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Old 09-03-2022, 08:57 PM   #1
Bus Nut
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 282
Year: 1981
Coachwork: Coachwork?
Chassis: International
Engine: CAT 3208 Marine Diesel
Doubling Up RV leveling jacks idea (potential to save thousands)

I have an idea. With parts poised to get out of reach because of the dollar devaluation, I'm going to need to source nearly every major part from the RV junkyards. Conventional RV leveling jacks can be had at the junkyard with up to 90% life left, however they're for sticks and staples with a GVWR below 20k LBS.

With my expected final wet weight of 28k pounds, Instead of paying thousands for each 10k LBS rated jack, I could double up smaller analog-relay-controlled RV leveling jacks with circuitry and mating the foot plates. If one runs at a slower speed than the other or if I have to use mismatching jacks, I could ditch the mated foot plate and drop both manually until both start to make contact with the ground, balance the load as much as I can before sliding two fingers down on the dual toggle switches next to the couch.

With hydraulically-self-contained 12v jacks, I could make my own custom relay circuit for 8 jacks, or use two analog leveling jack relay circuits in parallel. Doubling wire requirements would raise the cost (haven't checked the new price of 4/0 wire as I'm not at the electrical stage of my build yet) but would cost a fraction of just one 10k rated jack.

If my front axle weight is 12k and my rear axle weight is 16k, I would need each jack to be rated for 10k pounds to be safe. If RV leveling jacks top out at 7k pounds, two would have 14k pounds combined which needs to be de-rated to 10k for momentary load shifting (I don't want my jacks collapsing because one had to bear 14k pounds for a second because one was on a rock and the other on soft dirt).

Later on, I could do something with arduino to automate the leveling with pressure sensors for load balancing.

I don't have to become an expert at hydraulic systems to modify or upgrade hydraulic cylinders when using hydraulically-self-contained RV leveling jacks, as it's mainly an electrical and load balancing problem.

If I didn't want to do this, I could hold out until I find a large Class A RV in the junkyard with a weight rating matching my skoolie or slightly higher and pick it's larger leveling jacks.

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