Loooong distance camping -- Lessons Learned?

Trish,
I think those are 3/4" and they sell them at Camping World with a shaft for the drill

The short end of the allen wrench or a bent piece of steel rod fits into the center hole and hooks into the little hole on the side of the jack. The other end of the allen wrench or the steel rod is put into the drill like any drill bit.
You can look at the hand crank that came with the trailer to see how it should work.

I was at a show this year and saw the current TMs. They no longer have the hole for an Allen wrench. They now have a bolt end.

Not sure what year they changed, or why.

Mine are different. The hub is round not faceted and is hollow with a hole at 90 degrees where the jack "wrench" fits- ergo the need for the allen wrench.

Phil

Wayne, you're correct. I can put a 3/4 socket on the end of the bolt. Got a killer deal on a 18v cordless drill at Depot. $39. Apparently, I need to get an 1/2 adapter to make the socket fit but they didn't have them in stock.

The HD guy said this probably isn't going to be strong enough and wanted to sell me a $200 Makita. Will try this tomorrow after I find the adapter.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

On my 18V drill, I use the high speed to put it u p and down most of the way, if you need any grunt, just switch it to low speed...you'll have more torque. Letting it grunt in high speed will kill the battery.

I use it a lot, you did good!

I use a cordless drill from Sears. It is pretty old, so the voltage is lower than any of the newer ones.

I rarely set my jacks tighter than what this drill can do, except when changing a tire, in which case I used the manual crank.

Trish - Newer models have a hex shaft like your picture. The older models had a hollow shaft with a hole in the side - that is what everyone is referring to with the allen wrench or bent shaft attachment in a drill.

[OneMoBear]

Hey Trish,

While I completely respect the opinion of all here, the mama in me thinks that when traveling for that long with three awesome kids, raising and lowering the jacks every few days is going to be the smallest of issues. I would suggest either something that you will use all the time like a really great grill or just going with something totally fun such as a really special day or just a bunch of games like the ones suggested earlier. These are the things that make great memories IMHO.

Malinda

Thanks Malinda, your post made me smile. I gathered up the kids and I read them all the posts. I then asked them if they wanted to get Daddy a gift that made camping easier or something fun we could play as a family. My oldest and youngest chose the drill, the middle guy picked horseshoes. Since I got such a great price on the drill, I got both (and the HS were on sale, too!). I'm just hoping Mike doesn't freak about the additional weight. Other good news is we already had two of the games but hadn't packed them so that was an added bonus.

Hubby already bought the grill and small propane tank as a "trailer necessity".... :-)

Thanks again everyone. We leave on Father's Day for seven weeks! How's that for our first real (not shake-down) trip in our new TM? (wish us luck!)

Trish