Winding up your stays

[Smurff]

Hi all, and merry Christmas to you all,
Just out of interest how do you lot wind up your stays, with both my last two vans, both 5 berth I could use one of hose 3.5 volt rechargeable screwdrivers, but with my latest van a 6 berth bailey, it struggles so I have had to use my 14 volt rechargeable drill, I keep the stays lightly greased so wondered is there a way of freeing them up a bit, as a little 3.5 volt screwdriver is smaller n lighter to carry.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi Smurf,
2 points, first winding up the steadies I use the manual starting handle type thingy,

for two reasons one it's more precise in use and when I did try using a drill it came off the nut and gave me a fat lip

and I have to carry one anyway to engage the mover rollers on/off,
second, every year on the service (I do my own) all the old grease is washed off with parafin and the screw bit is smoothed out using a fine file, finished off with a thin coat of copper grease, never had any problems with stiff steadies.

 

[otherclive]

I am with Colin on this one. Too much grease year on year makes them more difficult to wind. I tend to use a very light smear of moly grease supplemented with occasional Duck Oil. I don't use a power drill but a grandchild does come in handy occasionally !

 

[JTQ]

We use the supplied Al-Ko brace, very little to go wrong and not too heavy or needing supporting clobber..
I supose also because we are firm believers in physically doing things is all part of a means of trying to keep fit in our seventies.
I service the caravan and use a light machine oil, our bike chain oil, on the journals and lead screw of the steadies.

 

[Martin24]

I use my rechargeable drill as it means I can still do it myself. SWMBO uses the manual method.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

I also use a rechargeable drill, my excuse is I am just lazy. However, in storage the van is backed up against a fence and the site owner wants the vans as tight as possible to the fence. The long handled manual winder is therefore too long, but with a shortened shank on the drill socket the rear stabilisers can be lowered and raised.

 

[gyp]

I normally use a Battery drill from Aldi on site and for 3 legs at home.
At home , i have to get very close to a hedge and cannot use either the Drill or the Alko winder. I use a 1/2 " socket set speed winder with appropriate socket ( like a steel brace}.This is much shorter than the winder and means I get level.
I have just acquired a right angle drill attachment for about £9 from Aldi which attaches to my drill.This is for use for my winter storage on the side of our house where we must get as close as we can to the wall in order to have room to get in the caravan on the other side !

Happy Christmas and Healthy New Year to all.

 

[gyp]

I normally use a Battery drill from Aldi on site and for 3 legs at home.
At home , i have to get very close to a hedge and cannot use either the Drill or the Alko winder. I use a 1/2 " socket set speed winder with appropriate socket ( like a steel brace}.This is much shorter than the winder and means I get level.
I have just acquired a right angle drill attachment for about £9 from Aldi which attaches to my drill.This is for use for my winter storage on the side of our house where we must get as close as we can to the wall in order to have room to get in the caravan on the other side !

Happy Christmas and Healthy New Year to all.

 

[DeliDave_]

I use my rechargeable drill as it means I can still do it myself. SWMBO uses the manual method.

And me

 

[Mel]

I use my rechargeable drill as it means I can still do it myself. SWMBO uses the manual method.

And me

 

[crazyguider]

I use my children, each attached to a brace. No batteries to charge, mains to plug in, just a little whine if it's a bit stiff...

 

[xtrailman]

My wife does the legs, i do the yearly lub.

 

[Raywood]

We had that problem with the caravan in the drive and close to the wall. My solution was to get the caravan almost into position but with the front a little out from the wall and then wind the leg down using the wheel brace as you can use this in a restricted space. then raise the jockey wheel to get the leg clear of the ground and swing the caravan into its final spot, drop the jockey wheel and lower the other legs. I felt this was safer than having three legs down.
Ray
I normally use a Battery drill from Aldi on site and for 3 legs at home.
At home , i have to get very close to a hedge and cannot use either the Drill or the Alko winder. I use a 1/2 " socket set speed winder with appropriate socket ( like a steel brace}.This is much shorter than the winder and means I get level.
I have just acquired a right angle drill attachment for about £9 from Aldi which attaches to my drill.This is for use for my winter storage on the side of our house where we must get as close as we can to the wall in order to have room to get in the caravan on the other side !

Happy Christmas and Healthy New Year to all.
[/quote]

 

[RayS]

If not too late a 12 or 14v Li-ion rechargeable makes an ideal Christmas present for the OH. No complaints about colours not matchings, 'that's an old lady's perfume' , this makes me look like a t**t ' etc. Set the torque limiter such that it won't bend the van.
For accessorries ( or next year's present) a nutrunner which fits into the drill and takes a standard 1/2 inch square drive socket on the other end will enable her to use it when backed up to a hedge etc.

(oh and I've just squeezed my pressies for this year. They appear to be Marigolds, an apron and a magnum of dishwahing liquid).

 

[Gozza]

I use an 18v Black and Decker cordless - although I didn't buy it just for caravanning! Main reason is that Mrs Gozza has back problems and can't do any of the physical caravan-setting-up jobs, so the more I can mechanise, the more she's able to help with.
I originally tried using a cut-price cordless drill from a well-known discount towing retailer, but the battery life was so poor I may as well have used the electric toothbrush. I think it's a 12v so I might try - just as a little project - replacing the battery with a car battery lead. Or maybe reverse engineer the motor and put a windmill on the front to charge the caravan battery. But I'm most likely to leave it cluttering up my Mum's spare room, with all the other clutter I haven't got room for at home...

 

[Gozza]

...and on the original topic, can I just add that winding up the caravan legs is a good idea? I tried towing without winding the back ones up earlier this year and the repair cost just over a thousand quid :-( . More than the book price of the van, given its age, so the insurance wouldn't cover it.
On the plus side, they did discover and rectify some damp in the floor while they were doing the repair!
(the story to this is that we came back from a weekend away and I didn't bother winding the back legs down because I knew we were going away the following weekend and no-one would be going in the van in the meantime. On a subsequent trip I didn't bother winding the legs up (or checking them) because I remembered what I'd done - unfortunately I'd forgotten that we'd been away on a weekend in between

)

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

We had that problem with the caravan in the drive and close to the wall. My solution was to get the caravan almost into position but with the front a little out from the wall and then wind the leg down using the wheel brace as you can use this in a restricted space. then raise the jockey wheel to get the leg clear of the ground and swing the caravan into its final spot, drop the jockey wheel and lower the other legs. I felt this was safer than having three legs down.
Ray
I normally use a Battery drill from Aldi on site and for 3 legs at home.
At home , i have to get very close to a hedge and cannot use either the Drill or the Alko winder. I use a 1/2 " socket set speed winder with appropriate socket ( like a steel brace}.This is much shorter than the winder and means I get level.
I have just acquired a right angle drill attachment for about £9 from Aldi which attaches to my drill.This is for use for my winter storage on the side of our house where we must get as close as we can to the wall in order to have room to get in the caravan on the other side !

Happy Christmas and Healthy New Year to all.

A simple way around this problem I have used a number of times is an ordinary socket ratchet wrench. You can also use it to tighten the steady on the awning side when you have a tight draft skirt fitted.