Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I bought the 10" 2000 Lb. Bulldog from SWW and seeing that many of you have opted to go with a caster wheel setup, I also purchased the 2" pinable Bulldog caster wheel. (It's actually a Fulton, but the ad said Bulldog, both units are made in Masinee WI)
It looks like I'll need to hacksaw off the foot of the jack to be able to use the caster.
I'm set to have about 12" of ground clearance, I might have to bump that up just a bit to get proper clearance for the dearture angle. (I don't want either end of the trailer scraping when using driveways)
Here's the problem... The swivel jack with foot attached, (welded) is at the right height to have my trailer set level when un hitched. The caster is going to add about 8 1/2" to the height, which won't allow me to have the trailer set level when parked.
I'm wondering if I'll be able to disassemble the jack once I cut the foot off... If so, I might be able to shorten the entire jack enough to allow the extra height needed for the caster.
BTW- I don't want to stack any additional metal on top of the tounge, just to be able to mount the jack at a different height. (It's designed to be welded right to the side of the tounge.
If I can't gain access to disassembling the jack, once I lob that foot off, I'd just as soon leave the jack as is and nix the caster idea.
BTW- the 10" jack was the shortest one that I could find.

Has anyone else ran into this situation?
If so, what did you do to correct the problem?

With out seeing the jack itself, it hard to say. I looked in your gallery at the design of your frame. You might be able to weld a bracket to your tounge and attach the jack higher. I have also seen (somewhere) jacks that come offset already. look at this one. http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... reId=10101
Mount your jack to it. Just an idea.

Sorry about that...
Here's the jack...
http://www.etrailerpart.com/mywebs/myweb/catalog/151401_1322941.htm
The jack has a swivel plate that welds to the side of the tounge. I would like the jack to be in the same plane as the tounge when stowed, that's why I don't want to raise the mounting plate. I'm hoping that I can modify the throw of the jack to gain the needed height for the caster, but with that foot welded to the bottom... I can's look up inside the pipe to see how or where this ting disassembles.

Here's the caster...
http://www.etrailerpart.com/mywebs/myweb/catalog/h0017137_1800973.htm
When I bought these items, I figured the foot and the caster were interchangeable with one another, but that foot is welded on to the bottom of the jack. The pinable cup on top of caster will slide over the 2" pipe coming out of the jack, which means to gain any height by shortening the jack, I will need to be able to trim off the upper outer cylinder on the jack.

...instead of posting a link that is sooooo long as to cause readers to have to scroll, copy link to clipboard then goto tinyurl.com and paste in window provided and click on make tiny and voila you now have a shortened link which you can copy and paste in your post and save us lazy'uns from having to do all that scrolling...thanks
madjack

Dean, It's hard to tell from the picture how the swivel is mounted to the jack. Could you remove the jack from it and re-attach it higher? That way you could maintain the tounge plain.

Jack, I'm not too good with computers. I thought you could just click the link and goto the website. Sorry. I'll try your way, but like I said..... :?

Bledsoe,
That is what I'll probably have to to. There are two welds that I'll have to grind off and I will have enough length left on the outer barrel to reweld the swivel mount on at the right height.
Something I'm finding with a project like this is... modify, modify, modify.

Dean..I went with a 500# swingaway with a caster built on. I did have to move the mount up a little on the sides of the front A frame members, I tack welded the mount plate where I wanted it and cut a couple of 1/4" gussets and welded them on the top to the back of the mounting plate that was sticking up. I've got 12 inches with the caster now. Doug Hodder

I cut the foot off of the lower assembly and it's all packed full of grease up inside so I can't really see how to disassemble the unit and I didn't feel like digging all that grease out of there.
I've got plenty of room to move the bracket down the outer cylinder, but I'll probably wait until I have a rolling chassis, just to have a better idea on where to reweld the bracket.

Dean.....It sounds like you might be in for a real mess if you try to weld on that tube now if it has a lot of grease in it.... Doug Hodder

It might get a little smokey and runny...
I'll definately remove the grease, disassemble the damned thing if I can, prior to relocating the mount.

I cut off the mount plate and rewelded it were I wanted it, you can do the same or take it to a welding shop and they will do it for you.

Eddie,
Did you have grease running all over the place?
I'm contemplating the idea of just turning the unit upside down when I reweld the mounting braket on, so that the grease will stay in there...

Dean, I was in harbor freight yesterday and they have a swivel jack with a wheel that has 12 1/2 - 24 travel. Only $19.99. And no cutting and welding. Not bad if you can live with the extra 1/2 inch. See it here
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=41004

Already cut, lowered and re welded... very little smoke.

bledsoe3 wrote:Dean, I was in harbor freight yesterday and they have a swivel jack with a wheel that has 12 1/2 - 24 travel. Only $19.99. And no cutting and welding. Not bad if you can live with the extra 1/2 inch. See it here
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=41004

I'm all confused. (What else is new?)

I have the light folding HF trailer and didn't buy one yet. Would this swivel jack be okay?

If so, for $19.99, I'm going for it.