JT's on a Mountaineer

[Stichwerks]

Has anyone installed JT's Stabilizers on the rear of a Mountaineer 5th with the pull out bike rack? Looking at my 328RLS it looks like the bike rack causes a bit of mounting challenges. If anyone has done this already could you please give me some tips on how you dealt with the slide out rack and where the upper part of the JT's strut mounted to the bottom of the frame. Thanks in advance for any help and thanks to all for letting me lurk on this great forum.

[dieselguy]

I can't provide any advice on your question, but I will say that even if you only install the JT's on the front landing gear, you'll see a significant improvement. Landing jacks have a lot of play in the housing to frame mount. Some may counter that a tripod works just as well, but the JT's are permanently mounted ... no dragging around a tripod and taking up valuable storage space. JMHO

[Stichwerks]

Thanks, I had been using a tri-pod that I kept from my old 5er but am tired of hauling it around. Looking forward to seeing how the JT's work. I think I know a way around the rear mounting but didn't want to reinvent the already round wheel. Thanks for your input. Looks like Dyersonline.com has the best pricing at 289.88 for the package.

[Ishler]

I added a bolt on receiver for a bike rack to our Montana and it's cross member interfered with the frame attachment for my JT's so I just drilled and tapped the hitch cross member and attached the JT's to it. Stability seems to be the same as before.

[rv_nut]

Mark,
I've got JTs on the front of my Mountaineer and they helped a lot. I still have some movement, though, because I haven't done the rear yet. The slide out rack is a problem. I have purchased a 2X2 steel box beam that I am going to weld to the underside of the rack channels, next to the jack mounts. I will then mount the JTs to that. Other people have used a long piece of angle iron, but I was worried about flex with that option.

If you want to spend another $200, you can purchase the Winnfield stabilizers, which bolt to the bottom and top of each rear stabilizer (there's two rods, making an "X" pattern). You don't need any other mounting point for them. This is an expensive solution, just for two rods, which is why I'm not using those (the JTs come with 6 rods for front and rear).

Ken

[beakyfudd]

I am designing a system for my Mountaineer, and have biefly looked at the side-out bumper issue. I'm waiting for some nicer weather to crawl under there and, hopefully, come up with a good solution. I thought about the criss-cross option, but I feel there needs to be some aditional front to back support from the rear stabilizers. I like the 2" square tubing idea Ken. Channel stock might also be strong enough. I will share any and all info I have to contribute to this great forum.