Last weekend I picked up a gargage kept 2007 Jumping Jack that was purchased in 2008 new by the original owner. My wife and I had been camping out of the back of a 2004 tacoma for the last 10 years with a drawer system and engel setup while towing a trailer with dirtbikes or zodiac behind us. Now that we have a 1 year old that setup wasn't working however and she wanted something more substantial than a tent on the ground to get out in with the little one. We thought about Fleetwood Evolution E2/E3's, Somerset Evolution E3's, and Jayco Baja style trailers but at $15,000 new they were just too much for something we might use once a month. Used people still want 8-10k for something 7+ years old and often in not great shape which I thought was too much. At 22 feet long they're also big enough that we couldn't keep it in the garage like we do currently with the dirtbikes and zodiac on the trailer. So the jumping jack fit the bill as being capable for toy hauling but substantial enough for use with a 1 year old when thinking about the next 5 years of our life.
2007 Jumping Jack Build
- Thread starter dnellans
- Start date
We ended up paying 5k for our JJ used down in Texas where they're not very available. The accessories we got with it were - large awning ($295), 2 cooler racks ($145 each), 1 water rack/bin ($145), 1 "kitchen sink" that fits on the cooler rack ($145), 1 set of ATV wheel chocks ($50), one extra bed extension ($195), propane rack ($145), and a set of steel (non JJ branded) ATV ramps ($200), a fold up stool ($20). When you shop at sportsmans warehouse its not totally clear what comes with the jumping jack stock but you _should_ get a spare tire, 1 bed extension, the interior carpet, and legs for the outdoor table. These are (145, 70, 70 to buy replacements if not). So all in all we got $1485 in accessories (i value the ramps at 200 bucks for an average pair of ramps) on top of the jumping jack that is 6k new. so we paid 5k and no tax for a used one of which would have cost us 7465+tax new. I'm not sure we're going to end up using all the accessories/would have bought them, so i figure i saved probably $2000 by buying used.
In terms of condition - there are expected chips/etc on the powdercoating that I'm not even going to bother touching up at this point and the tent itself looks like its never even been rained on, so my repair cost is zero. The tires probably have a few more thousand miles on them left, so not great, but I am going to upgrade them to larger tires anyways even if it was a new purchase, so really there is nothing that needs to be done to use it as-is. So this is where the fun starts making it my own =)
Here is a large set of pictures of what it looks like the day of bringing it home since I wasn't able to really find any decent high res shots of the trailer on the web. The originals in very high res can be found here: http://david.nellans.org/gallery/2013/11-09/
In terms of condition - there are expected chips/etc on the powdercoating that I'm not even going to bother touching up at this point and the tent itself looks like its never even been rained on, so my repair cost is zero. The tires probably have a few more thousand miles on them left, so not great, but I am going to upgrade them to larger tires anyways even if it was a new purchase, so really there is nothing that needs to be done to use it as-is. So this is where the fun starts making it my own =)
Here is a large set of pictures of what it looks like the day of bringing it home since I wasn't able to really find any decent high res shots of the trailer on the web. The originals in very high res can be found here: http://david.nellans.org/gallery/2013/11-09/
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First mod! :wings: Not exactly a bigtime mod but removing the blatant advertising jumping jack steel plate logo on the rear. Kept the screws to plug the holes from getting water in them and the holes seem substantial enough that we could use these for mounting some additional equipment that doesn't need to be removable. The self tapping screws that are used there might have to go though, they seem pretty flimsy, but don't seem to be aluminum... will figure that part out later when i decide what might need to get mounted back on the rear.
Next mod was to remove the toolbox that the guy had mounted on the front so to evaluate if I could mount the engel on the tongue feasibly. The propane rack will have to go and fab up a more flush style mount (and chop the foot off the jack), I think this would then let the top of the engel be below a cooler rack installed on the front but its going to be close. I'm more concerned about if the engel will hold up "exposed" like that outside the tacoma? Its in a fairly protected spot on the tongue from wind but I don't see too many of them mounted in outside exposed positions on other people's builds. I have the "locking" tray for it so the tray would mount to the fabbed up mounting plate and then two straps holding it down from the handles as well would certainly keep it secure, but I'm still not sure about having it outside like that. The trailer is garage kept so I could leave it on there or take it off on demand. What do people think about it holding up on trips being exposed like that? The only other real option would be to keep it in the back of the truck still, which isn't nearly as convenient. With the 7 pin electrical connection I was going to tap the 12V power line to run the fridge off the dual truck batteries so I wouldn't even need a deep cell battery on the trailer, just plug and go.
Some pics of what I'm thinking.
Some pics of what I'm thinking.
Wife is out of town so I'm on a roll tonight. Next topic tire fitment on the JJ.
Measurements:
The smallest part of the wheelwell is 29.25 inches measuring with the wheel on so might actually be 29.50 or something but I"m not not risking it.
The clearance between the back of the rim/tire and torsion axle (first contact point) there is 1.5 inches max, probably closer to 1 inch. Its hard to measure under there accurately.
This basically eliminates the possibility of buying a 1 inch offset rim to reposition the tire further under the wheel well unfortunately.
The stock tire is a Jaxxon 205/75r15. Tire calculators will tell you this is 27.11 inches tall and 8.07 inches wide but when measured its only 25.5 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide at the tread. Thats a big difference.
I did note that the tire isn't particularly well centered in my wheel well either, I looked at some pictures online and this appears to be true for most of the JJ's, maybe their jig is off by .5 inches or so.
BFG AT's come in 215/75r15 or 235/75r15 which are appropriate for the trailer.
215/75r15 would be 27.7 tall and 8.46 inches wide according to calculator
235/75r16 would be 28.88 tall and 9.25 inches wide according to calculator
Since measured doesn't match calculator I measured the 235/85r16 BFG AT's on my 2004 tacoma (stock 16x7 rims).
calculator says 30.73 tall and 9.25 wide. measures is 30.25 tall but only 7.25 inches wide.
So if you apply some approximate bourbon fueled logic that would mean that the real size of the BFG AT's for the JJ might be
215/75r15 - 27.25 tall and 6.5 inches wide
235/75r15 - 28.35 tall and 7.25 inches wide
28.35 is pushing the limits for me of having just 29.25 of wheel well clearance and you really need a 6 or 6.5 inch rim preferably for a 235 wide tire.
You also can't run a 1 inch backspacing wheel in a wider than 5 inch wheel or risk rubbing the torsion axle so that means you have to deal with any additional width poking
out beyond the wheel well edge.
So my plan tomorrow is to find a 215/75r15 and mount it on the stock 15x5 rim for now. Ideally you'd run a 6 inch rim with this tire, but since 15x6 rims would cost me another $300 bucks for 3 of them, I'm going to go for the stock 5 inch rims and see what happens. If it looks too ridiculous maybe I'll upgrade in the future to nicer rims. Pictures to come tommorrow - discount tire says they have BFG AT 215/75r15's in stock!
Measurements:
The smallest part of the wheelwell is 29.25 inches measuring with the wheel on so might actually be 29.50 or something but I"m not not risking it.
The clearance between the back of the rim/tire and torsion axle (first contact point) there is 1.5 inches max, probably closer to 1 inch. Its hard to measure under there accurately.
This basically eliminates the possibility of buying a 1 inch offset rim to reposition the tire further under the wheel well unfortunately.
The stock tire is a Jaxxon 205/75r15. Tire calculators will tell you this is 27.11 inches tall and 8.07 inches wide but when measured its only 25.5 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide at the tread. Thats a big difference.
I did note that the tire isn't particularly well centered in my wheel well either, I looked at some pictures online and this appears to be true for most of the JJ's, maybe their jig is off by .5 inches or so.
BFG AT's come in 215/75r15 or 235/75r15 which are appropriate for the trailer.
215/75r15 would be 27.7 tall and 8.46 inches wide according to calculator
235/75r16 would be 28.88 tall and 9.25 inches wide according to calculator
Since measured doesn't match calculator I measured the 235/85r16 BFG AT's on my 2004 tacoma (stock 16x7 rims).
calculator says 30.73 tall and 9.25 wide. measures is 30.25 tall but only 7.25 inches wide.
So if you apply some approximate bourbon fueled logic that would mean that the real size of the BFG AT's for the JJ might be
215/75r15 - 27.25 tall and 6.5 inches wide
235/75r15 - 28.35 tall and 7.25 inches wide
28.35 is pushing the limits for me of having just 29.25 of wheel well clearance and you really need a 6 or 6.5 inch rim preferably for a 235 wide tire.
You also can't run a 1 inch backspacing wheel in a wider than 5 inch wheel or risk rubbing the torsion axle so that means you have to deal with any additional width poking
out beyond the wheel well edge.
So my plan tomorrow is to find a 215/75r15 and mount it on the stock 15x5 rim for now. Ideally you'd run a 6 inch rim with this tire, but since 15x6 rims would cost me another $300 bucks for 3 of them, I'm going to go for the stock 5 inch rims and see what happens. If it looks too ridiculous maybe I'll upgrade in the future to nicer rims. Pictures to come tommorrow - discount tire says they have BFG AT 215/75r15's in stock!
The ramps that came with the trailer are too steep to be able to load the streetbike on the JJ, the dirtbike probably would have been fine though. They were only 6 ft long and steel though so very heavy. The price of a 10 foot ramp is the same as an 8 foot ramp and I won't be loading anything over 600lbs even with me riding it up, so longer is better as long as its fine when it folds. for $99 shipped on ebay and powder coated seems like a good bet since i only need one and its just 22lbs. maybe this will end up mounted on the rear of the trailer somehow. should be delivered next thursday
SwampfoxSC
Observer
Nice trailer and really nice Scaddenn. I bet you have nearly as much in your raft as your trailer. I had a three man. But had to sell it due to it being so hard to access my local river. I went with two one man toons instead. Now my buds can do their own rowing. And I can do more fishing. Seems I am always playing the guide-rowing or poling. What rivers are you drifting in Texas-Devils?
Ha - its in fact a scadden challenger XXX. We're only recently in Austin, TX previously from SLC for the last many years and the wife is from idaho falls, so any family visit was a fishing trip for me. Not a bad solution. I mostly fish with my father on the scadden where we play baseball (3 missed takes and you're out, fish to net resets your counter) so we end up switching up who is rowing numerous times during the day. I like the idea of a one man, but when you're on moving water its so nice to be able to fish without needing to fin yourself around. Maybe other people are better at it, but i'm worthless at trying to use the oars and fish all that the same time, only finning works for me, and not very well on a riverlike the snake.
Now that we're down here its become a bit more of the red rubber bass boat thanks to the addition of a 6HP outboard to move around on the reservoirs above austin. I haven't floated anything in it yet, went out to investigate the guadalupe (which supposedly has trout) but I don't see how that thing is floatable even in a scadden let alone a drift boat as some people claim they have done. The brazos and llano are better options for white bass I think in terms of floating, but don't have a partner in crime yet for fishing so haven't floated anything yet.
Now that we're down here its become a bit more of the red rubber bass boat thanks to the addition of a 6HP outboard to move around on the reservoirs above austin. I haven't floated anything in it yet, went out to investigate the guadalupe (which supposedly has trout) but I don't see how that thing is floatable even in a scadden let alone a drift boat as some people claim they have done. The brazos and llano are better options for white bass I think in terms of floating, but don't have a partner in crime yet for fishing so haven't floated anything yet.
New rubber for the JJ today! Went with 15x6 aluminum rims and 215/75r15 BFG AT tires. I love the way they look and hopefully should perform. I was a bit surprised to see that the 215/75 is actually smaller than I had guesstimated and its barely taller than the original 205/75r15's which were definitely undersized from what they "should be". The tread is much better obviously and I don't have to worry about them offroad which was the main purpose of dropping $ on the upgrade. At $800 out the door for 3 rims and tires it was a bit rough to swallow, but if they last 50,000 miles like my truck's BFG AT's with rotations it'll be worth it. I did notice that the inside of both the previous tires was worn bald and the center/outside were just ready to be replaced. I wonder if the trailer has a slight alignment problem from the factory - I'll have to keep track of that and rotate the tires, I don't want to ruin new BFG's. It does look like I could have gone with 235/75r15's after all and had no clearance issues whatsoever. The 6 inch rims have no problems with the torsion axle and the new tires are only wider by nearly 1.5 inches on the tread surface but have as much clearance at torsion arm as the previous one. If I ever wear these out I'd probably go for 235's just cause it will be new and fun, one wheel is definitely not centered in the wheel weel which is made more obviously by bigger rubber, that might have to be addressed with larger rubber too.
So - JJ's can clearly fit BFG AT's in 215/75r15 on a 15x6 zero backspacing rim. I think its extremely likely that they'd have plenty of clearance with 235/75r16 on the same rim, but they would stick out from under the wheel well by yet another .5 inches
So - JJ's can clearly fit BFG AT's in 215/75r15 on a 15x6 zero backspacing rim. I think its extremely likely that they'd have plenty of clearance with 235/75r16 on the same rim, but they would stick out from under the wheel well by yet another .5 inches