Mark just curious why in the world would your jack be lifting your van? No
the jacks are not made to lift anything other then the tounge weight of the
camper.
If you are indeed lifting the van when you crank It almost sounds like your
ball size is to big and the hitch is holding on tighter then it should to
the ball. You may want to check the adjustment.

A trick most rv'ers use is a 4x4" block under the jack, or buy a cupped block
is it has a wheel on the end.. this not only gives you more lifting height, it
lets you use less of the jack's length, putting less side stress on it.. YMMV

(some day, I'm gonna put a power hitch jack on our TT)

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Never do that again.

I've used a Reese Mini-350 for about 5 years on a trailer with over 20,000
miles on it.  I've connected hundreds of times.  This is the hardest way to
install the spring bars.  Eventually, my tongue jack failed (I don't know if
the failure was the result of doing this or because it was defective).

What I do now is near-jacknife the trailer.  This way I don't need to jack
_at_all_ to get the bars on (only the inside bar can go on this way, so you
need to jacknife in both directions).  No jacking, no struggling.  They come
off just as easily this way.  My DW is willing to take the trailer without
me because she can do this by herself.

If there isn't enough room and you still must jack, raise the rear wheels of
the tow vehicle first.  I use three linx levelers on each side to raise the
rear wheels 2", which proably cuts the jacking force and distance in half.
More height makes it easier, so if you can raise them 3 or even 4 inches, go
for it.  Another approach on the same lines is to stop the TV with the rear
wheels on the top of a speed bump.  The basic idea is to get the rear wheels
of the tow vehicle several inches above both the front wheels and the
trailer wheels.

<snip>

My folding jack failed in use, but not while mounting spring bars.  I was
jacking to level the trailer, and I realized I was turning the crank but it
wasn't going up.  I stopped turning, and realized it was going down.  The
trailer nose slid down until it was setting on the ground.  The threads of
the cast iron screw had sheared off.  It was many years ago, and I don't
remember what the replacement jack cost; I installed it myself fairly
quickly once I figured out how to deal with the retaining spring.

Austin