DOTLDaddy wrote: I find it kinda hard to consider myself a rookie, having owned three TT's and a pop-up in the last 25 years, but that's the situation I find myself in, having just gotten my first 5th wheel.
OK, you can laugh, but here is the question. The front landing gear on our Spree is electric, and both legs come down as one, although each foot is in itself adjustable height wise via pins and holes. If you are on an uneven campsite, left to right, I am presuming you have make some adjustment to one or both landing gear legs to adjust for that height difference, before you go ahead and put landing gear down?
As most of you already know, on a TT, the hitch jack and the two front stabilizer jacks are all independent from one another, so I am not used to having the two front jack stands operating as one.
Real simple. Just pull the pin on each jack leg, while off the ground, let them fall, then "bump" the jacks with the motor while putting weight on them and wait for the pins to snap into place (assuming you have snap-pins). At most, you'll only be about 1/2 to 3/4" off between them and that's negligible flex on the frame. That's what the extensions are for; no need to block up the legs separately. Only reason to block them at all is to prevent sinking into the ground, whether dirt or asphalt.
Lyle
That's what I have been doing for 5yrs. FT'n except for one difference.
Before running landing gear I check front to rear level. If the rig is going to be nose-high after unhitching I run legs down about 3-4" then pull snap pins and let the lower section of legs drop to ground. Then lower the landing gear until pins snap back into holes. This gives room for raising landing gear (lowering front of rig) after unhitching so I can level front to rear.
I have two thin wooden wedges that slide under the leg (from opposite directions) that still has clearance and also one of my "feet" has a threaded adjustable travel of about 2 inches. I don't like to put much twisting stress on the legs and gears etc.
Has worked well for me. The adjustable foot was about $20 at Lone Star RV in Houston Texas.(That was 4 years ago though)
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We always level the trailer first by putting blocks or planks under the low side wheels. This way we know that the trailer is level and then we can start lowering the landing legs and adjust the length to match the ground underneath them. This saves putting any twisting motion into the frame of the trailer.
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DOTLDaddy wrote: Thanks for being on the level with me, guys!
I think I have both feet on the ground now.
Ya, sometimes it just takes somebody putting one foot down and then the other!
Yes, and thanks again for helping me keep an even keel!
LOL!
No one has said anything about the FW being level first. You need to block the wheels to level the FW before putting the landing gear down. Then it doesn't matter, the two legs will be different length holding the nose up, but the coach will be level. Block or no blocks, the landing gear does NOT level the FW, the wheels do OR if you have a leveling system, it will.
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Real simple. Just pull the pin on each jack leg, while off the ground, let them fall, then "bump" the jacks with the motor while putting weight on them and wait for the pins to snap into place (assuming you have snap-pins). At most, you'll only be about 1/2 to 3/4" off between them and that's negligible flex on the frame. That's what the extensions are for; no need to block up the legs separately. Only reason to block them at all is to prevent sinking into the ground, whether dirt or asphalt.
Lyle
Just a little caution to this method -
This only works if you are on a reasonably level pad or if you are nose down. If you find yourself parking in a site with the rig nose high before you disconnect and you drop the legs to the ground and then lift with the motor, you may just find out there is not enough travel in the landing gear to get your nose back down to level. There is nothing more frustrating than having to reconnect to the truck so you can raise those extension back up about 8-10 inches. Try to use the extensions to fill 1/2 to 2/3 of the gap to ground and fill the rest with the travel of the landing gear itself. You'll get a feel for it eventually.
I helped a fellow camper a few years ago that actually raised his landing gear on his brand new Z-frame Bighorn to the point he sucked in the pins and broke them off inside the tubing. He was watching his level and didn't realize he had set his extensions out way too far.
I travel with the legs about 8-10" extended from full up position, then drop them about another 8-10" with the motor before dropping the extensions; I've run out of jack room on trailers before and don't want the hassle of doing so again. This is done, of course, after getting level on the wheels. My truck squats about 2-3", max, when loaded, so that's more than enough room to get me in and out. I've never been on a site so unlevel that I felt I had to block up one leg. Most difference that I can recall was probably 4" between the 2 legs. No biggie; that's what the extensions are for. Our usual boondock site, though, requires that I power down the legs more than my usual, as I've got to drop the nose about 12-14" to level out. :-)
Lyle
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Real simple. Just pull the pin on each jack leg, while off the ground, let them fall, then "bump" the jacks with the motor while putting weight on them and wait for the pins to snap into place (assuming you have snap-pins). At most, you'll only be about 1/2 to 3/4" off between them and that's negligible flex on the frame. That's what the extensions are for; no need to block up the legs separately. Only reason to block them at all is to prevent sinking into the ground, whether dirt or asphalt.
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