Shake Rattle and Roll!

[daverain]

Went out on our 1st. outing with our new sabre travel trailer last weekend. Sure is comfortable and pulls nice, and it looks good. Only thing is, the Lippert electric stabilizers seem to be pretty weak with downforce, the trailer shakes! I guess sometimes new is not always better. On the old trailer we had crank down stabs which kept her pretty shake free. So, when we got home, I tried using the tongue jack to tighten up the trailer a bit. What I mean is, I lowered the front of the trailer a wee bit with the electric tongue jack and then ran the rear electric stabs down tight to the ground then brought the tongue back up a tad. It's better, but I'll probably damage the lippert jack doing so. Anyway does anybody out there have these lippert electric jacks and have the shakes?(no pun intended) Trailers great, CONCERTONE ISNT but thats a discussion for another day! BTW, had a terrific mini 3 day vacation, next one... jersey shore in 2 weeks. Oh yeah I forgot, have wheel chocks both sides, and solid 8x8 wood block under the stabs.
Dave and Rainy

[daverain]

Duh, forgot to ask if anyone had a solution to the problem.

[grhodes50]

Great to hear you had a good trip and good luck on the next one in two weeks.

As far as stopping the trailer movement, X-Chocks will help alot, but will not completely rid the trailer of movement. Some have installed a third set of stabilizer jacks, usually scissor jacks, near the trailer's axles. They calim this works really good. There are also some after market mods you can add to your exsisting stabilizers that I've read some good reviews about.

I use the x-chocks and I also use a step support which all but eliminates the movement caused by people entering and exiting the trailer.

Hope this helps.

[tbritt]

Originally Posted by daverain

Duh, forgot to ask if anyone had a solution to the problem.

This is my second trailer with the same units you have ,I know it's a bit better to add a half block with a 2X6 pad under the legs so the reach is less and seems to help

[Herk7769]

Not sure what camper you have (another shameless plug for putting your TV and camper year and model in your Signature block) but if it is an Ultra-lite you are going to get some bounce what ever you do.

The frame is just flexible. X-Chocks do help with fore-aft movement.

[backin15]

Mine has some movement too with the stabalizers down and the X-chocks in place. I had a couple lightweight aluminum jacks laying around from an old popup and tried them under the frame near the center. It really helped a lot.

[daverain]

Cool idea about support near the axle, certainly makes sense. Herk, its a palomino(forestriver)v sabre 31 rlds 2 slide trailer. Its' got a 10" frame(Lippert) and it's got a lot of weight 8400lbs. I've got apair of those old alum jacks, I'm going to try and put one under the frame in foward of the front axle and one behind the rear axle opposite sides, crank em up and see if thats better.

Dave and Rainy
2011 Palomino Sabre31rlds
2003 Ford Excursion chipped
Hensley Arrow hitch

[caper]

I have a set of scissor jacks on the frame beside the axle frame. Works great. Because of ultra light must keep jack beside wheels. As Herk said it is an ultra light and the frame will flex. If you try to jack the TT on the frame you could cause frame damage.

[Stevea1956]

I have a Windjammer 3065W that shook and bounced whenever someone came in or moved around in it.
I made some X-Chocks out of some 4x4 pieces and a threaded rod which helped. Also, I just picked up a pair of scissor jacks from Harbor Freight and put them in front of the axles. The TT is a lot more stable now.

[daverain]

Tried the alum jack thing today works great! Now We can relax and enjoy (except for concertone) our trailer, it's really nice with the opposing slides, and well built too! Nice touches abound in this unit even trim pieces nicely done. Good job Forest river and Palomino
Dave and Rainy