Video Transcript for Detailed Breakdown of the Dutton-Lainson Boat Trailer Jack w/ Footplate

Hi everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at this drop leg trailer jack from Dutton-Lainson. It's gonna be a great option for some of your smaller trailers under 2000 pounds. That's what it can support and it's gonna bolt onto the frame like you see here giving you a lot of travel with the drop leg here. So if your trailer sits higher up off the ground this one is maybe going to be a better option to help you reach.

Let's check it out. Now with this jack, you're going to be getting 30 inches of travel. At the lowest state from the bottom of the footplate to the top of the mounting bracket right here it'll be 8-3/16 of an inch. Then at the tallest point it'll be 38-3/16 of an inch. We've got it somewhere in the middle right now around that 21-1/2 inch mark.

So you can see there's a ton more room for this to rise up. Now as far as what trailers it's gonna work with it'll bolt onto the frame like you see here and it will work with framed sizes up to 3 inches wide and 5 inches tall. With the mounting bracket here we've got plenty of different holes to choose from. All the hardware comes included so we can match it up to our trailer frame get it tightened down and get a nice strong hold. The other thing you wanna take note of is the height of it because from the mounting bracket there is a lot that sticks up top here.

And depending on your situation you might be coming a little bit close to whatever you're carrying. So from that mounting bracket, the top of it that is to the top of the jack right here it's gonna stick up 17 inches. Now from the top of your trailer frame to the top of the jack, it's more like 18 inches. So you can go to your trailer at home, find the frame wherever you wanna mount it up, measure up 18 inches and make sure that this isn't going to be conflicting with anything. The handle for the jack is on the outside here and it's a side wind style rather than a top wind.

So as long as you've got the clearance over here above the top of the jack, you should also have the clearance further out for the handle. And overall the operation of that handle is pretty smooth. It's certainly not the nicest thing in the world. The handle construction here is a pretty light duty feeling plastic, but it is grooved and wide so I can get my fingers on there and it's more than wide enough to get my whole hand on it as well. The operation though and the cranking of it is smooth. Just overall the main swiveling piece here doesn't feel super nice, so I'd be a little bit concerned about its overall longevity but I think it should hold up just fine for most uses. Overall, it is a steel construction with a zinc finish all throughout. That's gonna help it be resistant to rust and corrosion over time. And the zinc finish is a lot nicer than something like a powder coat in my opinion, just because it's gonna be more durable to scratches and scuffs. Whereas a powder coat, if that powder coat scratches away which it definitely tends to do, then you're pretty much left with no protection. Now this jack does have a removable foot plate here just held in place by this pin and retaining clip and then that leg will drop down here so we don't have to do as much winding whenever we want to actually get this lowered down. You can just drop that leg down to one of the lower positions here, re pin it and then use the handle to lower the jack the rest of the way so we're not having to travel so much. And then when we're ready to go just bring it up to that highest position to give us maximum ground clearance. You can see here that even though the whole jack doesn't swivel to the side to get you ground clearance it does rise up quite a bit and sit pretty tucked up to the trailer frame here. So as you're driving down the road we don't have too much hanging down here getting in our way. And as for the installation it's a very straightforward process. If you've installed one trailer jack before chances are you're gonna be familiar with the process of bolting this on using the provided hardware. But let's check out that process together now. Now the first thing you wanna do for your installation here is maybe set your trailer onto a jack stand like we've chosen it to do or hook up to your vehicle. Just some way to support it so that you can raise your old jack up and take it off. Then we can start by doing some pre-assembly on the new jack here. We've got the mounting bracket on the back and we want to take some of our hardware, the bolts here we'll feed them in through the top of our mounting bracket on both sides. And then on the backside we're gonna have these backing plates. You'll notice that one of the holes on the backing plate is offset slightly. That's gonna be our top mounting location. So to speed that through the bolt and secure it on the other side loosely right now with a lock washer and a nut on both sides. Then just set this preassembled piece over top of the trailer frame at whatever desired location you have and get your bottom bolts through. Trying to just get it as tight to the trailer frame as possible. For us it looks like the second from the bottom hole is going to be the optimal spot and secure it in the back using the same combination of hardware of lock, washer and nut. We can then come back through with a 9/16 inch wrench and socket and tighten that hardware down. Trying to do it evenly across all the different pieces of hardware going back and forth so that we get even pressure all throughout. And then that'll do it for our look at and installation of this Dutton-Lainson drop leg trailer jack with footplate. Thanks for watching.