Saturday, April 13, 2019

from 3 to 4 Jacks






















































Like many truck campers of this vintage our Avion only has 3 jack stands instead of 4 as is more common today.  My guess is that cost and weight were two reasons why only 3, but if you look at photos of 60's & 70's truck campers you'll notice that many have at least a slight "crinkle" in the side wall just above the single-side jack. The jacks are intended for use when loading and unloading, but not as the sole support for long-term storage or habitation when off of a truck.  My assumption is that the "crinkles" happen when there is too much activity inside the camper when it's off the truck, or maybe the structure just gives way over time from too much stress on that one point, maybe even from extra load from wind gusts during storms.  I've also seen several photos where it's obvious that a camper was mounted to a truck and had its jacks down when the truck moved.  Our C10 has one of these "slight" crinkles, and while it seems structurally OK, we've decided to add a 4th jack and relocate the one thats there now. I've also noticed from photos that most other Avion's have the jacks mounted farther outward, so that when the jack is swung up for traveling it sits outside the exterior wall of the camper. On ours, the jacks are flush with the outer wall when swung to the up position. I don't know if this was a "running change" in Avion production but am pretty sure that we will want to (or maybe have to) move our jacks out further to have better clearance for a truck bed. This is a little complicated since our brackets have a flange that extends outward which may need to be cut, or I may end up replacing the brackets with new ones that don't have that flange. Our jacks themselves clean-up very well and function fine, so at the moment I'm thinking that I'll try to find a matching 4th vintage jack and bracket.

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