I just replaced the jack pad foot and the 4 retract springs on the 32" long front jack with 22" long springs. My jacks were made by RVA but the procedure was the same as depicted in the You Tube videos. I borrowed the best tips from each video to come up with a pretty easy way to do it.
Since I only have a single front jack which is located on the center line I drove the front wheels up 3 1/2" on ramps I made so I could work safely under the coach. I chocked a rear tire front and back.
I had purchased a new jack foot and 4 new retract springs. I bought 4 packs of 5 gallon wood paint stir sticks for 96˘@ at WM. I cut them into 4" long pieces to use as spacers to temporarily lengthen the springs to reach from the 4 mounting holes at the top of the jack down to the 4 mounting holes on the jack pad foot. For 22" long springs 20 spacers in each was perfect.
I used a chain around the hitch ball on the Kia to anchor one end of the spring and hooked the other end of the spring over a tie down ring on the motorcycle carrier behind the coach. I then slowly pulled forward a little to stretch out the spring then got out to check the fit of the spacers. They fell out on the first try so I backed up just a little and checked again. I got lucky with a perfect snug fit. I then placed a dozen spacers in the spring. I then used the back up camera and its distance markers to note a place on the ground where I needed to stop for the perfect spring stretch for the remaining springs.
It did save me a lot of time. Unfortunately, I wasted that time by underestimating the number of spacers needed and had to go back and add a half dozen more spacers to each spring.
The only problem I ran into was the hook ends of most of the springs were too long and didn't give me enough room to work them in to hook them in the attachment holes. I tried to use a hacksaw on the springs to open them up with zero success. I then remembered having agonized over whether to bring a small bolt cutter when I was choosing which tools I could bring and which I had to store. It made short work of the problem.
The last problem I was concerned about was having my DW operate the front jack while I was laying on my back under the coach trying to position the center of the jack pad foot under the center of the shaft. Luckily I could do it myself with a little tugging without having her having to move the jack. All I had to do then was lower the jack a little more and knock the spacers out of the springs.
The last pic is of a reflective line I was able to jury rig to solve a nagging problem those of us with the stupid 3 point RVA jacks have in centering a jack pad under the front jack pad foot. Not much of a problem for those of you who have 4 legs to stand on.[emoji851]
2000 coachmen santara 370 5.9 cummins isb
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