Trick My TrailManor

 Life is all about time. Be it leisure or work, time is of essence. To me, leisure time takes precedence.

On our last trip, we made many stops (probably more than any other trip we have taken). An observation that was made was just how much time it took to stabilize and level the trailer. Then, how the trailer did the Hula when walking around in it and especially when one of us turned over in bed at night. I attributed this to the “probably worn out” scissor jacks (not to mention the rear right side jack that I tried to drive off on while it was still down….but hey…I had it bent back into a sort-a working condition).

When we would get to a campground I would level the trailer front to back first. That was easy with my super-duper 4000 lbs. lift capacity Bulldog tongue jack which has a built-in level. The challenge? Getting it level side-to-side. I mean it was a real dance. I looked like the Tasmanian devil on methamphetamine running around a trailer. Raising one corner, and then the next and then the next and then the next, only to find out that it wasn’t level one bit! So I would run around again, lowering this and that corner and re-raising that and this….and the dance would go on and on and on while the frustration would mount to biblical proportions. Finally one would just have to settle as best as one could get it (and sometimes I would get lucky too…but not often enough). If I didn’t settle, then the sun would be coming back up. And all of this was while using a cordless power drill with an attachment made to fit the scissor jacks (If I had to do it by hand-crank….and I have a couple of times…I’d be dead long ago).

Then once inside it was the Fukashima shake! Anytime someone would get up and walk around you could feel the trailer wiggle and wobble (much more of this and I’ll be sea sick!). Ok it wasn’t that bad but very noticeable. Not like being at home….even a mobile home. Then at night when either one of us would turn over…the same flakey shakey occurs. “WELL”, my wife said…”all this has to go”…..and since I love my wife more than life itself, I searched for an answer and found it….The answer….Ultra-Fab!

Namely the Ultra-Fab Power Twin II. The best 12 Volt, electric powered, leveling stabilizer jacks I believe to be on the market! They stop the motion front to back and side to side better than anything else. These come in two lift ranges. One with a 22” lift and the other with a 30” lift range and they have separate 12 volt electric powered gear boxes to make each side work independent of the other. “UUUMMMM…electric…ahhhhhhhh…. that’s a what I want!”

So I launched into the improvement mode by researching Ultra-Fab prices (they are not cheap, but are of great quality so you get what you pay for) on the net. Finally I found some 22” lift ones that were an “open box” (which translates to “returned”) deal on Amazon for about $150 less than new ones. I purchased these and they arrived with all of the parts still sealed in plastic bags and in mint condition. As it turned out, my trailer could only use the 22” ones because of the room at the front of the trailer and the way the frame angles inward on the tongue arm. But they fit perfectly with the right side only sticking out about 2 ½”’s beyond the bend of the frame (image 1494). The left side fitted spot on because these jacks (and it takes one for each side) are staggered, in this case the right side in front of the left (image 1495) and bolted together in the middle by a connecting brace and then the connecting brace is then bolted to the trailer frame with a little support I made from 1” square tube (image 1496) to help support the weight of the two jack units in the middle.

Each jack’s “L” bracket (the 90° angled steel piece that butts up against the outside and bottom of the frame and carries the brunt of the weight lifting) is about 4” wide on the bottom of that “L”, with predrilled holes in it thru the bottom. Some of these you can use but the others fall outside the width of the Trailmanor frame ( which is about 2”’s wide) and cannot be used. You will have to drill holes in the “L” bracket bottom close enough into where the “L” makes it’s bend upward, to be able to hit the trailer frame with your screws. As to the screws (and I’m not talking about the ones that the Privately Owned Federal Reserve gives us) they recommend not using anything smaller than ¼” TEC screws (self-taping). This is what I used, but only in stainless steel (which is tougher and won’t rust) and I drilled some four extra holes in the “L” bracket’s side (image 1495) to help hold it up onto the frame even better. That way you’re not just depending on the threads of the bottom screws to bear all the weight of the jacks.

As far as the brace for the connecting brace (or the part that bolts the two jacks together), I had to fabricate my own support brace for that connecting brace, because Ultra-Fab, due to the many applications of these jacks to a zillion different RV’s, can’t supply that. I used a piece of 1” square tube with 3 sides cut off at the end about 3”long from the end of the tube to leave a tab that I could bend and drill a hole thru to attach to the trailer frame cross-member (Image 1496…in the middle) and the Ultra-Fab connecting brace.

I also fabricated a middle support brace for the connecting brace for the rear jacks as well. For this I used some channel iron that I could screw to the inside of the trailer frame with a cross bar made from 1” square tube and welded that to the channel iron. That way I could run a couple of straps from the cross bar to the Ultra-Fab connecting brace bolts and bolt them all together (image 1496….you can see the straps bolted to the connecting brace running up to the cross bar).

Wiring these puppies up were pretty straightforward with the instructions that Ultra-Fab provides. Everything is provided. Wiring (enough to do both sides), switches and fuses. Bolts are provided for the connecting brace and in the case of the 30” jacks (which have to have the stabilizer bars connected to the jack) bolts are provided for some assembly on them. I didn’t use the fuses but instead chose to use self-re-setting 30 amp circuit breakers which I mounted in a weatherproof box for both the front (up front on the inside face of the trailer frame…image 1496 you can see the bottom of a beige box on the frame) and for the rear (image 1502 … the beige box with three wires coming from it under the conduit).

Both sets of jacks (all four) are powered directly from the battery bank located in the storage compartment (or the trunk) in the rear left side of the trailer. The wires go underneath the trailer from the batteries to a removable keyed (it’s the red thingy in the middle of the clear box) battery power switch (image 1508) which then feeds power to each breaker box and then onto the front (image 1497) and rear (image 1501) weatherproof switch enclosures (made for 110 ac) which can be opened with ease for simple use (front, image 1498, and rear, image 1500… the Hubbell Taymac Extra Duty). I installed that keyed power switch because I didn’t want anyone monkeying around with my jacks when away from my trailer and I wanted to be able to turn them off if I needed to.

Now to really make this an easy job I also mounted an extra large Camco AccuLevel on the electric tongue jack pedestal (image 1421). That way I can view it from my truck back-up camera to get the best level spot when I am pulling in or backing into my parking space. Having this up front where I can view it while operating the jacks makes leveling the trailer side to side a snap. I also used some old levels I had, and put them on the back to facilitate leveling there as well (image 1584).

For the rear I also found an open box deal on Amazon, only this time it was for the 30” lift jacks. The 30” jacks have a longer “L” bracket (about a foot longer) than the 22” jacks. This didn’t matter because I had a lot more room on the frame length of my trailer to work with in the back than on the front (image 1499). The only problem I encountered was that Ultra-Fab had advertised these 30” jacks would fit frames anywhere from 48” to 80” from outside to outside of the frames. The Trailmanor has a 54” fame outside to outside, so it should fit ok…..should….but it didn’t. The problem was the connecting brace part that bolts the two jacks together in the middle. On the sides and the tops of each jack are holes and slots that line up with holes and slots on the connecting brace’s sides and top to facilitate connecting the two jacks together. The further you slide the two jacks towards each other inward, or make the jacks smaller from frame to frame, the further the holes move apart. At 54” from “L” to “L” , only the last two holes lined up on one jack only! So there was no way to ever connect the two jacks together because the connecting bracket was too short (18”). I contacted Ultra-Fab and told them about this and the next day they told me I was correct. Their connecting bracket was too short to connect a 54” let alone a 48” fame, so they had to call their manufacturer and submit new plans for that connecting brace. Meanwhile they custom made me one (24”’s long) that barely fit my 54” frame when I bolted it all together. I did not, however, have this problem with the 22” lift jacks on the front of my trailer, because they are shorter than the 30” lift jacks and that connecting bracket worked perfectly. So if you plan on doing this to your Trailmanor, make sure you only use the 22” lift jacks and you’ll have no problems. But maybe by that time they will have the 30” jack connecting bracket thing fixed. I have to say that Kim Daub at Ultra-Fab was very nice and she treated me with great respect as did Randy the parts guy who made my custom brace. They both thanked me for finding a problem with the brace and pointing it out its (excuse the pun) “short” coming to them).

Now I am able to level my Trailmanor in record time without imitating a whirling Dervish on steroids at a square-dance. What I have found is that the Trailmanor always opens the easiest when everything is on the level! Kinda like life……