The original tongue jack on the Ken-Skill should be a threaded shaft that goes through a threaded hole in the tongue near the body. The jack portion is missing from mine and the threaded hole is now covered up by the larger than stock propane tank. Another jack had been attached to the forward portion of the tongue. A rectangular plate was welded onto the top of the tongue and then the jack was welded in one spot and bolted in two others. It was not a very good quality job and the jack wasn't very stable. Also, the jack did not raise up high enough and would bottom out when going through dips. Not a good thing to have happening.

I started by grinding off the existing jack. The weld job wasn't that great but it took a while to get it off. I used my Rotozip tool with the grinder adapter on it. I used a 3 inch metal cutoff disc and it worked really well. Then I used a grinder attachment to grind down the welds. Since the plate was not welded on all four sides, moisture had gotten under it. Last step was to use a fiber buffing disc to remove any surface rust and loose paint and paint with black rust inhibitor paint. Later I will paint the entire tongue to match.

The new jack mounts with bolts that clamp it to the side. Since the tongue is a small profile, I had to modify the hardware to fit properly. The tongue is actually made up of two pieces of the same channel used for the rest of the frame. The new jack has a wheel on it which will make the trailer easier to move around when unhitched. It also swings up when towing so that there is no risk of bottoming out. I'm not 100% happy with this particular jack but at least it is just a bolt on and is easy to change.

Update: The blue jack seen in these pictures was fairly inexpensive and broke on a camping trip. Like they say, you get what you pay for. I bought a much more expensive jack that has been problem free. I've since found an original screw jack and propane tank for the trailer and will be installing them in August of 2008 and will add new pictures when it is complete.

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