drop-down leg assistant

[Old Techo]

A few years ago I cut off my orginal wind-down legs and welded on some drop-downs. I ran the front pair along the van and the rear pair across. This is for better stability and consistent with existing chassis rails.

The trouble with the rears is they are hard to reach under my slightly extended rear bumper. I fitted a rope for pulling the release handle but to raise the legs I had to stick one of mine in and use my foot. This was a pain….. literally.

leg 1.jpg

So I decided an assistant tool was needed. I made this out of 10 mm steel rod. You stick the fork around the leg and twist it upwards. Pretty simple. I do this with one hand whilst pulling on the release handle rope with the other hand.

leg handle.jpg

It is even handy on the easier to reach front leg.

leg 2.jpg

[TramcarTrev]

Very clever OT. As I have a Knew Knee I cant kneel with ease so what I use is the end of the extension driver I have on the cordless drill to flip the legs up into place while I hold the handle back…. But your gadget well, I had better make one before someone patents your idea…

[A’van]

Hi
Forgive me my ignorance, but what is the advantage of a drop-down leg over a wind-down leg?

Hans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxaCfJfw6AY

[TramcarTrev]

Drop down legs have less tendency to bend and can give far more rigidity. The geometry is more reliant along straight lines rather that the tangential forces applied by the screw in the wind down legs. Its the old parallelogram of horses rules… Last van with wind downs I ended up using 4 elcheapo Hydraulic jacks to replace them….
My drop downs are rated to 300kG each, any wind downs on the market would buckle and bend at about 25kg…
Conversion can go either of 2 ways simple or complex, in the simple way the wind downs are unbolted from their support channel and the dropdowns are bolted in, The complex way involves using angle grinder and welder to do the job. Now thats sounds ok but not everyone is competant at Overhead welding and unless you can flip the van onto it side……..
I’ve had both and I prefer the dropdowns….
Now I have a set of Hydraulic ones I’m eyeing off….