Richard: Thanks for the info. I took the liberty of reposting to the list. Not sure why yours did not go through. OK, interesting solution, but not sure the geometry of it. My extension is inside the larger tube, and slides out about 8 feet. Your flange looks like it hits the end of the tube and stops. You must have a much shorter primary tube with your extension trailing way behind. My extension is almost completely enclosed in the larger tube, yet extends very far. Daniel On Jul 9, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Richard Everett wrote:
(I tried posting this reply but for some reason it wouldn't go through)
We came up with a pretty simple solution several years ago that lets you extend the trailer slide (on a 2005 Pacific M17 trailer) worry free.
We cut a stainless steel dowel to flush fit in holes drilled in the side of the extension. A stainless steel common U-bolt then wraps around this dowel and passes through a flange plate (sadly not stainless, but painted at least). Tightening the two nuts on the Ubolt pulls the plate against the dowel, locking both into position (used lockwashers with the ubolt nuts just to be extra safe). Now when you want to extend the trailer, just pull the standard lockpin up by the jack, climb in the truck and go slow foward. The steel plate acts as a stop preventing the extension from traveling too far and also aligning the pin hole perfectly to place the lockpin back in.
It sounds complicated but really took all of about 30 minutes to make. Here is a closeup picture:
http://www.skyko.com/M17extensionfix.jpg
Rick and Debora, M17 #635 Eidolon