Poor-man's power tongue jack

[fella10]

Today we returned from a four day stay in a local cg, where I had the first opportunity to try out a new idea ... We have a Micro Lite 25KS, ... When one of the small bevel gears on my "side crank" tongue jack wore out, I replaced it with a BAL "top crank", ... I've always preferred the "top crank" style because, by replacing the bolt with a safety pin, I can easily and quickly remove the handle(that can't be done with a "side crank"), which makes theft just a little more difficult ...

Have had the new BAL jack since last year and have been wanting to try something new, ... I use the Camco drill adapter and my trusty Craftsman 19.2 volt cordless drill for the stabilizer jacks, ... now I've modified the drill adapter to also crank the tongue screw, ... worked even better than I had hoped it would, ... Plenty of power to lift the tongue and another useful tool without having to carry anything extra, ... I'm going to call it the poor-man's power tongue jack, ...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001V8U12M...ding=UTF8&th=1

[Gonefishing1]

Great ideal

[NJKris]

Nice! Improvise, adapt, overcome!!

[woo10-210]

Great idea! I think the battery-powered drill was one of the better inventions of the 20th century. So many different uses other than just for drilling holes. Alton Brown once used one to drive a pepper grinder on an old episode of Good Eats.

[rsdata]

Alton Brown once used one to drive a pepper grinder on an old episode of Good Eats.

I finally stuck on the Ryobi brand from HomeDepot...

lots of tools available all using the same batteries... although I just ordered some 6Ah batteries, up from my current 4Ah and 1.5Ah batteries.

I think I now have 4 drivers, plus an impact driver to spin things around!

[dward51]

I have Makita for all the shop stuff. But I'm thinking about buying Ryobi due to the price and make it dedicated to the trailer. My son-in-law has a large setup of Ryobi stuff including their electric lawn mower and leaf shredder. He loves all his Ryobi tools.

[fella10]

thank you folks for the nice comments, ... sometimes new ideas work and sometimes they don't, and this one sure does, ... never had a desire for a power jack, really didn't mind the manual crank, ... but couldn't get this idea out of my mind, and was unsure if the battery drill would have the power to lift the tongue weight, ... but it does and without a hitch, ... $0.00 additional cost, just a little time spent grinding the slot, ...

[rlh1957]

All battery power drills/drivers are not created equal... some just lack the torque to turn that jack screw on the front. Mine was fine on the jacks to level or stabilize but just didn't have the torque for the tongue. Got another unit that had power tongue before I had time to solve it. One guy I saw had a corded 12V drill he used and it did the job nicely.

[brewjaz]

Clever idea!

[chuckyb9876]

I, as well as my wife, have used my Dewalt 1/2" 18v cordless for years.
I skipped the adapter and chuck down on the shaft itself. I did put a 1/2" washer above the fix portion of the jack and drilled the shaft for an 1/8th inch clip pin to have the movable foot not drop out when I removed the drill after dropping the ball hitch down on the ball. I keep the handle in a ziplock bag just in case onto the ball Works awesome and when bringing it up I use the clutch to slip thus not twisting my arm off when it bottoms out. I use the clutch when I bring up the stabilizers also along with the 3/4" socket.

[bkbonner]

I like this mod on the jack and leveler attachment.

How do you keep your drill charged when running off 12 volts? Inverter?

I'd like to find a solution for charging my bosch 12v drill using battery or solar.

[fella10]

Originally Posted by bkbonner

...
How do you keep your drill charged when running off 12 volts? Inverter?

I'd like to find a solution for charging my bosch 12v drill using battery or solar.

we've never camped off of solar power, ... have always had electricity, so keeping my drill battery charged has never been a problem, ...