Please help with bunk end gap and pup stability ?

[Luvin Life]

Good morning all!  We are just home from our first pup outing.  We camped at Thomson Causeway COE cg and loved it!  The pup made all of the difference in the world!  Since this was our first pup multi day outing, we encountered a few probs we need help solving before our next outing.  We have a 1991 Coleman Chesapeake NTU this past February.
The first problem we found was on the bigger bunk end over the hitch that DH & I use.  The bunk corner would slide out from the pup leaving a 1- 1.5 inch gap between the bunk end and the pup box on the door side of the pup.  We could see daylight through it and my DH thinks there may be a stop missing on the slide out. Any direction to narrow down the problem and correct it would be most welcome.  We don't want to wake up on the ground one morning!
The second problem we noticed was more of a stability issue.  When we first set up at camp, the pup was normal in terms of stability.  It would move and shimmy with our movements inside, but nothing obnoxious.  By the 2nd and 3rd day the pup was doing some serious rocking even with something as minor as my 45 pound son climbing out of bed. DH checked to make sure the stabs weren't slipping or somehow losing their footing, but nothing.  Any thoughts or ways to improve this are appreciated.
Thanks in advance for sharing all of your vast knowledge and ideas!  We are new to the world of pups and pup repairs.  It is an amazing adventure and I am so happy to be able to enjoy the great outdoors with my sons.

[Retired Alex]

As far as I can remember there should be some kind of a knob on the end of the bed rail that stops the rail from pulling out too far.

What stabilizers do you have on the trailer? Are they fold down or crank down? Do you have sand pads on the bottom of them? Do you use wood blocks under them, even with the sand pads? They could be sinking into the soil and even though they look solid obviously they aren't.

[Cheyenne06]

Certainly sounds like whatever mechanism if used to stop the bed slide at its far pulled out position is missing/broken. Not sure how this was implemented on a 91 but if your other bunk seems right study its rails and see what is different/missing/broken between the 2 ends.

For stability/shaking:
- Make sure all 4 wheel chocks are firmly wedged in. Don't just kick them in place with your feet. Take a hammer or big rock and pound them in. Come back and do it again an hour later after you set up and things have settled.
- Wedge your front jack wheel in place so it can't roll any. This can be done with short scrap 2x4's, a recycled small bowl to set the wheel in, or a single lynx leveler block, etc.  (4) 1x2's screwed together into a small "picture frame" box the wheel doesn't quite fit into works well for this also.
- When your put your stabilizers down, give them an extra half turn once they firmly contact ground and the slack has been taken up (I'm assuming you have crank down stabilizers - if you have the drop down kind the same ideal applies). You don't want to be lifting the PUP with them, but if you stop when they just contact ground you'll find that if someone moves from one end of the PUP to another the stabilizers are no longer all in firm contact due to flex in the PUP frame, etc.

[Luvin Life]

Certainly sounds like whatever mechanism if used to stop the bed slide at its far pulled out position is missing/broken. Not sure how this was implemented on a 91 but if your other bunk seems right study its rails and see what is different/missing/broken between the 2 ends.

Great idea! He is pulling it out this afternoon to look at it and see what looks different.  We will go from there.

What stabilizers do you have on the trailer? Are they fold down or crank down? Do you have sand pads on the bottom of them? Do you use wood blocks under them, even with the sand pads? They could be sinking into the soil and even though they look solid obviously they aren't.

Thanks- We have the fold down stabs that are original to the pup.  They have a arm stored in the door/step that is used to maneuver the stabs to tighten them up. We were set up on a paved site. We didn't use sand pads. Should we when set up on concrete?

For stability/shaking:
- Make sure all 4 wheel chocks are firmly wedged in. Don't just kick them in place with your feet. Take a hammer or big rock and pound them in. Come back and do it again an hour later after you set up and things have settled.
- Wedge your front jack wheel in place so it can't roll any. This can be done with short scrap 2x4's, a recycled small bowl to set the wheel in, or a single lynx leveler block, etc.  (4) 1x2's screwed together into a small "picture frame" box the wheel doesn't quite fit into works well for this also.

The wheel chocks advice will be tried.  DH just kicked them in with his feet.  We will put the hammer to good use.  As for the front jack- we have a black donut type thing.  Is this sufficient or is there a better way to go?

[Cheyenne06]

As for the front jack- we have a black donut type thing.  Is this sufficient or is there a better way to go?

I'd just stare at the bottom of the jack and have people move around in the pup or your son climb in and out of bed. If its not moving around then what you have is doing the job. If it is moving with respect to the ground, then putting something else there can only improve the situation.

[austinado16]

First thing you need to do is purchase a BAL Light Trailer Leveler.  It's about $80 shipped, and ebay is your friend.  You absolutely won't get a stable set up without it.  It is a metal U shaped "jack" that you slide in under the low side wheel.  Then you use the included wrench, to spin the jack-screw on the U frame, raising the frame up to capture the tire, and then continue raising (the camper via that wheel), until the camper is perfectly level from side-to-side, according to a carpenter's torpedo level that you place on the floor just inside your door.

Once you have it level (this takes about 60 seconds) from side-to-side, turn your torpedo level 90 degrees, and adjust tongue jack so that the camper is now level front-to-back.

The roof is raised next.

Once the roof is fully raised, put the 4 stabilizer jacks down, and use the 1/2" diameter steel rod to pry them firmly onto the ground.  If the ground is "soft," you may want to put a 1/2" thick, by 12x12 hunk of plywood under each of them.  Otherwise, they're fine on their own.  With these firmly shoved against the ground, the camper will be rock solid. 

At this point, the bunks can be pulled out, and it's safe to go inside and finish set up.

Some people will chock the other wheel, either with regular wheel chocks, or with the clamp-style wheel chock that BAL also sells.  But, set up as I've described, it's really not needed.

All that said, you DO want a pair of good wheel chocks.  These need to be down, and under the downhill side of the tires, prior to raising the camper tongue up off the hitch ball...........and never take the safety chains off the tow vehicle until you're 110% sure those chocks are in place.  Campers have rolled away and destroyed themselves and what they've crashed into.  We almost had a disaster with ours, and thankfully, I hadn't removed the chains.

There's no need to hammer wheel chocks.  Just set them against the tire.  At the most, a tap with your foot.  That's it....it ain't rocket science.

[Luvin Life]

Thanks Austinado16.  I will definitely look at getting a BAL. A stable set up is important to me, especially with young boys who don't sit still. My question about the BAL, is it useful when you are on a relatively level site? Can you still use it for stability even when you don't really need it to level?
We use the torpedo level to check how level the pup is both side to side and front to back. The rest of the steps you have outlined we also follow.  I had to double check with my DH to make sure we followed the same order 
As for wheel chocks, we have yellow plastic chocks with "steps" in them.  They were in the pup when we bought it, so I am not sure of the brand/ type.  Are these decent or is there something better I should look for? Is there a particular chock you would recommend?
Thanks for the reminder about chocking before removing the chains.  It is an important lesson to remember for everyone who tows. My DH (who has been towing for many years) still forgot to chock the wheels of the pup before disconnecting his safety chains. I found a bumper sticker online that says CHOCKS? and it should be here in a few days. I am putting it on the tongue of the pup right where he kneels to disconnect everything! It is fluorescent orange so he shouldn't miss it.  I just hope he finds it as funny as I do!
Thanks again to everyone.  I really appreciate your help and insight.

[Oz and Us]

First thing you need to do is purchase a BAL Light Trailer Leveler.

To level the trailer side to side and LOCK the low side of the trailer down firmly -



 ... then do yourself a favour and also invest in a BAL Single Tire Chock to firmly LOCK down the high side -



Stabilizers that drop down and tighten with a steel bar aren't nearly as effective as the crank down style used on most popups these days but both the BAL Leveler and BAL Single Tire Chock will go a long way toward reducing how much your trailer "wiggles" when walking around inside.

[Cheyenne06]

As for wheel chocks, we have yellow plastic chocks with "steps" in them.  They were in the pup when we bought it, so I am not sure of the brand/ type.  Are these decent or is there something better I should look for? Is there a particular chock you would recommend?

The very common yellow plastic ones (found in W*Mart, etc, commonly with an expiration date stamped into the plastic of when the mfr fears they will start to degrade and break apart)  have one big problem for use with PUP's - the curve on them are designed for a much larger diameter tire than a PUP's tire, and basically only contact the tread down at the pointed tip.  Take a look and see if this is the case with yours.


Harbor freight has some nice heavy black rubber chocks http://www.harborfreight.com/solid-rubber-wheel-chock-96479.html?utm_medium=cse&utm_source=googlebase&hft_adv=40010?utm_medium=cse&utm_source=googlebase&mkwid=snegiMtbp&mr:trackingCode=5B780F9E-782A-E011-B31E-001B2163195C&mr:referralID=NA that fit a PUP's smaller diameter tire much better than the common yellow ones do.

[austinado16]

My BAL is my chock.  I use it every time we camp, whether I'm lifting that wheel, or just chocking.  But we're typically in very unlevel sites, so it's always being used for real.

The rubber chocks from Northern Tool or HF are excellent. Very grippy to the ground, and a better radius to fit our tires.

[Luvin Life]

Thanks for the tip on the chocks! Our budget does not currently allow for the purchase of a BAL leveler.  It might be on the Christmas plan.  I ran and bought the black rubber ones at Harbor Freight to use in the meantime.  My hubby did find what the missing piece is on the bunk end and my neighbor is working on making a replacement piece to fit!  I would like to thank everyone again for all of the advice, help, and ideas. You are an amazing group and I couldn't ask for better people to answer my newbie questions.

[Brian]

I had the same problem with the bed pulling out too far on my '88 Coleman Plantation. For me the problem turned out to be in the "wheel" in this bed rail;


It had become flattened on the bottom as you can see here;


Although I could not see that easily while it was in the rail. I replaced it with this new one from my local dealer;


That solved the problem at that time. It might be worth checking on your camper.

Brian

[darenator]

Stabilizers:

I have the fold down stabs and prefer them over the crank down due to faster setup and take down.  When the fold down stabs are at their maximum they tend to be more wobbly.  I use 4x4 6" long fence post blocks under the stabs.  Also make sure and PULL the stabilizer away from the camper before it is tightened and that will take most of the play out of it.

Wheel Chocks:

I put them UPSIDE DOWN so that the curved side is towards the ground and the flat side towards the tire. 
The chocks work MUCH better for me that way, and I can get them pretty tight.  I level with generic LYNX type levelers and the chocks on that side of the camper are installed with the wide end of the chock towards the tire and the point digs into the ground.

[Two Humps^^]

I have the same problem with the same bed over the trailer hitch. We have a 1987  Coleman Sequoia we purchased in the fall of 1986. We have had no problems until this past week end in a camping trip with son and Grand kids. It appeared that the bed stop was bent over too far which allowed the bed to move out on one side about 1-1.5". We thought we were headed to the ground. I was considering putting a pin through the silde to limit the amount it can travel after the bed is set at the correct possition. Any thought on this or problems it will cause? After contacting all the local dealers for replacement wheel for the slide with no success I tried the net but struck out there too. These wheels are the problem for me and I will have to make them. If there is any interest let me know and I try to included as many as is possible.for those who might need a extra or replacement.