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Old 06-06-2010, 03:45 PM   #11
moaboy
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I have a 2009.5 2720 I keep in my garage and the good news is there is nothing that adds to the height of the unity temproarily as you set it up etc. The ac unit is the highest point and does sit on a "shelf" so to speak.
However, I have a rather large garage and no way could I actually open my unit up due to the length, so unless your garage is huge, I think it would be tough to pull off. But don't let that stop you from getting a TM, which I would recommend wo reservation.
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Old 06-12-2010, 08:06 AM   #12
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Ok, after a week of contemplation, and a maiden voyage that involved hitching/unhitching and setting it up once to load the fridge and, a second time to unload the fridge after the trip, I'm back to figuring out how to leave this bad boy up in between trips.

With my renewed desire, I re-measured and found that I'm 9" short of putting up the camper because of the A/C and 1" short of putting it up because of the 3 additional roof vent bubbles.

I see a couple options.

1) I could try to raise the ceiling by putting in a couple of steel beams, and reconfiguring the joists, but I've got a nice storage room above this area of the garage and it would involve more hassle and expense than I'm ready to tackle.

2) Another option would be to find a way to lower the trailer to the floor. There's about 9.5" of clearance before the campers lowest points, the leveling scissor jacks, would touch down. So I believe that this option could work, but I could use any reverse lift suggestions that you might have to offer. I've come up with the following but am open to any other suggestions.
2a) One thought would be to install an automotive post lift below the floor surface so that I could place the lift arms under the tires and drop the trailer down. My issue with this is that I don't like the thought of a post being in the middle of the garage all of the time.

2b) Another thought is to cut out a section of the garage floor concrete, 2' long by 7' wide and install a bridge jack below the floor surface so that I could lower the trailer down. The only real problem I see with this solution, besides the cost and effort, is that the jacks I can find are not wide enough. But I think that adding a wider cap plate to fit the hole in the floor is in order anyway . I like this option because it's reasonably clean in appearance, could be retrofit as a car lift when selling the house, and it would still allow me to easily roll the camper into place.
Any other ideas?
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Old 06-12-2010, 09:28 PM   #13
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You wouldn't have to cut a 2' x 7' hole. You would merely need to cut 2, 4' x 1' holes (one for each tire). dig the hole about 1' deep on the far end and 2" deep on the forward end. line the holes with 2" of concrete and you have ramps to back the trailer down and pull it out.....no jacks required. This all assumes that you have 9" of clearance under the trailer.

When selling the house, just fill the holes......no big deal.

When the trailer is not in the garage, you could "plug" the ramp holes with plugs made of 2x4s and plywood.

BTW......You can break out the concrete with a hammer drill and a concrete chisel attachment in about 1 hour. I just did this exact same thing in one of my apartments last week to repair a floor squeek.
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Old 06-13-2010, 01:09 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harveyrv View Post
You would merely need to cut 2, 4' x 1' holes (one for each tire).
Great minds must think alike, because my dad just offered the same suggestion. And it's definitely an option that would cost less, a factor that would help me convince my DW of the value of pursuing this project. However, I'm concerned that I would have an issue getting it in and out of the ramps because the tongue of the trailer will be toward the enclosed end of the garage in order to be able to open the door on the camper. So one option would be to use the accessory hitch for pulling it up the ramps, or run a cable up to the front of the camper if the consensus of this group is that the accessory hitch would be too weak for this type of pulling stress. While the hitch's posted 100lbs load rating appears to be under stated since it's solidly bolted to the frame, I'm not sure that it's up to the 1000lb of force required to pull a 4000lb trailer up a 4/1 ramp. I'll give the factory a call tomorrow to get their thoughts. If they claim that the hitch is a valid jacking point then, I'll be good.

I'll also note that if someone else tries this in the future, don't think that you'll be able to back the TM in with it hitched to your TV with the normal hitch. The tongue will need to drop at the same rate or faster than the back end of the trailer to prevent the back from skidding on the ground as the tires drop.

Another variant on the hole for each tire idea would be to park the camper on top of steel plate hole covers, jack it up, remove the plates and lower the camper tires into the holes. My trouble here is in finding the right jack(s) that have enough lift to get the axle to a height of about 20" and then be able to lower it to a height of 3". There are air bag types of jacks that might work (http://www.offroaders.com/directory/...ger-X-jack.htm) but keeping the trailer from tipping when using one air bag jack inflated 20" high, would be a risk that I'm not comfortable with. Another option would be to use a regular floor jack under the hitch on the back of the camper, but this would require 2000 lb of lift (more than the ramp option). Ideally I would like to find a couple of low profile (3") floor jacks that could share a remote pump that's not under the camper. But again, this is bound to cost more than the ramp idea...
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Old 06-13-2010, 01:43 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by krusen View Post
Great minds must think alike, because my dad just offered the same suggestion. And it's definitely an option that would cost less, a factor that would help me convince my DW of the value of pursuing this project. However, I'm concerned that I would have an issue getting it in and out of the ramps because the tongue of the trailer will be toward the enclosed end of the garage in order to be able to open the door on the camper. So one option would be to use the accessory hitch for pulling it up the ramps, or run a cable up to the front of the camper if the consensus of this group is that the accessory hitch would be too weak for this type of pulling stress. While the hitch's posted 100lbs load rating appears to be under stated since it's solidly bolted to the frame, I'm not sure that it's up to the 1000lb of force required to pull a 4000lb trailer up a 4/1 ramp. I'll give the factory a call tomorrow to get their thoughts. If they claim that the hitch is a valid jacking point then, I'll be good.

I'll also note that if someone else tries this in the future, don't think that you'll be able to back the TM in with it hitched to your TV with the normal hitch. The tongue will need to drop at the same rate or faster than the back end of the trailer to prevent the back from skidding on the ground as the tires drop.

Another variant on the hole for each tire idea would be to park the camper on top of steel plate hole covers, jack it up, remove the plates and lower the camper tires into the holes. My trouble here is in finding the right jack(s) that have enough lift to get the axle to a height of about 20" and then be able to lower it to a height of 3". There are air bag types of jacks that might work (http://www.offroaders.com/directory/...ger-X-jack.htm) but keeping the trailer from tipping when using one air bag jack inflated 20" high, would be a risk that I'm not comfortable with. Another option would be to use a regular floor jack under the hitch on the back of the camper, but this would require 2000 lb of lift (more than the ramp option). Ideally I would like to find a couple of low profile (3") floor jacks that could share a remote pump that's not under the camper. But again, this is bound to cost more than the ramp idea...
You could make the ramps any length that you want. It would also be easier to buy a concrete cutting blade for your skill saw. Just be aware the you will need to make a containment area for the dust with plastic drop clothes and wear a good respirator and appropriate clothing. The dust will be horrendous..

There are all sorts of things that you could do for lowering the trailer into the holes and pulling it out. A small winch comes to mind:
http://www.harborfreight.com/2000-lb...nch-92860.html


You could bolt a "Tow Hook"
http://www.harborfreight.com/10000-l...kit-67497.html


to the end of either side (not bottom for clearance reasons) of the frame and use your TV or winch to pull it out. However, a rear mounted hitch would be better.

You would need to remove the center mounter tongue jack and go with a swing jack (like I did). Then you will need use a dolly (something like this one) to lower the tongue down on. You would have to put bars across this and bolt a bottle jack with a drop hitch welded to the top, so you could lower the tongue to the floor. The drop hitch would have to fall between the bars and actually settle on the floor for optimum clearance on the rear of the trailer.
http://www.harborfreight.com/checkout/cart/


There's always more than one way to skin a cat.......
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Old 06-14-2010, 10:44 PM   #16
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Good news, I was able to contact one of the engineers at TrailManor and he validated that 100lb rating for the rear hitch on my 2007 2619 is based upon the desire to minimize lightening of the tongue during towing. The hitch itself on my unit should be strong enough to handle 1000lb of tension required to pull the unit up a set of inground ramps.

A word of caution however, he also indicated that some newer units have a lighter weight cross member that should not be used in this manner.

So now all I have to do is dig the holes and configure a link between my tow vehicle's hitch, and the rear hitch of the TM. I love it when a plan comes together.
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Old 06-14-2010, 10:55 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by krusen View Post
Good news, I was able to contact one of the engineers at TrailManor and he validated that 100lb rating for the rear hitch on my 2007 2619 is based upon the desire to minimize lightening of the tongue during towing. The hitch itself on my unit should be strong enough to handle 1000lb of tension required to pull the unit up a set of inground ramps.

A word of caution however, he also indicated that some newer units have a lighter weight cross member that should not be used in this manner.

So now all I have to do is dig the holes and configure a link between my tow vehicle's hitch, and the rear hitch of the TM. I love it when a plan comes together.
What are you going to do with the tongue jack?
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Old 06-15-2010, 06:55 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harveyrv View Post
What are you going to do with the tongue jack?
As you indicated, I'll need some form of dolly, so I'll use some variant like you suggested. My initial thought was to remove the stand's wheel (assuming it sits too high when fully lowered) and set the post in the center of a low riding dolly like these.

edited to replace URL.
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Old 06-15-2010, 09:43 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by krusen View Post
As you indicated, I'll need some form of dolly, so I'll use some variant like you suggested. My initial thought was to remove the stand's wheel (assuming it sits too high when fully lowered) and set the post in the center of a low riding dolly like these.
Your link didn't work.

I'm pretty sure that you will have to remove your center mounted tongue jack and replace it with a swing jack like the one pictured below.

The other option, of course, would be to cut a 3rd "ramp" for the tongue jack wheel to go down. I'm thinking that one would need to be quite a bit longer.

You wouldn't be able to put the trailer hitch on the TV. You would have to use some sort of cable arrangement to lower the trailer and pull it out because the tow vehicle is a fixed height and the trailer will be lowering flat to the ground.

You could hook up a cheap brake controller to the trailer brakes via the emergency break-away brake switch on the trailer and push the trailer down the ramp by hand, using the trailer's electric brakes to control the decent.. Then simply pull the trailer out using a cable or tow strap from the TV.
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Old 06-21-2010, 06:20 PM   #20
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Check this out:

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...ch-mount/49076

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