Fixit Yourself – Stabilizer Edition
2021. December. While at Big Bend Ranch State Park we must’ve hit the the driver side rear stabilizer on something and bent it a bit. I torqued it back into place and used it. As a result, it no longer went up/down very smoothly. Forget about using a battery powered drill to raise and lower. Hand crank required. Not only was it harder to put up and down, but it wagged back and forth as it did. Still usable. Just harder.
When we returned to base camp I dug into it and found some replacement ones on Amazon for around $80 for a set of 2. That got me to thinking. Weighing my options. $80. Or a little more effort. 80 bucks. Work. Being a cheap bastard, I chose to use a little more effort. I could use the work out anyways. Who cares if my right arm ends up being larger and more tone/fit than my left?
2022. December. While at Big Bend Ranch State Park we must’ve hit the driver side rear stabilizer on something and bent it… no, scratch that. Tore that mufucka right off on the frame side. It was hanging by the one bolt on the cross bar that runs from left to right. Just a swingin’, like John Anderson and Little Charlotte. The wings that come off the stabilizer where it bolts through to the frame actually tore right off. Old bolts still holding it in place. Ain’t gonna be no torquing that thing back into place. To continue our FTX, we just held the jack in place and raised it until it was supporting that corner of the trailer. The pressure of the trailer held it in place. Which brings up something I think I’m going to do: Buy a regular old scissor jack and just store it in the storage bin. If we ever demolish a stabilizer, we’ll at least have that to hold in place for that camping trip instead of having to call EndEx.
Maybe I should start trying to figure out which part of that rugged road is making that happen and approach it at an angle if possible. Anyways… Now it’s no longer a choice to weigh. Unless I’m weighing stabilizer or no stabilizer. This time when we get back to base camp I had to look up that part again. And of course the price is a wee bit higher than it was beginning of 2022. For a 2015.5 year Model 1995, that ended up being a BAL 23222 set of 2 “C” Jacks with handle – 22” if you were to do an Amazon search. I picked the set up for just over $100 with tax.
For a minute I considered a scissor type stabilizer from Harbor Freight. But the frame of the trailer is not big enough to accommodate the bolt pattern.
The new C-Jacks arrived Thursday and I replaced the old one. I used another scissor jack to hold one end of the C-Jack up to the frame while I bolted the other end on. Interestingly, the supplied self-drilling bolts that come with the jack are a bit smaller in diameter than the originals. The t bolts on the main frame lined up just right and I used the old bolts to secure it. The bold that mounts towards the center of the trailer did not line up. I ended up using one of the new bolts to secure it. Works perfectly. A new handle to raise and lower the jacks comes in the package as well. Since the set came with 2 C-Jacks, I now have a spare to keep in the storage bin. Just in case.