New Jack Pads

When we were in Amboy, IL a few weeks ago, our jacks pushed through our jack pads into the soft ground. Carl had made the jack pads in 2017 from a stall pad -- creating 6 jack pads from the one stall pad. We had one left that was not damaged at all, and 3 others that were pretty torn up but we were still using them (we had thrown away 2). We decided that we should try to replace them if we could.

We looked at pads that are specially made as RV jack pads, but... the sellers are very proud of them (they are expensive! here is one that we were considering: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DRSBR6P/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A1NHN3VYMXBRZO&psc=1 -- that is the price for each pad, and we would need 4). So, we decided that making new ones from another stall pad was probably the best solution.

Ashland, Wisconsin has a Tractor Supply, so we went there and found the stall pad we wanted (4'x6'x3/4"), and the price for the whole stall pad ($46) was less than the price of one of the specially made pads ($50) from Amazon.

A picture of the label on the stack of stall pads -- there was no price shown, so I thought I was going to have to go inside to find out the price, but a lady came out to deliver chicken pen wire to a couple, and she was able to give us the price. They also had 6'x8'x1" stall pads - we wished we could get 1" thick, but we didn't need as many jack pads as the 6'x8' size would have provided.

I saw a teeshirt at Tractor Supply that I would have been tempted to get if it said "CAT" instead of "DOG"!

We laid the stall pad on the picnic table... I marked...

... Carl cut... first cut to ultimately create three 3'x16" pieces.

Carl cutting to create the last two 3'x16" pieces, while I was using the last surviving jack pad to verify my marking for the 18" cut. We were making 6 16"x18" pads.

Carl drilling the holes so we could put rope into each pad -- we cut the rope off of one of the damaged ones and used its holes to guide where to put holes into the new ones.

We have all 6 pads cut, and we cut the ropes off of the 3 damaged pads and threw them away. We reused the ropes for 3 of the new pads. We have additional rope, but it is buried behind the smoker in the basement of Gracie. We're going to wait until we get to the next campground when we'll get the smoker out to use it, and then it will be easier to access the rope and finish the project.

Meanwhile, we have 4 completed pads (the one old one, plus 3 new ones with re-cycled ropes) and 3 additional pads that will be easy to complete in the next few days.

The rubber is heavy, but it generally works well. We want to get some wood pads to use on soft surfaces (like dirt or grass) -- one of our RV neighbors here in Ashland said that he uses 2x6 pieces set next to each other under his jacks. We have 6x6 blocks but have found when using them on softer ground that they get slanted and we're concerned about the jack slipping off and causing damage to the motorhome... Additionally, we only have 4 of the 6x6 blocks, so it is not generally possible to use them in pairs under the jacks. We're thinking that we may make 8 2x6x12 pieces and that could be a good solution for soft surfaces.