Posted 2008-05-22 8:34 AM (#84446) Subject: Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Veteran
Posts: 192 Location: Hutto, TX
This might be a really dumb question, but should I jack up the trailer while it's parked and hooked up to the truck to take some weight off the truck bed and tires? I leave the trailer hooked up for days at a time and I never did this with my three horse slant, but the LQ trailer is much heavier than the old trailer. If I should, to what extent- until I can't go up any more, or just to remove some weight? Thanks!
Posted 2008-05-22 8:49 AM (#84448 - in reply to #84446) Subject: RE: Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
I do! I take the load off, over a period of time the springs will continue to sag and get weaker with the truck just sitting there loaded. Ask anyone that maintains a fleet of fire trucks and related equipment. These trucks are loaded all of the time and have always been prone to spring weakning and failure. That is one of the good things about a truck with air suspension (air bags)..... No weak leaf springs to contend with.
Next time you unhook from your trailer, jack it up just enough to clear the ball. Wait a couple days and try backing back under the trailer, you'll have to crank the jack several rounds before the ball will slide under the coupler. The truck springs will have returned more to their unlaiden shape with the trailer unhitched.
Jack it up until you see the coupler try to lift the ball out of the truck socket. No matter what type of couple/hitch setup you got, there's a little play or clearance if you will, between the ball and the hitch.....DO NOT, try to lift the rear of the truck off the ground!!! Or, you could just uncouple the hitch and lift it off the ball a bit....Then leave yourself a note in your truck seat that, "The landing gear is making contact with the face of the Earth"....So, that if for some reason, someone jumps in your truck and try's to drive away, they won't be tearing the landing gear, or your tailgate off the rig!!! There's a note in my drivers seat, come look!!....The mind is a terrible thing!!
Posted 2008-05-22 8:58 AM (#84449 - in reply to #84446) Subject: RE: Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Expert
Posts: 5870 Location: western PA
The dynamic weights and stresses on a moving rig far exceed any static loading over a few day period. Your weights are reduced and your truck is capable of maintaining that pressure.
I have done the same thing on quick turn arounds between shows, and can see no reason why the practice would cause any harm.
Posted 2008-05-22 10:02 AM (#84457 - in reply to #84446) Subject: RE: Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Location: Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...
Years ago I bought a used Dodge 3500 that had never been unhooked from the trailer it pulled. I didn't think anything about it until I went to put a load on it. The springs had gradually lost their "spring". Empty, it was the best ride that I have ever had in a one ton. I had to add air bags to the truck to carry any weight.
Now all I use the truck for is the trailer and to go get feed. I have a shed I back under, I jack the trailer up to clear the ball, and then drop the tail gate. If I don't use it for several days, it will raise back up enough that the coupler will bump the ball when I pull away from it. After my experience with the Dodge with broken down springs, I won't ever leave mine hooked up all the time. A day here or a day there, but not all the time.
Posted 2008-05-22 12:45 PM (#84472 - in reply to #84446) Subject: RE: Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Expert
Posts: 1416 Location: sc
I never have. I can count on one hand the number of times this Dmax has been (or will be) unhooked from some sort of trailer in the 3 years Ive owned it. Of course it wont hurt anything to unhook, just dont do it half assed......forget to check, then tear something up.
My understand of springs is;
Its not the weight that will cause the springs to 'sag' when unloaded, it is the duty cycles (i.e. compression and release) or in other words miles of travel, loaded or otherwise.
Granted a heavy loaded truck may start to sag sooner than a light loaded one, but I doubt just sitting there loaded will have much to do with the life span of the springs.
Posted 2008-05-25 8:04 PM (#84644 - in reply to #84639) Subject: RE: Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Veteran
Posts: 192 Location: Hutto, TX
As if one could afford to drive a trailer from Texas to New York at $4.50 a gallon!
I'm going to jack it up, and put the note on my seat, whenever it's parked by the barn. I wonder if it would make the trailer more or less stable to do that when I'm going to use it?
Jack up the trailer while hooked up?
Maybe that's why I had that tire blow the other weekend.