Got My JT Strongarms

[Exnavydiver]

Steve, that is exactly what it is, kind of cone shaped. As far as the box channel is concerned it is very east to do by your self, drill the 3/8 inch holes inside the 45 degree angle of the box and then take a small jack and lift the box up to the frame behind the jacks. Snug it in place, mark your hole centers and drill the 5/16 in starter holes. Run the tap into each about an inche or so then run the self tappers in and snug up. Then position the upper ends of the stabilizers on the box, mark and drill those 5/16 holes and tap. Bolt the stabilizers in place and you are done... Dave

[sreigle]

Thanks, Dave. That doesn't sound bad at all once i have the box member cut to the correct size. The hard part is removing that section of bellypan. I'd have to doublecheck but I think the spare tire mount is bolted through that section of pan. I might be able to pull it all down behind the spare enough to get to it. Hopefully just fixing the CW screwup will be enough and I won't need to go further. If that's not the case, then I have this thread to fall back on. Thanks to all.

Bill, I seem to have hijacked your thread. Sorry. I'll back out now and start a new one if I have more problems to deal with.

[Exnavydiver]

Steve, if memory serves me correctly the spare is in front of the jacks, if this the case then just measure 6 inches behind the rear jack brace and install the box there. Thats where it is on my 340RLQ Big Sky which is just a luxury version of the 3400. if yours is like mine then the rear jacks have a frame all the way across the rear of the rig. I just measured 6 inches back from either end of that frame and put a jack under the box to hold it while I marked the hole locations and center punched. I really liked the way the step drill bit works too... Dave

[BB_TX]

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

Bill, I seem to have hijacked your thread. Sorry. I'll back out now and start a new one if I have more problems to deal with.

Not a problem at all. All the additional info just helps anyone else doing the same thing.
An additional bit of info. I put my cross member 8" back of the jacks. At that distance, it is difficult to know exactly where the edge of the frame I beam is. So I used a 1/8" drill and drilled some pilot holes in the fiberglass until I hit just the outer edge of the beam. That way I knew exactly where to position the cross member and drill the holes without worrying about getting to close to the edge of the beam you can't see. I did not take any of the covers loose.

[sreigle]

I replaced those 3/16 self tapping screws used by Camping World with the correct size, 3/8, drilled, tapped, screwed them in and that seems to have solved our problem. Our 3400 does not seem to have the frame member all the way across for the rear jacks. I noticed the rear jacks are mounted with bolts or screws only at each extreme end. There are two holes near the center of the jack assembly where additional screws could provide additional stability for those jacks. However, when I push on the bellypan in that area, there's nothing there. It might be worthwhile to add framework the entire length and add those two additional screws. Unless we have stability problems I'll not mess with it, though.

It does have an angle iron (L channel) cross member about 8 to 9 inches aft of the rear jack assembly. That's where they mounted the rear mounts. It seems so far to be working well. We'll see if I still feel that way after we've lived with it a few days and have experienced all kinds of normal stresses (walking, etc.)

Dave, I was wrong about location of the spare. It's not on the rear panel of the bellypan. I could probably drop the forward part of that panel and see back towards the rear. I'd have to remove the rear jack assembly to fully clear the area, though.

As a note, I referred to "rear jacks" just to avoid confusion as I keep referring to the new stabilizer bars as the stabilizers. Those rear jacks are really not jacks, they're stabilizers, as you all know.