tongue jack alternative

[droid_ca]

Is there an alternative to the tongue jack that sticks up? Is there a more stealth version that would be flush with the top of your trailer frame?
I have an idea in mind and need some reassurance that it might work...

[Shadow Catcher]

All of the tongue jacks I have seen were either screw or rack and pinion based, and the variations of fixed in place or pivoting. The pivoting jacks place stress on one of the tongue members and bending is a possibility if the member is not of sufficient strength.
I had a problem with the tongue jack extending too far down and have shortened it as much as possible but have been looking for a better idea.

[bobhenry]

With a pick up a fixed jack is a P.I.T.A. The tailgate is hitting it and makes unloading a real chore. My Fulton is a laydown style and I like the way it works like a kickstand up and down when you need it and horizontal with the rail when you don't want it in the way.


Ya gotta look hard to the right but here it is at rest and out of the way




Here is a couple with it at work.

On my other 3 trailers I have been using a gear reduced scissor jack.

I am toying with the idea of mounting them upside down by welding or bolting the base to the tongue and continuing to use my reversable drill to operate them. This way there would be NO protrusions above the frame.
The only down side to this is you would be unavailable to wheel it about as a scissor jack has little side to side stability. A little staged telescopic screw jack would be a better choice for this application but is taller at rest in full collapse.

I guess you could do as I did on the chuckwagon and add dolly wheels to get it in place THEN jack it up !

[Aaron Coffee]

Somewhere on here I have seen a original jack on a 40's td, one end bolted to the tongue and the other end had a threaded rod that went to a swivel nut on the tongue. It looked like it would sit real close to the frame when up.

[droid_ca]

Some great ideas but....the solution that I'm trying to find, can not stick up any more the 4 inches above the trailer frame
Thanks for all your input

[S. Heisley]

Maybe I’m missing some knowledge here; but, if you put a couple of fold-up or scissor jacks under the front chassis corners and carried a trailer dolly, would you really need a tongue jack at all?

Harbor Freight’s dolly is on sale, right now, for $49:

http://www.harborfreight.com/heavy-duty ... _adv=10062

Scissor jacks, on sale for $29.99:

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-1-4-quar ... 96406.html

While you can search EBay or…., here’s a pair of fold-ups, just to give you the idea:

http://www.easternmarine.com/ATWOOD-Sta ... ack-82302/

[S. Heisley]

As I think about it, somebody with a little skill and a good brain might be able to modify a pair of some sort of stabilizers to add wheels to them and call them something like Lift-wheelies(?).

Then, they could sell the idea to some big company and make some money off the deal! Ha!

Ah, but then reality hits.....It ain't me!

[wagondude]

They make a jack that slips on to a round tube that is welded to the frame. It is held on with a pin in either the verticle or horizontle positions. The beuty of this jack is that you can add mounts to the sides of the trailer so you can jack up the trailer to change a tire while hooked to the tow. The jack could also be stored in a locked tongue box if you wanted, which would allow the use of less convenient mounting locations.

Edit: here is what I ame talking about.
http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jack/Pr ... 40303.html


Bill

[LWW]

My converted boat trailer came with a nice jack with a wheel already in place. Works great to for moving the trailer around the yard. Looks like the one in the above post except it has a nice wheel on it. Larryw

[Cdash]

What about using a stabilizer jack like the one in the link?

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=bal+stabilizers&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=12347854662244643802&sa=X&ei=fz3ZTrL-NJGFtgeb6PHsAQ&ved=0CD4Q8gIwAQ#

It would be different, but I think it could work.....

[mezmo]

Years ago I saw a unique tongue jack on a very heavy duty flat bed
equipment trailer with a beaver-tail rear.

It was like a half of a super heavy duty scissors jack. A crank handle,
via gearing I assume, turned a horizontally mounted threaded rod @ 2"
in diameter, upon which two fittings attached to two pair of thick flat bar
arms attached to a base [like the inverted top of a scissor jack - heavy
duty of course] rode back and forth to raise/lower the base. I'm pretty
sure the horizontal threaded rod was mounted perpendicular to the front
cross member.

I couldn't find any pics using Google images, so it may have been a one
-off or a propriety style design of the trailer builder.

If you'd be worried about side-to-side wobble I could see a way to try to
triangulate the arms by using two threaded rods at the top with a cranked
gear between them thus making the support arms wider at their top
compared to where they'd join the base. or have the u-joint style fittings
the threaded rods work on have a wide profile at the top that'd accomplish
the same wider attachment points for the top of the support arms.

Come to think more on it, I do think that the one I saw had the wider top
members containing the moving u-joint with the rod running through them
and they ran along parallel tracks on each side in the same plane as the
threaded rod.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo