a fiver. Each one is made from three thicknesses of 3/4" treated plywood with a rope handle in the middle section. You can stack as many as needed.

Those are nice. Very good idea.