How to retrofit a Fulton F2?

[TallRedRider]

I took off out of the driveway yesterday with my jack down on my boat trailer. Yes, I am retarded. I only went about 10 feet, but let's just say I need a new jack. It was getting stiff anyway. BTW, the lake was great.

A buddy of mine had his boat jack go out on him last fall and he bought a Fulton F2 trailer jack. It is the bad boy of all jacks. It has dual wheels and a 1600 pound lift strength. I think it is actually the jack the new boats come with. Unfortunately for my friend, his trailer is made with 5 or 6 inch tubing. The geniuses that made this jack created a mounting plate that is a rectangle...3 inches by 4 inches and then they include some 3 and 4 inch U bolts to mount on the trailer tube. Why you would make a jack with that much strength but not consider bigger tubing is beyond me.

My MC trailer is 5 inches in diamter. I am pretty sure that the welded on mounting plate has holes that are 3 inches square. (I will check that tonight). So if I want to use this jack, I need some sort of way to retrofit it.

I called the Fulton people and the only thing they could offer was a weld on mounting plate that would fit the jack perfectly. Again, I am trying to avoid the expense of welding and repainting.

I can just use 2 bolts only and mount it onto the existing plate, but it seems that it needs to be mounted with four bolts to support it properly. I don't think I am excited to drill holes in the trailer to make up for the size of the jack. I don't want to have to do welding either.

Anyone ever done this before? Ideas?

[dummy]

I ordered a Fulton F2 for my '00 factory MC trailer, but UPS stomped the snot out of the box and it was missing some parts when it arrived. Otherwise I'd already have some photos for you. Once my UPS claim is all settled and my new jack shows up I'm gonna do a full write up on retrofitting it to the factory MC jack mount using a home-built adapter plate. It'll be pretty easy if you can cut and drill metal.

[ttu]

dummy!

look forward to seeing your write up. i have a 07 mc trailer and the current jack looks like crap and was wanting to upgrade to the f2, but told it would not bolt up.

i know there are a lot of us on here who would switch over if they made the damm thing to fit our current trailers.

[dummy]

I was pretty bummed when I saw the box all blown apart, but whadya gonna do.

Regarding older vs. newer trailers, my original MasterCraft jack mounting pattern is 2.75 x 4 inches. The new Fulton F2 pattern is 3.5 x 4.5 inches (or 4.5 x 3.5 inches). The fact that you can run the Fulton mount vertically or horizontally makes it pretty easy to build an adapter plate with both bolt patterns. I'll just cut out an adapter plate from some 1/4-inch thick cold rolled steel, drill it for the original MC jack mount (will taper the mounting holes for the factory tapered flush jack bolts) and then drill and tap the mounting holes for the new Fulton. It'll take probably 15-minutes to build the plate.

Will let y'all know. Just put my claim in yesterday, so it may be a while, although I may use the jack I'm returning to mock it all up. In that case, you can probably expect photos et al this weekend sometime.

[TallRedRider]

Dummy,

I am looking forward to that as well. How soon do you expect the UPS people to get done with this? If it is part of the legal system, then we might be waiting years.

Right now I got a boat sitting on a 3 ton floor lift jack in my garage, so I gotta get to work soon.

[dummy]

Well, it's UPS and a Nextag vendor, so you may not be far off thinking it'll be years. Like I said, I'll probably build something tomorrow using the jack I'll be returning, so maybe photos & info by this weekend.

Until then, pull off your old jack and measure the mounting plate pattern. If it's the 2.75 x 4 like mine I don't think you'll have a problem making the Fulton fit.

[TallRedRider]

Originally Posted by dummy

Well, it's UPS and a Nextag vendor, so you may not be far off thinking it'll be years. Like I said, I'll probably build something tomorrow using the jack I'll be returning, so maybe photos & info by this weekend.

Until then, pull off your old jack and measure the mounting plate pattern. If it's the 2.75 x 4 like mine I don't think you'll have a problem making the Fulton fit.

I assume that you would use a high grade machine screw so that the mounting plate is flat? I have not yet looked at the screws or bolts that came with the jack.

A drill press would sure be handy for that job.

[brucemac]

Originally Posted by dummy

I ordered a Fulton F2 for my '00 factory MC trailer, but UPS stomped the snot out of the box and it was missing some parts when it arrived. Otherwise I'd already have some photos for you. Once my UPS claim is all settled and my new jack shows up I'm gonna do a full write up on retrofitting it to the factory MC jack mount using a home-built adapter plate. It'll be pretty easy if you can cut and drill metal.

i look forward to this. i've got an 03 trailer and my jack is a little hammered. i'm assuming it's the same as yours and i've read that there's no way to just plug and play that F2 on our trailers. an adapter has to be made, or you have to cut and weld on their plate. anxious to see what you come up with.

[bridomine99]

I went round for round on whether I wanted to go through the effort to machine a adapter plate and decided to just bolt it on. $20 for stainless hardware (www.mcmaster.com) and 1 can of spray paint to touch up where the old jack was. The new one is absolultely perfect. With one hand I can push the tounge in any direction and the wheel pivots no problem.

[JohnE]

Originally Posted by Go Red

I took off out of the driveway yesterday with my jack down on my boat trailer. Yes, I am retarded. I only went about 10 feet, but let's just say I need a new jack. It was getting stiff anyway. BTW, the lake was great.

?

I did the same retarded move last year. Except my friends wife was meeting me at the ramp after a week's vacation. She got all the way there, backed it in and I got the boat loaded. She starts pulling the trailer out and it caught my eye........a second too late to stop her. I just bought the original jack. But I would like to replace it with the F2. I might do that this year.