Popping Noise When Using Tongue Jack Today to Put Trailer On Jacks For Winter

[CampyTime]

Today I put my Scamp 13 away for indoor storage. I used the tongue jack to bring the nose way down, placed rear jacks on wood in the rear (in the right place, on frame, as close to the tires as possible. I have a gray water tank so they can't be as close as I would like as the jack supports are arced upward and the points of the metal would get too close to the tank, but close enough).

When using tongue jack to bring the trailer nose back up to get the rear sitting on the jacks nicely, I heard this popping noise each time, at the same spot in jack rotation (as we monkeyed with the jacks several times). The concrete floor that the trailer is sitting on is sloped toward the passenger side, so it required several attempts to try and get both tires off the ground. In the end, this was to no success, as the passenger (low side) we got raised, but the driver side was simply just relieved of pressure. I could tell it was because there was no bulge in the driver side tire and the the fiberglass wheel well was sitting "higher" than its usual spot of right about at the top of the wheel rim.

Popping nose seemed to emanate from around the middle of the trailer, but actually no way to tell. It was rather disconcerting; went inside trailer to make sure all was well. My frame looks great, I've studied it many times to look for cracks or other issues. So I heard this popping noise 3 times, around the same spot in tongue jack height, and wondered if I others could enlighten me.

In the end, I believe pressure has been relieved on driver side tire, even though not off the ground, due to no bulge and height of wheel
well being higher than normal, but this popping noise concerned me.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies and help,

Cheers, Wendy

[Perry J]

Cracked Frame??

[Steve Outlaw]

My guess is the fiberglass shifting against the frame much like an old house settling. Our trailer will pop loudly sometimes if I get in a twist while leveling it. I had a Corvette forty something years ago and I remember it squeaking and talking to you all the time.

[CampyTime]

My friend told me the trailer was flexing as I was jacking it.


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[CampyTime]

Maybe due to that sloping floor issue and trying to figure that out as best we could. High side just touching, low side off ground.


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[Dan Meyer]

If you are supporting the trailer by the stabilizer jacks on the back bumper and tongue jack on the front, you need to do something about this ASAP.

Neither the stabilizer jacks nor the tongue jack are designed to take the full weight of the trailer. Nor is the frame designed to be loaded in this manner.

Go to your friendly auto parts store and buy a couple jack stands, plus a floor jack. If you store your trailer on an unimproved surface, you might need to stop at a lumberyard to get a couple of boards to place under the jack stands. Jack the trailer up near the axle, and install the jacks near the axle as well.

Your trailer will thank you.

-- Dan Meyer

[CampyTime]

Not using stabs. Regular jack stands with 2000 lb rating each. 2 jacks in rear and 2 in front.


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[CampyTime]

Jack stands are on wood boards 12" square.


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[CampyTime]

And concrete floor.


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[Borrego Dave]

Wendy, you don't need to take the wheels off the ground, just some of the pressure off the axle. Unless your going to run the refer it doesn't have to be level. Seems you're trying to get it to high and causing the frame to tweak a bit causing the popping. Don't over think it

[CampyTime]

Hi,

I thought there was some tweaking going on too. Problem is the trailer is stored over an hour from here and the friend I took to help me took off all that time yesterday doubt he'd be willing to come lower down the trailer when work is done. He'd tell me it's fine and shut me up quick!

With my setup, the gray water tank from the factory is right behind the trailers wheels. I put my jacks as close to that and as far down as I possibly can. There simply is no room to go much further with the jack on the driver side due to plumbing for gray water dump.

Gosh I'm so worried I hurt the trailer. Should I check for frame tweaking from this popping? As I mentioned before frame has no cracks I've looked many times.




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[TomK]

Wendy, understand this is just a guess without being there to hear what you're hearing, but I think it's probably just the frame shifting from it's normal resting attitude. It is probably moving against the frame or body where it doesn't normally sit when the axle is loaded. It sounds like you're doing everything correctly. As Dave says, all you need to do is take some weight off the axle. Some say that's not even very important unless you are storing it for long periods of time. I know Scamp says otherwise.

If you looked at the frame for cracks or anything loose, and no wear marks from anything shifting, I wouldn't worry about it. Our trailer is in a storage facility a few miles from here. It is winterized and emptied out, but I plan to bust her out of there in Feb for a trip to FL. I didn't bother to jack it up. The axles last quite a long time. Probably longer than I will. If we lived in a warmer climate, the weight would be on the axle all the time anyway, right? If my axle lasts 20 years instead of 22 years, it isn't worth it to me. There was a thread that addressed this a short time ago. Many wiser people than I, with many more years of experience seemed to agree.

I hope you resolve this for your own peace of mind. Please let us know what you come up with, OK?

Tom

[CampyTime]

Dear Tom,

I've been under there and no cracks and all looks good. Don't know what could be loose, so that would be something I wouldn't know what to look for. Always had plenty of fist clearance between tire and wheel well, but that's all irrelevant in this case as it happened when using tongue jack to lower/raise trailer to put jack stands in.

Floor at storage was sloped quite markedly, must be for drainage to drain hole somewhere in building. If this makes sense as I try to write it, low sloped side (passenger) tire had "no choice" but to come off ground just to "match" driver side jack height on other side which was higher. One piece of wood under jack stand on high side, two on low side. My jack stands have the metal ions to raise or lower them, and if I remember correctly, low side was on hole one with two boards and high side just placed at normal height with one board. We did this to try to compensate for floor slope.

Does this make sense? Noise heard when raising tongue jack up from lowest position to get trailer to sit in jack stands in rear. Heard three times due to several attempts to get all "good."

Driver side ( high) tire nicely relieved of bulge/pressure, but not off ground. Look at my pic if driver side. Can you see? FG wheel well sits higher too, which I assumed meant good thing and that axle was relieved.

Here are a few pics I took after finishing up in storage.

Ugh.


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[TomK]

Are you sure the noise you heard wasn't just the jacks settling in when they were loaded with the trailers weight? If the floor is as uneven as you say, it would make sense that the jack stands would shift a little as pressure was put on them. Just a little shifting between the stands and frame could be louder than you think, but still harmless. I can't tell much by your picture, but it looks like you succeeded in taking the majority of weight off the axle.

If your frame inspection showed nothing abnormal, i.e.. cracks, etc., relax. I think you'll be fine.

Tom

[Phil 4500]

I think the key thing said was that the noise was heard at the same point in each rotation of the tongue jack. Tongue jacks do fail after a time. I know, I had one fail on a three year old Rpod. The teeth either wear out or start to bend away from each other if they are over worked. Tongue jacks are relatively cheap to replace. Try to stay away from any cheap imported ones and you should be fine.

[pogophile]

I'm glad to see the last post brings up exactly what I thought when I read your problem: the tongue jack itself may well be the culprit. Some of them, including mine, have a threaded rod with a special style of thread called "acme" (thoughts of the Roadrunner cartoons for those of a certain age...).

This style of threading sometimes develops cracks or pits that cause the bearing surface to catch momentarily, always "at the same point in the rotation". That phrase you used makes it seem very likely this is the issue.

[CampyTime]

Thank you for all the thoughtful replies. I will definitely inspect the tongue jack and other components again with a fine tooth comb. Strange that the noise was heard mid to rear trailer though, unless it was just echoing underneath. As I said earlier though axle and frame always look great when I've been under there. My theory was that the rubber cords inside the axle were relieving themselves of twist and pressure as the trailers weight came off. But I probably just made all that up.


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[Borrego Dave]

Wendy, I think the poster for a bad jack has it right. You could do a little test to find out. Drop the tongue jack back to the tow height and use a floor jack to raise it back up to where you have it now. If no pops....well that pretty much points to the tongue jack wearing out. Easy fix too .

[redbarron55]

How old is the trailerand in what condition is ith axle?
Old trailers with "dead" axles have seen lots of shock loading on the frame and many have cracked and broken frames in the front under the floor ahead of the door.
The frames crack where the sheetmetal screws go into the frame and the weldments where the dropped door section ties into the right front of the frame.
Also weak points are where the frams is bent to an angle to meet at the hitch.
This is especially true for the earlier 14 gauge rectangular tubibg before the change to the 11 Gauge.
My 1985 was cracked in many spots and had been poorly repairs several times.
I am cutting all of this out and replaceing with the 11 Gauge (1/8") tubibg and adding the lower frame 3" X 1 1/2" part doubler as well.
I have not decided yet but I think I will aslo reinforce the rear as well wioth some tapered sections from the center 6" part to the rear bumper so that I can jack the thing where ever I want.
This will add to the weight, but it should then last for the rest of my days!
While I am in there I am also replacing that 30 year old axle with a new one.

[CampyTime]

Hi Redbarron,

The trailer is a 2012 and has always towed like a dream. No dog legging or crab legging (depending on your metaphor . Was in an accident with PO before I bought her but the axle and frame checks out fine as far as I or anybody else can tell. I've looked for these cracks and such that you've mentioned but all looks sound and in absence of any erratic behaviors in the multiple times I towed this year (my first camping experiences with trailer) I am inclined to think all is well there, but will inspect again of course.

I want to seriously look at tongue jack as trailer came off ball with PO and the tongue dragged some before stopping. FG was repaired at Scamp.


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