Electric tongue jack for wheel house ?

[Boker001]

I built a wheel house and put winches on it. Well turns out the winches were junk and the teeth on both stripped out.

My question is would it be possible to mount a Bulldog 4,000# electric tongue jack to the back middle of the house and use it to jack the whole back of the house up? If I center it right would it be safe to lift 12" in the air to pin the springs? I was thinking welding a larger foot on the jack and reinforcing the jack mount on the frame. Jacking during higher winds I'd probably put blocks under the sides as I jacked just in case.

What do you think? Trying not to have to buy 2 since they are expensive.

Thanks

[JeffB]

That may work, but if it were me I would just go with better quality winches with a higher load rating. Most people I know have had great luck with the winches and just have to replace the cable once in a while.

[hovermn]

I had the same problem with Northern Tool's brand of winches, and I see Fulton is nearly of the same quality now. I switched over to Dutton-Lainson winches and I'm completely sold! If you look at the width of the gear on the cable drum, compare any of them to Dutton...You can't. Most winches use 2-3 laminations. Dutton has 6 or more! Try stripping that thing out! They're butter smooth as well. Plus, the handles are quick release!

Coming from someone that had a few different brands of winches strip, Dutton-Lainson is the only one I'll go with now. Their prices are very competitive as well.

[Boker001]

Funny because I got my winches from Northern tool. I saw the teeth width of the duttons and i was sold. I bought 2- 1800# Duttons yesterday. I just kept thinking with one jack in the back it would eventually turn into a dangerous episode someday.

I got the winches from e-trailers for 46.00 each. Like you said these are not going to break.

[hovermn]

That's where I bought mine. Something else I found with the Northern winch is that while in low gear, it wasn't easy to lift the house. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. With the Dutton's, high gear was easy.