Scissor Stabilizing Jacks

[Gobirds38]

With the jacks in the up position, they are loose when shaken?

I ask this because I have added X Chocks and very level, still shakes a little.

Should I tighten them down when in the up position or are they suppose to be loose?

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Gobirds38

With the jacks in the up position, they are loose when shaken?

I ask this because I have added X Chocks and very level, still shakes a little.

Should I tighten them down when in the up position or are they suppose to be loose?

This is confusing. When you say the stabilizers are in the "up position" are you saying they are in the stored position and deployed? If the stabilizers are down, touching the ground, then they should be tight but DO NOT RAISE THE TRAILER! They should only be tight enough to stabilize not raise the frame.

[Gobirds38]

Originally Posted by flybouy

This is confusing. When you say the stabilizers are in the "up position" are you saying they are in the stored position and deployed? If the stabilizers are down, touching the ground, then they should be tight but DO NOT RAISE THE TRAILER! They should only be tight enough to stabilize not raise the frame.

When they are in the up position as in traveling position. I grabbed one and it would shake around, thinking maybe this is my shaking when they are down at our site.
When at our site, I never deploy them more than 12 inches and use blocks under them. Never to raise the TT.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Gobirds38

When they are in the up position as in traveling position. I grabbed one and it would shake around, thinking maybe this is my shaking when they are down at our site.
When at our site, I never deploy them more than 12 inches and use blocks under them. Never to raise the TT.

Can you tell where the movement is? Is it loose where it mounts to the frame or is the movement in the scissor arms? Are all the stabilizers the same, do they all have the same amount of movement?

[jsb5717]

I think the OP is asking "why does the trailer still move when I'm using the stabilizing jacks as well as the xChocks?". The answer is...because it's a trailer. There will always be some movement. An Auto Level system helps a lot in minimizing movement but it's nearly impossible to get rid of all movement. The amount of movement that a person finds irritating is very subjective and there are things that can be done to reduce it considerably.

If your stabilizers are scissor jacks then they don't do a lot to reduce movement, they mostly reduce bounce. You can try JT StrongArms or the BAL stabilizing system. One of those might be your best bet.

[Gobirds38]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Can you tell where the movement is? Is it loose where it mounts to the frame or is the movement in the scissor arms? Are all the stabilizers the same, do they all have the same amount of movement?

Jacks attach to a U bracket on the frame 2 bolts, the U bracket at the frame is tight.

Jacks attached to the U bracket 2 bolts, is where they are loose not the arms, all the jacks are loose the same amount.

Didn't know if this was by design or I should tighten them to make it more stable?

[Gobirds38]

Originally Posted by jsb5717

I think the OP is asking "why does the trailer still move when I'm using the stabilizing jacks as well as the xChocks?". The answer is...because it's a trailer. There will always be some movement. An Auto Level system helps a lot in minimizing movement but it's nearly impossible to get rid of all movement. The amount of movement that a person finds irritating is very subjective and there are things that can be done to reduce it considerably.

If your stabilizers are scissor jacks then they don't do a lot to reduce movement, they mostly reduce bounce. You can try JT StrongArms or the BAL stabilizing system. One of those might be your best bet.

JT Strongarms are in the future, I know they will always move a little, just trying to minimize it as much as possible with my current setup.

[jsb5717]

Originally Posted by Gobirds38

Jacks attach to a U bracket on the frame 2 bolts, the U bracket at the frame is tight.

Jacks attached to the U bracket 2 bolts, is where they are loose not the arms, all the jacks are loose the same amount.

Didn't know if this was by design or I should tighten them to make it more stable?

Can you take a couple pics of the issue and post them?

[Gobirds38]

Originally Posted by jsb5717

Can you take a couple pics of the issue and post them?

Will do. It is in storage currently, I will be down there tonight and will post some pics.

[wiredgeorge]

Geesh... camper is sitting on rubber tires that are on a spring suspension. It will wiggle unless you buy one of those fancy stabilizer set ups and even then it isn't a concrete foundation. BTW: My stab jacks are bolted to the frame on my 5ver and not hung with u-bolts. Your stab jacks likely have holes on the base. Drill through and put some self tapping lag bolts (not tooooo long).

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Gobirds38

Jacks attach to a U bracket on the frame 2 bolts, the U bracket at the frame is tight.

Jacks attached to the U bracket 2 bolts, is where they are loose not the arms, all the jacks are loose the same amount.

Didn't know if this was by design or I should tighten them to make it more stable?

IOf the bolts are loose then tighten them. A couple of pics will help.

[ewbldavis]

You'll never get them to not wiggle some. Sig pic looks like a shorter rig.

We had a set we would put in the center and it helped ALOT, but our TT was 34ft.

Old-school triangle jacks are probably best...or you could look at the BAL lock-arms for your scissor jacks. They work awesome on our landing gear.

[Gobirds38]

Originally Posted by ewbldavis

You'll never get them to not wiggle some. Sig pic looks like a shorter rig.

We had a set we would put in the center and it helped ALOT, but our TT was 34ft.

Old-school triangle jacks are probably best...or you could look at the BAL lock-arms for your scissor jacks. They work awesome on our landing gear.

Yes my rig is 30 FT, I may add some more jacks, but leaning towards JT Strongarms.

[sourdough]

I don't know how much play you are talking about, and it's been a long time since I had scissor jacks, but they all wiggle some. Just think about it; they have to be loose enough to extend/retract without binding which will inherently leave a bit of play. If it seems like too much you need to check to make sure everything is tight. I'll bet they are tight and don't wiggle when deployed...right?

As far as getting rid of the wiggle - it won't happen short of removing the tires/suspension, building a concrete pad and placing the frame on cinder blocks or the like. Even then, as flimsy as the floors are anymore it would still probably bounce.

To eliminate as much as possible with what you got; deploy the stabilizers as usual, use x chocks on both sides and tighten them down hard, make sure your tires are at max sidewall psi. If you have the steps that fold up under the door I used a telescoping metal stand to place under the bottom step to reduce/eliminate the big bounce from entering/exiting the trailer. After that....walk softly. You can get the BAL/Strongarm locking arms and they help. I installed 2 sets on my last trailer and they helped but definitely don't get rid of all the wiggle.

[Gobirds38]

Originally Posted by sourdough

I don't know how much play you are talking about, and it's been a long time since I had scissor jacks, but they all wiggle some. Just think about it; they have to be loose enough to extend/retract without binding which will inherently leave a bit of play. If it seems like too much you need to check to make sure everything is tight. I'll bet they are tight and don't wiggle when deployed...right?

Yes they are tight when deployed.

As far as getting rid of the wiggle - it won't happen short of removing the tires/suspension, building a concrete pad and placing the frame on cinder blocks or the like. Even then, as flimsy as the floors are anymore it would still probably bounce.

To eliminate as much as possible with what you got; deploy the stabilizers as usual, use x chocks on both sides and tighten them down hard, make sure your tires are at max sidewall psi. If you have the steps that fold up under the door I used a telescoping metal stand to place under the bottom step to reduce/eliminate the big bounce from entering/exiting the trailer. After that....walk softly. You can get the BAL/Strongarm locking arms and they help. I installed 2 sets on my last trailer and they helped but definitely don't get rid of all the wiggle.

Yes I make sure the tires are inflated to the max and X Chocks on both sides.
My steps are MORryde.

We try and walk softly, I might just be trying to hard to stabilize a TT that will always move a little...

[NH_Bulldog]

We still have some wiggle with extended x-chocks and JT Strongarms. It was greatly reduced when we installed the Strongarms, but still some movement. I have researched a couple of additional things to try if it eventually wears on my nerves too much. First is that the stock stabilizers are cheap thin metal and wear quickly, so an upgrade to a more stout model is one option. Another option is rotating the jacks 45° so they are diagonal as opposed to perpendicular to the frame. Since most of the movement is front to back or side to side, having the jacks diagonal might provide an additional amount of movement reduction.

[jsb5717]

The scissor jacks (1st pic) don't really stabilize much. The other ones (2nd pic) stabilize side to side quite well.

[sourdough]

On the stabilization of travel trailers - this just occurred to me. Probably not what anyone wants to do but before we decided to go to a 5th wheel I was on the verge of doing it....

Installing a self leveling system on your TT. Sort of expensive but not bad. Make setting up so much quicker and easier along with cutting the "wiggle" down to about as low as it's going to get without crawling down and ratcheting the xchocks down, tightening/loosening the BAL/Strongarm stabilizers etc. Sound pretty good?? And think, you'll never be down there messing with those xchocks/stabilizers/strongarms again in the rain, muck etc. So now, there's another option vs worrying about all those other things that just make for more work....

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by jsb5717

I think the OP is asking "why does the trailer still move when I'm using the stabilizing jacks as well as the xChocks?".

I think he's asking, "My trailer shakes when the jacks are down... I notice I can shake the jacks by hand when they are up, could that be why? That is, are my jacks faulty?"

The answer is no. The jacks shake when they are up because the linkages have slop in them at the screw. They all have, it's normal to the design. When you jack them down and they press against the ground, that slop goes away.

[flybouy]

Except the OP stated in post #6 "Jacks attached to the U bracket 2 bolts, is where they are loose not the arms, all the jacks are loose the same amount."