how do you stabilize to get rid of the shakes

[pshootr]

we need to get our 31 foot northtrail to stop shaking when people walk or turn in thier sleep,it is very annoying,we paid 25 grand for this trailer and it shakes like an earthquake when we are trying to sleep and kids are up front walking or moving around,!!!every little movement is felt....jacks are always down and i level the trailer side to side and front to back..we are not rookies at rving, have owned 4 rvs in 20 years of camping!!!please send me an email to my computer or call me with a remedy to this!thank you....PAUL KORMAN

 

[jimtoo]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

Sorry your having a problem with the shakes, but usually this is caused by not enough weight being supported by the front and rear jacks and tires not being chocked good.

I am moving the post to a different area where you will get more and better answers from our other family members that actually use the units.

Jim M

 

[GOTTOYS]

It's not the trailer's fault. Any similar trailer will do the same thing. I use locking wheel chocks between my wheels, I only extend my rear jacks a short distance and set them on some 6 X 6 blocks. The less they are extended the less they can flex. You can do the same up front. You could also install a set of stabilizers on your jacks to stop them from flexing when they are extended. JTs are a good choice. BAL makes a similar unit for less $$ as do others. It's not hard to cure...Don

 

[TXBobcat]

It would help if you would tell us what trailer you have. Different types have different jacks and gears. Fill in your currnet rig in your profile. See the above post for an idea.

BC

 

[aatauses]

Consider some type of stabilizer. We have ones made by Ultra Fab and are happy with them
al

 

[cableman]

We have a 24rl North Trail and had same problem. When we were in elkhart at the national rally I put the JT strongarms on and all but eliminated the shaking. I would install on any camper I have in the future.

 

[TandT]

Jt's Strongarms IMHO. We have them and they eliminate the majority of movement. They are made to fit almost any application. Trace

 

[lwmcguir]

Certainly agree with the other posters, between the wheel chocks and stabilizers. Make sure there is adequate pressure on the rear jacks as well. Recheck them after you have settled in.

 

[SouthernNights]

pshootr,
You have received the answer on how to prevent the trailer from shaking. Lots of good advice.
Thought you would like to read this. It is from a specific manufacturer of the stabilizing bars. If you are handy and have a welder you can build your own for less than $50.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Why Does Your Trailer Shake? -- How Do You Stop the Shaking?
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Why does My 5th Wheel or Travel Trailer Shake?
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fifth Wheel and Travel trailers are supported by springs and tires, both of which are designed to be flexible. In addition to that, the frame has flex designed into it just from the fact that it is built on a long beam that is only supported at couple of locations. But that is not really the question you are asking.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The real question is: Why does it shake when I am parked and have put down blocks, cranked down the stock stabilizing jacks, placed a tripod under the front, set the special chocks between the wheels, cranked down the two extra jacks I installed in front of the wheels, and put stands under the slide outs?
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Of course the answer is everything you setup moves, so the trailer moves. Seem impossible ? Let’s take a look at the basics:
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1. If the ground is not solid, the base of any stabilizing equipment will move and in turn the device and the trailer will move. If blocks used to support stabilizing equipment are not properly placed or are flexible, then the stabilizing equipment and the trailer will move.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]2. If the device, scissor jack, “c” jack stabilizer, telescoping jack, tripod, jack stand, power jack, hydraulic jack, etc., has any flexibility sideways or up and down the device and the trailer will move.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I have found one of the biggest factors of destabilization of a trailer is the stabilizing jacks. Virtually all of the swing arm, C, and telescoping type jacks both power and manual are like stiff springs. They are quite flexible and just don’t hold the trailer solid. They allow both bounce and rocking motions.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fifth Wheel Tripods or King pin Jack stabilizers in concept have good potential for eliminating shaking at the point they are installed. However, adding a “convenience” threaded adjustment at the top basically nullifies the concept. The location tripods have to be installed also works against their functionality. It is similar to trying to keep a dog from wagging his tail by holding on to his nose.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I find that the “between the wheel” chocks are very handy to use and do a good job of keeping the trailer from rolling down a hill. However, the benefit achieved from trying to stabilize the trailer frame through a flexible tire and flexible springs has to be less than optimum.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fifth Wheel front legs, scissor jacks, hydraulic jacks , electric vertical screw jacks and similar do a great job of trailer leveling and stopping vertical movement, but in most cases provide very little benefit in the area of sideways movement.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]3. The trailer frame is like a long plank sitting on a scaffold. As you walk along the board it will bend with your weight. The only places it does not bend are where there are solid supports under it.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]4. Trailer floors will also flex to varying degrees as you walk on them just as described above for the trailer frame.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thus, unless you reinforce the trailer floor and place a solid foundation under the trailer with solid supports to the frame every few feet, it is not likely you can remove all the trailer movement.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]How do I Stop My Trailer from Shaking?
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What can be done to eliminate the most annoying movement and provide a very solid feeling, without doing an extraordinary amount of work each time you set up? You must do everything possible to eliminate movement in the 4 areas discussed above.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1. Use hard solid blocks that are large enough to support the jack weight on the surface you are on. None may be required on concrete, but a very large surface area would be required on sand. Be careful when you set the blocks that they are not on an uneven surface that will allow them to rock. It may be beneficial to use a couple of small blocks like 2x4 wood about 12 inches long to place under some larger jack pads so they can self level under the pad. On Sod you might consider a couple of small blocks that would compress the sod with a couple of cross blocks on top to place the jack pads on. A very large block on sod could rock back and forth. These are just some examples, in each case you will need to determine the best blocking scenario for the surface you are parked on.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]2. The simplest jack for being solid vertically is the scissor jack. It does not do much for the side to side motion, but is great for the bounce and roll. The same is true for many of the hydraulic cylinder and vertical screw jacks. They are all a good foundation for a solid feeling trailer. Most of these jacks will still allow a significant amount of sideways shake. These jacking systems are all excellent candidates for the[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]STEADY[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]fast[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]®[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]stabilizing system. This bracing system works to eliminate the side to side and front to back frame movement.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jack location is also important. The jacks perform best if they are located several feet in from the ends to the trailer. That helps to reduce the amount of bounce in the center of the trailer.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]3. On some longer trailers it may be beneficial to install a set of scissor jacks between the front and rear jacks. This is not always beneficial depending on the frame design.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]4. There are not any easy solutions to a trailer floor that has excessive movement.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The design of the[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]STEADY[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]fast[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]®[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]stabilizing system takes into account all of the factors discussed above as well as a very strong emphasis on ease of use. This system will provide a solid feel to your trailer that you will really enjoy. The additional time to engage the system when setting up your trailer is less than a minute. There is no need to get down on your knees, crawl under your trailer, or jack the trailer up or down to take slack out of the braces.[/FONT]

 

[irvin56]

As mentioned in the long post,By southernights, it has a lot of info in it.
with my 31Qbs, I put a lot of weight on my stabilizers at back and front. bring trailer to amost level, front to back. then I put stabs down. level trailer, this puts extra weight on back ones.

Then I will raise front just a bit up pass level and lower front back down, putting more weight on front.

Then I put a bottle jack on frame right in front of front tire and raise it up an inch. This takes weigth off of the suspension.

Then I go around to the 4 other stab with a 4 star tire wrench and retighten stabs. work good for me.

I also don't have the stabs full extented to full lenght as its like tooth picks holding trailer. Also I have built my own wheel chocks to lock wheels form back and forth movement.

This sounds like a lot of work but it's not because it helps.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/577456038uQWrsP

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/572781145jUsGSk

Also has the pics of the wand I made for flushing out my black tank

 

[redharley69]

I recently installed the Steadyfast system on my Cyclone 3010. It cut the shaking to almost nothing.

 

[NWTFHunter]

Go with the Steady Fast system. Easy to install and works great. www.steadyfast.com

 

[jmgratz]

I have The Eliminator which I got at Camping World. It looks and works just like the JT Strongarm but is alot less in price. Works great.

 

[GETnBYE]

I say to my hubby, "who walks so heavy"...........maybe I yell............WALK EASY!
It makes me "motion sick". After the first day, he usually starts to walk easier and I think he even slows down and starts to relax a bit after he gets into the habit of "walking easy".

 

[gwalter]

Consider some type of stabilizer. We have ones made by Ultra Fab and are happy with them
al

X2 on Ultra Fab

 

[porthole]

Halfway through a JT install on the Cyclone. Grabbing the pin box and giving the trailer a shake I can already see a difference.

 

[jnbhobe]

Halfway through a JT install on the Cyclone. Grabbing the pin box and giving the trailer a shake I can already see a difference.

Duane; We are still on the road after the "HOT RALLY". Are you putting JT's on your level up?? Post some pictures or give me a call,I still have my JT's from before.

 

[porthole]

Duane; We are still on the road after the "HOT RALLY". Are you putting JT's on your level up?? Post some pictures or give me a call,I still have my JT's from before.

JT's on the LevelUp - yes.

Fronts done, have some welding to do for the rears. I'll give you a call in the morning.

 

[elwaller39]

Levelup will make your coach rock solid, because you are taking some of the wieght off of the wheels and springs which will stop any motion in your coach. We have the Levelup on our coach 3400RL Bighorn for nearly a year now. We love the levelup.

 

[Dutch & Di]

We agree on a permanently installed aftermarket stabilizer system. We've had our Plug It Right's on for over 6 years and are completely happy. Di