Long term setup

[halfwright]

We are going to be volunteers all summer. I am wondering how most of you set up for a long term (4+ months) stay.
What I have in mind is jacking up and setting blocks under the frame front, center and rear. Then, I want to use screw jacks under the big slides (living room and bunk house). I would also have the scissors jacks and the legs down. Is this enough or is it overkill? We are both large people and support under the slides is needed, in my opinion.

[DQDick]

I've seen it done, but never have done it. We normally set up for the whole summer and the whole winter and only travel spring and fall. In our old set up we just leveled the trailer and used the landing gear, scissor stabilizers and a tripod jack under the king pin. Now that we've added level-up we just use that and the stabilizers (we didn't take them off when we added level-up). I weigh about 250 and haven't ever used anything under the slides.

[halfwright]

The reason I wanted to block the frame was I have heard that with jacks under the slides, a flat tire or major settling can damage the slides. With the frame supported, a flat would make no difference.

[bncinwv]

All is well unless the frame blocks settle!! I am like Dick and would not recommend that you put anything under the slides at all. Blocking up the frame in a few places would benefit you by mostly eliminating floor bounce in the rig. I think the strength of the slides will not be an issue, for confirmation crawl under them and look at the support system in place, it is pretty robust!
Bingo

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

We just finished a 9-month volunteer park host job, and all we did was level our rig, put the "chock and block" things between the tires, and put the scissor jacks down. Worked for us!

Carolyn

[halfwright]

Thanks for the input.

I will wait until I see the conditions of the site before I decide on a set plan. I have set jacks under the slides before and it did stop a lot of side to side sway. I am not compulsive of sway, but my wife is. She thinks that since we are living in it like a house, it should be as stable as a house.

[snfexpress]

Keystone states that you should not put jacks under the slides. While this may be cover your ass, we have found that just using them as designed has been all good in 6 years of fulltiming.

[woodtic]

quote:Originally posted by halfwright

Thanks for the input.

I will wait until I see the conditions of the site before I decide on a set plan. I have set jacks under the slides before and it did stop a lot of side to side sway. I am not compulsive of sway, but my wife is. She thinks that since we are living in it like a house, it should be as stable as a house.

My wife also has a hard time with bounce and sway. I installed Seadyfast stabilizers and it took out almost all of the sway. They have to be reset every couple days as things settle. For the bounce we started with a tripod for the front which helps quite a bit but needs to be readjusted as the ground settles. I have also installed 4-8000lbs stabilizer jacks on the frame. On soft ground everything still needs to be readjusted every couple days. We still have a little bounce in the trailer. It changes a little as the holding tanks water level changes. I think the frame has just a little too much flex in it to make it a solid as she wants.

[halfwright]

After all that effort and money, I would think your trailer would be solid as a rock. Hopefully, I can make my wife happy without all that. I can't see me going to the same effort that you have.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

JT stabelizers work fine for short term set ups, almost no movement. We do use blocks so that we do not have to "extend" the back legs long distances. We also use blocks on the front "legs" for same reason.

With just the JT's we have very little side wiggle.

NO tripod on the pin. It is at home in the pole barn, if anyone needs or wants one, let us know and we can chat after we get home later in the summer.

When set up for at least a week, CountryGuy adds 4 jacks, one in front of the tires on each side and one in back of the tires on each side. He puts these ON the frame. Can we say, solid as a rock?? Even the Splendide just does not affect this set up. Wash all ya want, barely a flutter.

We do this for long term set ups as well, 4 months, give or take. He will check the jacks once in a while, and sometimes has had to tweak them a bit.

Anywhoooo, this is what works for us.

halfwright, enjoy your volunteer duties. Let us know how it works out.