Bent middle leveler

[ebds2019]

Hi folks. Wife and I have spent the last twelve days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. A couple of days ago I was pulling the 3810MS into an RV park and clipped my middle left leveled on a stone shrubbery bed wall and bent it.

Thankfully once we got into our spot we saw that the leveler was still working. No leak of fluid.

Wondering if any of you have ever bent a leveler and was able to bend it back straight somehow. Since it works I hate to spend $500 on a new one.

Pic attached.

[rohrmann]

It may not be pretty, but as long as it still works and it doesn't appear to be leaking, I would leave it alone. You could take a hammer to the foot pad, but even that won't make much difference. If it ever does fail, then you can spend the money, but in the interim, you can keep your money in your pocket.

[Rondo]

I agree with Bob! While returning from AZ last spring I came around a curve to find an "road alligator" right in the middle of the road. I tried to miss it but the rear wheel of the tow vehicle hit it and kicked it up into the curbside level-up and the front bottom of the Monte. It bent the base plate and the bottom trim on the front side. Can't do much about the trim except replace the whole thing and it's not that bad of a dent and I did straighten the base or foot plate by taking the foot plate off while hitched up to the truck and took a rubber mallet and pounded it as near back to it's original shape as possible then reinstalled it. Luckily not damage to the landing gear/level-up either and it looks real close to what it should and the ram is working with no problems either.

[jetskier]

Originally Posted by ebds2019

Wondering if any of you have ever bent a leveler and was able to bend it back straight somehow. Since it works I hate to spend $500 on a new one.

You could probably unbolt the jack from the mount and move it up one row and retighten to straighten out the plate. If there's room, you could go up a second row and repeat. That's assuming there's room at the top of the jack to move it up the 2-1/2 for each row. You may have to source some longer bolts until you get it back closer to the original shape.



You may want to look at raising all the jacks up one row. I did to gain the extra 2.5" clearance.

[Mikendebbie]

I clipped a curb and bent the rear curbside jack last year (first pic). The aluminum jacket and flange was slightly bent but the steel bracket on the frame was really bent out of whack. The jack still worked correctly and I used it in this condition for several months while I pondered the various fixes suggested by the folks on this forum. With “encouragement” from DW I was ready to attempt a fix.

First I put some boards under the shoe and beat it flat with a short handle sledge hammer. I was unable to break the jack leg bolts with my ratchet tool so I bought a Kobalt 1/2” battery powered impact gun (needed one anyway). I removed the jack and sort of tied it up with a short bungee so it would not hang by the hoses.

The bracket was bent inward and backward.

Using my short handle sledge I started beating the bent parts of the bracket. I whacked it as hard as I could from that position. After 15 minutes of whackin’ The bracket was back reasonably close to plumb and square. The bracket was good at the top but still slightly bent inward at the bottom. Front to back plumb was good.

I decided to raise the jack up by one hole. I also raised the other 3 rear jacks by one hole. I went to Home Depot and bought some washers to install on the jack bolts. I used two washers on the bottom bolts + 1 washer on the center bolts but none on the top bolts. The jack is not perfectly plumb in all directions but to the naked eye it looks perfect. I will post some “after” pics later.

[mlh]

I agree with most of the replies here. Is it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and it ain’t broke it’s only bent.
Lynwood

[WeBeFulltime]

I agree with all the above. I would put the pad all the way down on the wooden piece before applying the hammer to limit stress on the hydraulic shaft though.

[Daryles]

I have been thinking about raising mine by 1 hole because I think they are too low. After seeing this I think I will do it. I can always use blocks under the Jack's to make up the difference.

[WeBeFulltime]

Originally Posted by Daryles

I have been thinking about raising mine by 1 hole because I think they are too low. After seeing this I think I will do it. I can always use blocks under the Jack's to make up the difference.

Not a bad idea to do so but remember that it won't save them if you should slip off the beaten path or turn too sharp and hit something like a stone wall with it.

[Martin Brown]

I bent the middle one on my 3725rl last year, but it was the arm and not the footpad.
Had to have the whole thing replaced. Pricey. Yours looks to be usable so I would leave it.