Some time ago I initiated an inquiry about powered trailer jacks. I
wanted to share the solution I implemented.

When I back my gooseneck flatbed trailer into the shed, the crank is
right next to the wall making it dificult to crank the jacks. Powered
jacks would be great, but wow the cost of commercial units. Looking
for a cost effective retrofit I came up with this. Here is a link to
the Yahoo photo album where the pics reside;

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pilot_.../ph//my_photos

The project involved removing the welded on jack crank and machining a
simple adapter to slip over the shaft. The crank can be reattached
simply by sliding the crank over the stub shaft and pinning with a
clevis pin and clip.

The machined adapter has a key and sprocket to provide a drive to the
jack drive shaft.

The gearmotor is a Harbor Freight ATV winch. It comes with the
reversing switch and wires and the ability to disengage the motor to
freewheel the drum. Necessary if the battery is down or the motor
fails. I disassembled, removed he cable and the drum. I machined off
one flange and milled in a keyway. Now I could attach a sprocket to
the hub of the drum.

Fabricating a simple plate and bracket allowed attachment to the
trailer gooseneck upright.
Some #40 sprockets and chain from the local farm supply store (Rural
King) and I was done.

It works well but is slow. I looked at changing ratios with different
sprockets, but there are limitations. The driver (winch gearmotor) has
the bracket so you cannot go too large. The shaft adapter (driven) can
only accept so small of a sprocket because of the hub size. So I am
pretty much stuck with what I have. I do not recall the number of
teeth, but I'll get them if someone wants to know. Ratio is slightly
overdriven but close to 1:1.

By slow I mean that it probably takes a minute or so to raise or lower
the jacks when hooking or unhooking the trailer. Not a problem and
something that can be lived with.


Total investment was about $50 for the winch and about $40 in chain,
sprocket and misc. The materials (a 1/2" plate and a shout piece of
3X5 tubing) came from the stock pile.

I hope that this helps someone else

Bob

Before someone beats me up over this, I forgot to add that I need to
build a guard around the chain. On the to do list.

Bob

wrote in
ups.com:

I hope that this helps someone else


Nice job.



--
Anthony

You can't 'idiot proof' anything....every time you try, they just make
better idiots.

Remove sp to reply via email

wrote:
Before someone beats me up over this, I forgot to add that I need to
build a guard around the chain. On the to do list.

Bob

One of my friends has a large travel trailer with crank-up/down
leveling jacks. He got tired of hand cranking them and just welded a
hex on in place of the crank handle. He used a cordless ratchet with
suitable socket to run them up and down. Not necessarily faster, but
not as much effort and if the ratchet is run down, he can still use it
to move them by hand. Just another way of doing the same thing.

Stan

Nice work Bob. Well done.

Chris

$5.00 to $10.00 at your local junk-yard... Look for big old Sat-lite
dish actuators ... The units are 24 volts but works great on 12
volts... I have about 20 units... I use them for jacks, dump cly, pull
jacks,Snow-plow lifts and many more things... Very strong...







wrote:
Some time ago I initiated an inquiry about powered trailer jacks. I
wanted to share the solution I implemented.

When I back my gooseneck flatbed trailer into the shed, the crank is
right next to the wall making it dificult to crank the jacks. Powered
jacks would be great, but wow the cost of commercial units. Looking
for a cost effective retrofit I came up with this. Here is a link to
the Yahoo photo album where the pics reside;

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pilot_.../ph//my_photos

The project involved removing the welded on jack crank and machining a
simple adapter to slip over the shaft. The crank can be reattached
simply by sliding the crank over the stub shaft and pinning with a
clevis pin and clip.

The machined adapter has a key and sprocket to provide a drive to the
jack drive shaft.

The gearmotor is a Harbor Freight ATV winch. It comes with the
reversing switch and wires and the ability to disengage the motor to
freewheel the drum. Necessary if the battery is down or the motor
fails. I disassembled, removed he cable and the drum. I machined off
one flange and milled in a keyway. Now I could attach a sprocket to
the hub of the drum.

Fabricating a simple plate and bracket allowed attachment to the
trailer gooseneck upright.
Some #40 sprockets and chain from the local farm supply store (Rural
King) and I was done.

It works well but is slow. I looked at changing ratios with different
sprockets, but there are limitations. The driver (winch gearmotor) has
the bracket so you cannot go too large. The shaft adapter (driven) can
only accept so small of a sprocket because of the hub size. So I am
pretty much stuck with what I have. I do not recall the number of
teeth, but I'll get them if someone wants to know. Ratio is slightly
overdriven but close to 1:1.

By slow I mean that it probably takes a minute or so to raise or lower
the jacks when hooking or unhooking the trailer. Not a problem and
something that can be lived with.


Total investment was about $50 for the winch and about $40 in chain,
sprocket and misc. The materials (a 1/2" plate and a shout piece of
3X5 tubing) came from the stock pile.

I hope that this helps someone else

Bob

wrote:
$5.00 to $10.00 at your local junk-yard...

Thanks for your comments. I'll keep that in mind regarding the sat
actuators.

Bob