camping

Pros and Cons of Electric Tongue Jacks For Your Camper

You may have noticed that there are options to add an electric powered tongue jack to your camper. Or maybe you had one go out on you and trying to decide if you should replace it with another electric or replace it by installing a manual trailer jack. The short answer is, it depends on what you want and how much it is worth to you. Today, we will be going over the pros and cons of electric camper tongue jacks, and give the information you need to know to make that decision.

Durability

Our 2013 camper came with one included and I felt all fancy having it, even my brother in-law was envious as he was cranking his. He had the last laugh once mine failed in year three of having the camper. I ended up replacing it with a manual jack before a tree fell on our camper the following year.

The one most important thing to keep in mind when deciding to add an electric tongue jack to your camper is realizing that your adding another failure point. At some point in the future, you will need to replace it again.

When you have a manual jack, there is not much to go wrong with it. Maybe a little grease in the gears and you should be good for as long as you own your camper.

When you have an electric trailer jack, it will fail at some point. Though there are brands out their considered to be the best trailer jacks, the better you take care of it, the longer it will last. I learned a lot about this when we got our new camper and here are some tips to keeping your camper’s electric front jack in good shape. By following these tips, you should get more years out of it.

Keep it covered!

You can buy small covers specifically for your these. Don’t just use the cover when your camper is stored, but always have it on. We remove it during travel and set up and put it back on.

So why is it important to keep them covered you ask? Two main reasons. First the cover will keep rain from penetrating your motor. This is what happened to our. It filled with sitting water which rusted everything inside. Eventually, the motor would not run.

Next keeping it covered will help with the sun rays which will make the casing brittle. Everything sun destroys everything camper. It will start to fade, then start to get brittle and eventually crack/brake. Luckily we didn’t have this issue because our camper was so young but I learned this when researching once we got our new camper. It just makes sense.

Grease all fittings

The next tip is to make sure you use dielectric grease on all plugs that are not covered by heat-shrink.

Moister and electric doesn’t go well together. Have you have seen corrosion on your car batteries? Taking off the case and adding some dielectric grease to all the plugs will save you frustration down the road.

Price

When looking into if we should replace our electronic camper trailer jack, the first thing that came to mind was price. Knowing that everything camper related seems to be over-prices, I was expecting a $500 price tag. I ended up surprised when I actually looked them up and was seeing many for under $200.

Price will depend on size which we will talk about below but you can expect to pay between $150-$300.

What Size Electric Tongue Jack do I Need For My Camper?

If you replacing or adding an electric jack to your camper, picking the right size is probably the most important decision you will make. If you select an under-powered jack,  you will replacing it sooner rather than later.

How to pick the correct weight when buying an electric trailer jack

This takes a little more math than one would think but, it’s not too hard to figure out. Remember when looking for a jack that it will not be lifting the whole camper. So camper weight in itself doesn’t come into play here.

The jack needs to be rated for your campers tongue weight plus your load. Let me explain. When you look at the sticker on your camper with VIN, weights, etc, you will see the tongue weight. This is the weight the camper puts on the tongue. The rest of the weight is on the tires.

Keep in mind that the weight on your sticker is for a stock unloaded camper. It doesn’t take into account of anything you place in it. And “things” are heavy!

So, here is how you figure out how big of jack you need to your camper (this is the same process for both electric and manual camper jacks):

  • Find your camper sticker with VIN/weights and write down your “tongue weight”
  • Estimate the weight of everything you have added to your camper. I go with 1,500 pounds
  • Add those together and that is the size tongue jack you need for your camper

You can always go up a little if you are unsure. Better to have too much power than not enough.

Wiring

Lastly, if you are replacing a manual camper jack with an electric, you will need to run a few wires for power. This is not an issue for some but others may need help. You can expect camper service shops to be expensive and I can see the price of your new electric camper jack to double if having a shop install it.

The Bottom Line

It really comes down to personal preference and how much an electric camper jack is worth to you while camping. It may be a great choice for someone older that may have issues hand cranking the jack but not worth it to the dad who may have to crank the leveling jacks anyway.

Pros of an electric camper jack:

  • Less work
  • Easier for someone older, someone with shoulder/arm issues
  • Easy for the wife and kids to help
  • Can crank in the event the electric motor goes out

Cons of an electric camper jack:

  • More expensive
  • One more failure point. It will go out at some point and need replaced
  • Should use cover
  • You brother in-law will make fun of you lol

Helpful Resources

Video Instructions on How To Install an Electric Tongue Jack

 

 

Yearly Camp Sites: What I Have Learned and What You Need To Know

Having a yearly camping spot has been our choice fr the past couple of years. We picked this for a couple reasons. 1. We have three kids in activities, full time jobs and endless extended family birthday parties. It was becoming impossible to plan camping trips and if we did get a last minute trip scheduled, it seemed like we were spending way to much time setting up. The weekend would fly by and it didn’t seem like we would have any down time to enjoy the weekend. I actually just posted on permanent sites vs travel camping.

So, we decided to go with a permanent camping spot. Since then, I have learned many things that I never thought of when having your own little spot. Today, I want to go over some of the more important things that someone might not think of. It defendant has it’s pros and cons.

You Get More Time To Relax

The first thing is the one biggest reason that we went with a yearly camping spot. More time to relax and enjoy being together. You show up, get your chairs out, lay your rug and turn on water/electric. The rest of the time is yours. When its time to go, do a quick clean up and your off. No unhooking/hooking up the camper, trying to level the camper, etc.

You Have to Cut The Grass

One thing I never though of is the lot grass. We have a pretty large lot and there is a lot of grass. We have to keep it cut. Not only that, we need to cut it regularly. Just like at home, your neighbors are not too happy if you let it go and only cut it every couple of weeks. Luckily our camp site is on the way to where I work a lot. I can swing by and knock it out on my way through.

You Gather A LOT of Stuff

Another thing I never really think would happen but does, is all the stuff you end up at your site. Besides having a lawn mower sitting behind the camper, we also have a full size grill to make cooking easy, more kid toys, scooters, etc than I would have though and of course my wife’s lawn decorations!

This takes many people to the next level and end up with a small shed on the site. We are unable to have one since we have to pull out at the end of the year due to flooding in the off season but some people on higher ground has them. A shed can keep your camping site a little cleaner looking but it also starts the process of the next topic…

Is It Still Camping?

So, we have to cut the grass, have a full size grill, some people have sheds, TV, video game system for the kids and more. The question is, is this our camp site or a vacation home? It’s easy to over supply your yearly camping spot thinking of new things that you “need”. You can go overboard easier than one might think and it can start to feel like not camping or easier to not spend time together. Because of this, we do a few things to try and help with this.

Take a tent

We have a small tent that we keep at camp. We try to use it every other trip at least one night. We make that night no electronic night and spend it all together sleeping in the tent. You can do a little research and find some family sized tents for pretty cheap prices.

I suggest the following rules for tent night:

  1. No electronics
  2. Cook on the fire pit (no grill/oven)
  3. No camper access. Well, maybe for the girls to go potty but make the boys go outside. All boys love to pee outside!
  4. Catch up and let your kids tell stories at the fire or when laying down for the night. Take time to listen to them.

Credit: David Mulder

No TV or games when it’s nice out

Probably the biggest mistake I have made in regards to out yearly camping spot was adding an Xbox in the camper. My teenager can get lost in games and we had to make a rule. You can only play video games if it is raining or on extra hot days (for an hour while you cool down). I recommend leaving the games at home, but if you do take a system, make sure there are rules of when and how much they can be played.

You Save Money

Another pro to having your own camping spots, is that you save money on some things that you have to regularly keep buying. Here are a few:

Firewood

I can’t tell you how many bundles of wood I have purchased from a camp ground or local store. If you haven’t noticed, those prices keep rising and people keep paying. I believe the last time we purchased firewood from one of these places it cost us over $1 per piece of wood… It would cost us $20 to have a fire per night!

So having your own campsite means you can stack as much as you like. You can bring in a rick from someone local who sells wood, but better yet, why not buy a log splitter for firewood? It’s a little expense but it will pay for itself within a short couple years. Even faster if you can get your hands on enough to sell to other campers as well!

These cost about $7 each! Credit: Joyful Honda

Ice

If you camp, you buy tons of ice. No matter if you camp in a camper or in a tent, we all have the need for ice. Having a yearly camping spot diminishes the need for so much of it. Imagine if when you showed up to your camping spot, the fridge was already cold and maybe even already stocked! This is one pro that I love.

I can either stop by the site a few days ahead of our weekend and turn the electric on, start getting the fridge cold. That way when we show up, its all ready to go. No need to keep things on ice the first night.

If we will be camping the following weekend, we will leave our electric on and keep everything as is. Just hit the AC unit on our way out. This has saved me probably over $100 in ice this year which is about 8% of our yearly site fee.

You Pay Electric

With a yearly camping spot comes the need to pay for your own electric. Unlike weekend camping sites, it is not included. This is a pro and con. for one, your electric is more stable than sharing with the rest of the camp ground. You should have less surges and power loss.

The down side is:

  • you have to have turned on
  • there is usually a monthly minimum from the electric company (ours is $20)
  • you may need to turn off at the end of season and turn back on in the beginning, there is a fee for this.

Last year which was our first yearly stay, we left our electric turned on through the electric company but turned the breaker off at the meter when we left for the season. It was half forgetfulness and half not wanting to pay the re-connection fee the following year but we never did call can have them turn it off. We learned a hard lesson from this.

We knew we were in a flood zone on the off season but it usually doesn’t make it up to our meters. Well, last year it did. So our meter was “hot” sitting under water for about two months. The water/electric combo ate away our meter hard hardware and needed to be replaced. We were not the only campers that did this, I heard it happen to about 10 of us. So, we learned that lesson and will not mistake that mistake again.

My Final Thougts

If your family loves to camp but can never find time to make it happen, you may want to think about getting a yearly camping site. Just remember that though it is great to quick last minutes trips that will allow you to spend more time having fun, it might not be as good as it sounds.

It works great for my family and it may for yours as well, just know what to expect!

Sources: Some images are being used under the Creative Commons License. These images are marked as so.