Prybry
Adventurer
I was loading my camper this weekend and thought I should share my idea of adding casters to the camper jack stands to allow one man loading of a light pop-up camper.
I bought casters intended for the bottom of scaffolding. So I just drilled a hole in the foot plate on each jack to fit the shaft of the caster post. Then drilled a cross hole to use a safety lock pin.
The casters are rated for 2000 lbs a piece and my jack stands are rated for 1000# per jack... my camper is only 900# total so I have plenty of safety factor.
Amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/GRIP-scaffold-caster-wheels-tube/dp/B002DIEEBI
This setup lets me roll the camper onto the truck rather than back the truck under the camper... I use a rechargable drill to run the jacks up and down so the whole process takes less than 10 minutes.
I'm very careful when rolling the camper with the jacks fully extended as I'm sure you could twist a jack mounting plate off the camper if you snagged a wheel or something.
The hardset part was drilling the holes in the bottom of the jack legs... finally ended up drilling a rough hole and then hand filed the hole to fit the post.
I did have to remove the brake assembly since it would interfer with the pad on the jack leg. my shop floor is level so I'd never use the brakes anyway.
If you need to use the brakes, you could cut or bend the activation lever to clear the pad.
Once the camper is on the truck, I take the castors off by just pulling the safety pins. If the camper is going for a long trip I take the jacks off too.
When the camper is off the truck I just run the jacks down as short as possible and I can roll the camper around very easily.
One added bonus is that the castors add 8" to the height of the jacks which helps on my lifted truck.
This system has worked great for 2 years now, so I have the bugs worked out...
A heavier camper would undoubtedly take some other precautions.
I bought casters intended for the bottom of scaffolding. So I just drilled a hole in the foot plate on each jack to fit the shaft of the caster post. Then drilled a cross hole to use a safety lock pin.
The casters are rated for 2000 lbs a piece and my jack stands are rated for 1000# per jack... my camper is only 900# total so I have plenty of safety factor.



Amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/GRIP-scaffold-caster-wheels-tube/dp/B002DIEEBI
This setup lets me roll the camper onto the truck rather than back the truck under the camper... I use a rechargable drill to run the jacks up and down so the whole process takes less than 10 minutes.
I'm very careful when rolling the camper with the jacks fully extended as I'm sure you could twist a jack mounting plate off the camper if you snagged a wheel or something.
The hardset part was drilling the holes in the bottom of the jack legs... finally ended up drilling a rough hole and then hand filed the hole to fit the post.
I did have to remove the brake assembly since it would interfer with the pad on the jack leg. my shop floor is level so I'd never use the brakes anyway.
If you need to use the brakes, you could cut or bend the activation lever to clear the pad.
Once the camper is on the truck, I take the castors off by just pulling the safety pins. If the camper is going for a long trip I take the jacks off too.
When the camper is off the truck I just run the jacks down as short as possible and I can roll the camper around very easily.
One added bonus is that the castors add 8" to the height of the jacks which helps on my lifted truck.
This system has worked great for 2 years now, so I have the bugs worked out...
A heavier camper would undoubtedly take some other precautions.