HEat treating in my shop

If it's just cold rolled plate, you won't gain any strength by heat treating.

You "can" stress relieve it by heating it up, and letting it cool naturally though.

If you want to reduce torsion flex (twisting about the axis of the tube), weld triangular gussets between the plate, and the flats of the square tube.

Mark

That's not dumb, that's smart planning.

Take the trailer to a jobsite and un-hook. When they fill the trailer you return and find the landing gear sunk down about 3' from the weight of the load. Very few loading spots are on concrete, remember. Now you have to figure out how to unload it with out breaking the landing gear or turning over the trailer.

Sounds to me like someone was thinking.

You're going to want to seriously upgrade that jack, not move it, if you're going to try this. That placement is a "really stupid prevention" design, but go ahead and prove it to yourself if that makes you happier...

Right now the jack is slowly working it's way to a nice 45 degree angle. The jack is handling the weight but if someone dumps dirt into the trailer the trailer does a sudden jerk and the jack bends just a little. I was originally thinking about making the tube go on the inside of the tub on the jack but after reading some posts I think I may put my tub on the outside with angle pieces and if I really want also one on the inside.

Thanks for the posts. Since it doesn't look like heat treating it is going to make things any better.

Sounds to me like you are looking at the problem backwards. You need to rework that crank-down tongue jack you use to hitch up the trailer so it works - and then stop using it as tongue support while the trailer is parked. Take it totally out of the picture, so when you need it to hitch the trailer again it still works.

Remember the r.c.m Motto: Adapt - Improvise - Overcome.

And another good one: Don't raise the drawbridge, Lower the river. I would rig up some beefy fixed supports for the trailer bed - two at the sides of the tailgate, and two at the front corners. Here's my initial idea as to design, feel free to modify this as you wish.

The miracle material is heavy gauge Telespar or Square-Fit tubing - telescoping seamless square tubing factory punched with holes on all four sides every inch, the same stuff they use for street signs. The main advantage being you don't have to drill or punch a whole lotta holes yourself, or get them all straight.

The basic idea is to permanently weld jackstands on each corner of the trailer, designed to be as bulletproof as possible. But upside-down, so the slider drops down to the ground.

Make 4 lengths of Telespar tubing for the corner support feet, and weld a round or square 1/2" plate steel ground foot on the bottom of each foot.

Go longer with the drop-down legs than you think you'd normally use, trailers get parked at odd angles on sloped lots. (And make a couple of extra legs for when - not if - they get bent up.)

Now that I think of it, make your bottom feet with a short chunk of telescope tubing welded on, and then bolt them to the bottoms of the legs - so when the leg tubes get bent and trashed there's no welding needed - just cut another chunk of leg tubing and bolt on the foot.

Get the next larger size Telespar and weld a chunk to the trailer chassis at the corners, and gusset or strap them from all possible angles to take side force stresses. Get clevis pins and spring cotter keys to set the height of each support foot - you might want to use two or three clevis pins per foot to spread out the shock loads and not make those round holes oval, nor the pins jammed in place.

(Bolts and nuts work too, but then you need to carry wrenches.)

When you park the trailer you unhitch and move the tow vehicle, then get it fairly level. Chock both trailer tires on both sides, you can make two sets of linked chocks so they can't slide away from the tires

- if the trailer is a dual axle, get the wedge-style chocks that clamp between the two tires. The chocking system is your primary means of making absolutely sure the trailer doesn't try to move fore or aft and bend the legs.

Drop the rear support feet and pin them. Raise the tongue jack a little, and drop and pin the front support feet. Then raise the tongue jack to the totally retracted position so it can't get screwed up again - the chock blocks will absorb the front to back thrusts, and the support feet are strong enough to resist the rest. And if they aren't, they are replaceable.

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Your right I think I'm going to try something like this instead. THANKS