Level Up
Instead of buying scissor jacks, we opted to go the cheap route by borrowing cinder blocks from dad and a 10-ton bottle jack to adjust every side slowly. Time consuming but cheaper, and it will have the benefit of being very sturdy during construction. I used blocks in the four corners and two pillars in the middle. Use plywood or boards if ground is a little uneven or if you’re building on the grass.
The trailer is currently within 1/16 inch of being level. Should do the trick. Grateful the trailer is pretty level to begin with. Kai, from 2Cycle2gether.com, had a off-level trailer. He ended up sistering the steel framing with wood joists and raising the wood where needed. Check out his solution here.
Reflections, Hindsight, and Alterations
- Ebay has a set of four scissor jacks for $100 total after shipping (good deal). Would have been nice to buy the scissor jacks but also it was an unnecessary purchase—something I’m getting better and better at avoiding.
- Underneath the blocks the trailer remains “unaltered.” I’ll have to refinish those places after the house is built and paint them, too–that would have been another advantage of the scissor jacks–exposing all the metal for refurbishing.