Winfield Landing Gear Cross Brace Stabilizer

RV DIY & Mods, RV Equipment Add comments

Jan 062010

One of the first things I noticed when I got my 5th wheel trailer was that there was a bit of side to side shaking. The cause of this is that the landing gear that hold up the front of the 5th wheel have no side support which makes them wobbly. Think of a table with no braces on the legs.

I did a bit of research to find a solution and found there are a number of landing gear stabilizing systems on the market. I wanted something that not only took out the shake but was easy to install, easy to use and didn't cost an arm and a leg. I finally settled on the Winfield Landing Gear Cross Brace Stabilizer system.

Winfield appears to be a small one man company. When I called them his wife answered the phone and then put Scott on to make sure the stabilizer would work on my trailer. Less then a week later it was at my door. There is not a lot to it, you get 2 cross braces, 2 lower brakets, 2 upper brackets with spacers for smaller landing gears, assortment of nuts and bolts plus a flag to put over your landing gear switch so you don't try to raise the landing gear without disengaging the stabilizers.

Installation was breeze. No holes need to be drilled. Just remove the landing gear foot pin and attach the lower mount through the same hole using the supplied bolts. The upper mount clamps around the upper landing gear tube with a square u-bolt. A spacer is included if you have a smaller landing gear. Then just attach the crossbraces with the supplied bolts and it's ready to use. Total time to install was less then 30 minutes

Using the stabilizer are just as easy. Once you have your unit in place and level just twist the outer stabilizer tube until the holes line up with the inner tube. Insert the clinch pin through the hole and screw the whole stabilizer until you feel some resistance, then give it an additional 1/2 to 3/4 turn. Do the same on the other stabilizer and you are all done. Takes only a couple of minutes to do.

One nice thing that was included is a flag that you attach over your landing gear switch (using velcro). This isso you know your stabilizers are still engaged and you don't try to lift your landing gear without first loosing them and removing the clinch pins. This flag can be removed from the velcro tab once the pins are removed and will store the the cinch pins for your next use. When you raise the landing gear the stabilizers telescope in so you never have to remove them.

Once in place and tight I could not detect any side to side movement eliminating the landing gear sway. Easy to install, easy to use, fairly inexpensive and it works. I would recommend them to anyone that wants to minimize side to side landing gear sway.