Built a custom adjustable trailer jack mount

[Wintermute]

My neighbor broke the tongue jack on his trailer and needed it replaced. He did''t want to go with another screw style jack, so we decided to go with an hydraulic one. Picked up this one from NorthernTool:

So that he doesn't have to sit there and jack the thing for an hour in order to get the plate to the ground, I modified it and built a mount for it so that it's a matter of pulling the two pins and sliding the jack to it's closest position to the ground, then it just has to extend a little bit.

I had to cut the round pin mount off of the jack, then make some plates with a little 1/4" lip with 5/8" holes drilled through to match the mount. Here's the tooling plate setup to weld the lips onto the plates that got welded to the jack:

Here's the jack assembled to the mount that I machined. The pins are 5/8" diameter with the holes on the mount being 5/8" with 1.5" spacing. The slot milled into the mount allows you to move the jack up and down without it falling off when you remove the pins. It is a bit heavy though...the mount is 17" long and 2.75x2.75 square stock.

All that's left now is to cut the old stuff off of his trailer and weld this setup on.

--Wintermute

 

[Diamondpilot]

Very nice.

Chris

 

[two_bit_score]

Very interesting. Thanks for the great pics.

 

[jwstewar]

We used to have a hydraulic tongue jack on Mom & Dad's camper. Was quick - especially to lower the camper. Sure was a lot easier than having to crank the jack by hand. After a couple of years it got to the point it wouldn't hold position. It would let the jack settle. Dad used it for a few more years by placing boards under the tongue of the camper for anything longer than a weekend. Then it got to the point it would start dropping as soon as you stopped pumping. He ended up going back to the manual crank one. When I put new jacks on our camper and my utility trailer, I went with electric. I run the one on the camper off the 12-volt house battery. On the utility trailer, I just run it off the breakaway battery. Need to replace the one on my stock trailer yet.

 

[hawkeye08]

Learn something new everyday. Nice work!


If I had seen that new jack in the store, I would have expected it to swivel from horizonal when not being used to vertical when being used (allows for good ground clearance when not using and avoids having it too far from the ground using it)...

On my camper jacks, I open the release valve and the jack extends to the ground, snugg up the valve and start jacking.. only have to jack a little bit.

 

[Wintermute]

Learn something new everyday. Nice work!


If I had seen that new jack in the store, I would have expected it to swivel from horizonal when not being used to vertical when being used (allows for good ground clearance when not using and avoids having it too far from the ground using it)...

On my camper jacks, I open the release valve and the jack extends to the ground, snugg up the valve and start jacking.. only have to jack a little bit.

Yup, that's how the jack is normally meant to be used...unfortunately, that only works depending on the trailer sag from unloaded to loaded. In this case, the sag is so extreme that when loaded the jack wouldn't be able to clear the ground on it's rotation, when unloaded, the jack would be almost 8" off the ground. Annoying at best Ohh, yeah, and this jack only extends when pumped...doesn't extend with just the valve open :/

--Wintermute

 

[aczlan]

Yup, that's how the jack is normally meant to be used...unfortunately, that only works depending on the trailer sag from unloaded to loaded. In this case, the sag is so extreme that when loaded the jack wouldn't be able to clear the ground on it's rotation, when unloaded, the jack would be almost 8" off the ground. Annoying at best Ohh, yeah, and this jack only extends when pumped...doesn't extend with just the valve open :/

What kind of trailer is this? Pictures of the trailer?

Aaron Z

 

[two_bit_score]

I hope to see pics of it installed and in use.

 

[Wintermute]

It's a large dump bed trailer. Once I get it installed, I'll get some pictures of it mounted to the trailer and the trailer itself.

--Wintermute

 

[jessepatty]

My neighbor broke the tongue jack on his trailer and needed it replaced. He did''t want to go with another screw style jack, so we decided to go with an hydraulic one. Picked up this one from NorthernTool:

Could you please send me a link or model number to this jack? My trailer has this jack but it no longer works and I want to replace it with the same thing.