Leveling a 13?

[floyd]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Scamp sells the 1/2" rod for stabilizer Cost about $2.00 I just bought a spare rod this spring from Scamp

Could hardly beat that! If shipping's not too high!

[DogHaus]

I love the BAL! It stores perfectly on the floor in the bathroom, too.
And as for putting out the rear stabilizers, I get the trailer level and then lower the nose by 5 turns of the jack handle, then put down the rear stabilizers and bring the nose back up. It's usually perfect. Do the process in reverse to put them up. Easy Peasey.

[Donna D.]

I love the BAL wheel leveler! I was camping this past weekend and used it. A fella in a monster Montana 5th wheel (dual axle, three slides) came over and wanted to know about it. Asked if he could use it on his 5th wheel... ahhhh, no.

[Garycamper]

Originally Posted by floyd

Mild steel is really not the best choice, go buy a piece of drill rod,cut it in half, slip a piece of heater hose tightly over one end of each piece for a grip and you have two new handles which won't bend, for the price of a drill rod.
As for how they work...Look here...

http://www.scamptrailers.com/Portals...osingASpot.swf

I had no idea the rear stabilizers could be jacked. When I was on site, I used my Trailer dolly as a fulcrum and hooked the ball under the rear bumber to lift the Scamp a bit. I was not able to lift it enough, due to the height of the trailer dolly. Off to HD to find a suitable piece of rod.

[Joy A]

I never use my stabilizer rod. Fortunately it's short enough to store with out being in the way.

I simply level the trailer side to side and then drop the tongue about a dozen cranks down or so. I head to the back of the trailer and drop the stabilizer jacks down to the ground. If they don't reach I simply put enough 2 x 6's under them so they touch and go back to the tongue and crack it back up.

Viola' simple pie, solid and stable as can be.

[Byron Kinnaman]

The Scamp video shows what I consider the worst possible method of leveling your trailer. There's too much risk of putting frame in a twisted configuration. Also you could put more weight on the stabilizers than they're rated for.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

The Scamp video shows what I consider the worst possible method of leveling your trailer. There's too much risk of putting frame in a twisted configuration. Also you could put more weight on the stabilizers than they're rated for.

Picking it up with one hand and stacking take-along solid concrete blocks under the bumper with the other could be worse???

[greendragon]

I just a cupple of sissor jacks thay work fine and there cheep at the auto wreckers

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by floyd

Picking it up with one hand and stacking take-along solid concrete blocks under the bumper with the other could be worse???

You gonna make a video demonstrating that??

[john warren]

well,,, being cheap by nature. i carry a couple 12" chunks of 1x6, a couple 2x6, and a couple 4x4.
even if the ground is pretty level, it helps to put them down under your levelers if your in sand or its raining and muddy.
if its not very level, you can put a 2x,or a 1x, or a combination of them to get you pretty close on the low side and just pull your wheel up on them befor you disconect.
oh,,,don't forget to use wheelchoks , you don't want it rolling off the blocks at night when you roll over in bed.

[john warren]

oh yes,,and a little forthought as you set up....if your clearly needing a couple extra inches on one side,,,and lets face it,,, how many of us don't have that problem? simply crank the tongue down and set one leveler that amount more then the other side. then when you crank up the tongue it should already be pretty close.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by john warren

oh yes,,and a little forthought as you set up....if your clearly needing a couple extra inches on one side,,,and lets face it,,, how many of us don't have that problem? simply crank the tongue down and set one leveler that amount more then the other side. then when you crank up the tongue it should already be pretty close.

This method is recommended if you like straighten a twisted frame. Which if you use it often enough with a straight frame you might need it to straighten it back.

[Donna D.]

Please don't use the frame to level the trailer. Trailers are leveled side to side at the wheels and front to back at the tongue.

You've been warned.....

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Please don't use the frame to level the trailer. Trailers are leveled side to side at the wheels and front to back at the tongue.

You've been warned.....

And I've got the twisted frame to prove that you should not use the Stabilizers to Level with.

[rabbit]

Getting back to the stabilizer pattern found on the Scamp, near as I can tell it is the same mechanism found on our Burro. The "jacking" of the stabilizer leg was only revealed to me by the video instruction. Once I found the 1/2" mild steel bar which I knew had accompanied our "pre-owned" trailer, I attempted to use it as a lever and found that I needed to grind a slight champfer on the end to get it to enter outer and inner holes in the stabilizer leg. I am nothing if not a double-ender type guy, so I ground it on both ends. Reacting to Brian's observation about frame twisting, I did a couple of "tests" a few minutes ago. My bar is exactly 1' long. I found that I could insert it and jack the stabilizer into tight contact with the driveway. The distance moved looked to be about 3/8 to 1/2". I could also insert the bar in the next higher hole BUT I could not get enuf leverage to jack it a second time. I do not know that this jack handle was provided with the stabilizers but if it was, I would surmise that the short length was chosen to allow taking up the slack but not repeated jacking resulting in the mechanism taking the wgt. of the trailer. I have never tried using the tongue jack to throw the wgt. on the stabilizers except once by mistake (getting the coupler to hitch elevation). I could feel the resistance in the crank and stopped. Now that Floyd has introduced me to the "approved method" I'm going to use it (but not with 3' of drill rod).

jack

[rabbit]

I went back to see who's rapping whose knuckles with a ruler and right there in the middle of the blind men and the elephant was Joy A.'s post in which she says her chunkametal is short enuf to not be in the way. I have pinned this comment to my evidence board under "anecdotal." Anyone know for sure what length handle was provided with the stabilizer used by Scamp?

jack