Shims

We change locations very often on our tours. Both during placement and dismantling, it therefore takes time to align the car horizontally, to lower the corner supports and to crank them up again before departure.

We quickly decided to retrofit a hydraulic lifting support system from E&P. This takes on all of these tasks, including leveling, at the push of a button. The system extends two vertical lifting supports mounted on the axle; the hydraulic corner supports work with the same principle of scissor mechanics as the hand crank variants.

The corner supports have the Alko BigFoot mounted as a support and protection, the vertical lifting supports near the axle are each on a solid metal plate. In order to protect it from stones or poor surfaces and to increase the contact surface, I made solid shims that can withstand the high weight of the vehicle. 

Do-it-youerself instructions for 2 Shims
I use screen printing plates with a material thickness of 21mm as a carrier material. Four pieces are required measuring 25x25cm. Two of these plates are screwed together. A hole with a diameter of approximately 3cm is drilled at the four corners of each plate. All edges and holes are then milled round on both sides with the router.

The aim of the drilling is later to simplify gripping and moving under the axle before the lifting system touches down.

The panels are now painted with Owatrol color penetrating oil. Further processing then takes place after 24 hours with three coats of paint, for example white.

In the meantime, I get two inexpensive tension straps and cut off the metal buckle. The band is later screwed to the plates to make it even easier to pull the plates out from under the car without having to twist them.

Now comes some cosmetic work: I would like to stamp our caravan's brand logo on the panels. To do this, I get the logo and print it out on paper in the appropriate size for each plate.

Then I stick the paper logo in the middle of the plates with some adhesive tape. Using a hammer and a small punch, I punch the border cleanly from the paper onto the wood. Finally, after removing the remaining paper residue, I fill in the areas marked using a suitable touch-up pen and attach the prepared tension belt strap with small screws. The plates are now ready for use.

Experiences of the last few years

We have been using our two plates since 2019. The color is no longer quite as fresh, but it can easily be renewed due to the embossed lettering. The plates are very easy to grip and fit well between the wheels of a double-axle truck. An edge length of more than 25cm would hardly fit and would otherwise have to be placed more complicatedly from behind the axle. The strap for easy removal is a little faded, but still fully functional.

Even on soft ground, the caravan is stable thanks to the large support surface. By the way, to change the wheel, we simply place both plates on one side under the stamp. This allows us to achieve sufficient lifting height to be able to lift and remove the wheels from the ground.