Thursday, February 19, 2015

ROCK SOLID

Wednesday, February 18 – Paul finally got the opportunity to install the 5th wheel stabilizers today. He's been watching for these at a good price for over a year. He saw a set he liked while we were in Quartzsite at the RV Show and purchased them.

stabliziers

This is the first RV Park we've been at that allows Paul to work on his RV and has a nice work area (concrete) to make installation easier.

Installation required us to hook-up to the truck. Paul then installed the top brackets for the stabilizers to the front jack legs.

stabliziers

He then had to remove the landing shoes from the front jacks to install the bottom brackets. This caused a little trouble because these shoes take quite a beating from the hook-up process and were a little bent-up. He had to use his hammer to try to flatten them out so he could get the bolts to line-up properly.

Once the lower brackets were installed, it was a quick and easy process to install the stabilizer bars to the jack brackets.

stabliziers

These bars remain in place while towing. We simple remove a pin and loosen the tension on the bars and they raise up with the jacks.

stabliziers

The pins have red safety flags attached to remind us they must be removed before raising the jacks.

stabliziers

We notice a firmer less wobbly 5er immediately. There is virtually no movement when walking up and down the steps that someone sitting on the sofa or at the table can feel.  The stabilizers effectively eliminated all the wobble.

These are the finished stabilizers on the front landing jacks.  Since these do such a great job stabilizing the 5th wheel, no stabilizers are needed on the rear jacks.

stabliziers

One last safety flag is installed next to the switch that is used to raise and lower the landing jacks.  It acts as a warning and a reminder so we don’t forget to remove the locking pins from the stabilizer bars before raising  the jacks.

stabliziers

This installation makes it nice when we are sitting at the same campground for an extended period of time. That's what we try to do these days, so this is an improvement we should enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

11 comments:

  1. Looks like a good idea to me. What about slide out stabilizers? When I worked at the RV dealer for two summers, they were a highly recommended item by the manufacturers and yet hardly anybody ever bought them. And we rarely see anybody using them. We don;t have slide outs, but I think if we did I'd be using them.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  2. Just keep in mind down the road if you ever need to, you can always rent Paul out.

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  3. Nice that he finally got those stabilizers installed, enjoy your time in Mesa.We were supposed to be in that are first week of March.

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  4. Glad to see Paul got the stabilizers installed.
    We'll have to compare notes on the different styles we have.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  5. Yea, sometimes when Len is walking around I get a nauseous feeling. UM, so it's not him causing it?

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  6. Isn't it great to have a handy man living with you:) I don't know how you live in any RV without being a little handy since there is always something that needs to be worked on. I'm sure you are really enjoying the stability...no more ocean waves:)

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  7. Like I always say, if the trailer is rocking don't bother knocking..

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  8. Y'all saved yourself a ton of money doing it yourself... and you know it's done right!

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  9. Are those Winfields? We had them on the Cardinal. I came loose and we dragged it through the Tetons. It looked like a spear when we stopped.

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  10. we enjoyed stabilizers on our fiver as well. . .you will be glad of the investment! Well done Paul.. .

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  11. Another good project and job well done. Stabilizers are a great addition.

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