Travel Trailer Electric Jack Weight Capacity

Question:

I have a pretty light trailer. 3700 lbs loaded up. and want to have an electric jack I am tired to crank it up and down to set the weight dist. bars and all. Since you have to raise even the vehicle a little bit to set those bars, would a 3500 one do the job?

asked by: Hernan M

Expert Reply:

The 3,500 lb capacity of an electric jack like # EJ-3520-BBX is the lifting capacity of the jack. What that means in a trailer scenario is that it would be able to lift the tongue weight of a trailer up to 3,500 lbs.

Tongue Weight (TW) refers to the tongue weight of your trailer plus the weight of the cargo that sits behind the rear axle of your vehicle.Trailer TW is measured using a tongue weight scale. Typically, about 10 to 15 percent of GTW is tongue weight. Which mean that since your fully loaded trailer is 3700 pounds, 370 to 555 pounds of the trailer is TW. As a result a 3,500 lb TW capacity of an electric Jack like # EJ-3520-BBX has more than enough capacity to raise the trailer and the vehicle a little bit to set the bars.

When you connect a weight distribution setup to a trailer you end up lifting the rear suspension of the vehicle as well to help get the spring bars on as that relieves the pressure. So that's when the extra capacity for the trailer jack is useful.

expert reply by: Timothy G