COUPLING TO THE TOW VEHICLE
CAUTION
The drop legs are heavily spring loaded in the lowered position. They will rapidly
scrapes or pinching. Keep your feet, shins and hands well clear of the drop legs
and drop leg bases when releasing the drop legs. Always wear shoes or boots
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while performing this operation.
• Be sure the plunger pin is fully engaged. Push it in by hand if necessary. The bent part of the
plunger pin handle must be touching the plunger pin housing.
• If your trailer has two drop leg jacks, lower them both to the same level, following the above
instructions.
NOTICE
If the drop legs are not set at the same level, one of the drop leg jacks can be
overloaded and can be damaged.
trailer tongue to the jack.
• On two speed jacks, move the handle to engage high speed mode.
• When the drop leg base contacts the ground, shift the gearbox into low speed mode.
NOTICE
Do not use high speed to lift the trailer, the drop leg jack mechanism can be
damaged. High speed is used only to rapidly move the drop leg base into contact
with the ground.
support for the trailer.
ball, to permit driving the tow vehicle away, disengage the handle from its shaft and return to its
holder.
4.5 TONGUE WEIGHT
It is critical to have a portion of the trailer load carried by the tow vehicle. That is, the trailer
tongue must exert a downward force on the hitch. This is necessary for two reasons. First, the
proper amount of tongue weight is necessary for the tow vehicle to be able to maintain control
of the tow vehicle/trailer system. If, for example, the tongue exerts an upward pull on the hitch,
wheel of the tow vehicle can lose traction or grip and cause loss of control. Also, even if there is
some weight on the tongue, but not enough weight on the tongue, the trailer can become unstable
at high speeds. Remember, the faster you go the more likely the trailer is to sway.
If, on the other hand, there is too much tongue weight, the tow vehicle is prone to jack-knife.
Furthermore, the front wheels of the tow vehicle can be too lightly loaded and cause loss of
steering control and traction, if the front wheels are driving.