5th Wheel – Page 4

Rear Jack or Rear Stabilizer for a Fifth Wheel

Some RV’s won’t have a rear “jack” or leveling jack at all. What they have is a “stabilizer” jack. The difference is really important.

The IDEA behind a stabilizer is that it makes contact with the ground and then gets tightened up snug enough so that the RV doesn’t bounce around when people walk around inside the RV. That is the idea behind stabilization. Its not really meant to carry lots of weight – and in fact one of the RV’s we had the place the stabilizer fastened to the frame really was not a good spot and the frame wasn’t meant to be lifted from that spot. So if you would have tried to lift the frame it would have warped. At least that was my observation.

But if you have a leveling jack, that jack and its relationship to the frame is quite different. It is design to take much larger chunks of weight from the RV and actually be used to level the frame. Our Open Range 399 BHS actually has a leveling system.

A quick note on leveling – even though our RV has a leveling system, we still try to do our best by raising the low side of the RV by driving up on something – usually 2×8’s. Some people use plastic leveling brick thingys . Then the leveling system really only has to level the unit an inch or two left to right. Also, if you don’t park on a level surface I think the RV is unsafe. So even front to back you should park the RV so he leveling system only had to work with a few inches, not several feet.

Here is a picture of the rear leveling jack along with its stabilizing bar ( explained in an earlier article ) :

Satellite or Cable TV Connection for your RV

A TV Connection is something that you’ll want to hook up just like water or electric when you get to a destination. Lets face it, not everywhere you visit with your RV has to be completely isolated.

You’ll find the TV connection on the driver’s side of the RV, similar to many other “hook-up” items. On a 5th wheel, I would normally look inside the fifth wheel basement. Normally, you’ll find almost every connection you need for your RV from water to sewer controls in your 5th wheel basement on the drivers side.

One of the connections you’ll find is for your TV connections. The picture I’m showing is from my Open Range 399BHS fifth wheel. The way the connection works is that every room has access to a single satellite connection and the main connection. So you have Satellite #1 in the front bedroom, #2 in the living room, and #3 in the bunkhouse. The Main connection is in every room.

Many RV parks will have basic cable, but probably not HD. For many of us simpler folks basic cable is enough so that you can watch TV in your RV or see that emergency game.

To bet basic cable from the park and have it go to every TV you would hook up the RV parks cable wire to the “Main” connection on your RV.

If you are getting TV over the air, you won’t hook anything to the cable TV or main input.

Where and what is the Antenna and Cable TV switch on an RV?

You’ll need to select between the Antennae and the Cable TV wire. Normally there is a switch.

The Antennae/Cable TV switch is usually located INSIDE in the RV.

You would simply select where you are getting your TV signal from – the wire from the RV park or the antenna on your RV roof.

Of course you can connect both and pick between the two – you’d have to deal with programming the TV’s for the different systems when you flip back and forth – but no big deal, right?

Picture of an RV typical media connection in the convenience center

Below is a picture of a representative set of connections for the outside convenience center. When looking at the outside of an RV you should be able to locate something very similar :

rv convenience center entertainment media connections tv and satellite

In the picture below, I’m showing one of the rooms. This was a bunkhouse in our Open Range. You’ll see that you get a satellite connection, which connects to ONE of the THREE above, or the main connection which goes everywhere.

RV Television Antenna Connections for Extra TV

Here are the TV connections for an outside TV. You can’t read the labels, but again you would see the “Main” for the TV cable connection and a satellite wire, but going to a different satellite on the convenience center.

rv outside plugs for TV from inside basement

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