A multi-purpose structure for vehicles of the nature of house trailers makes use of a pair of telescoping beams which serve in part as a cross-member or beam beneath the floor of the trailer and also in part as guideways for trunnions which are attached to upper ends of the ground-engaging legs, the legs being those which serve as stabilizers when the vehicle is parked. The same telescoping beams additionally serve as housings for jack screw drives which are used to move the stabilizing legs between ground-engaging and stowed positions.

As industry has progressed in the building of trailers, and particularly 
house trailers, there has been a marked trend toward simplification. This 
has been in part the result of experience but also need to hold costs at a 
competitive level in the face of accelerating prices for virtually all of 
the many individual items which must be included to make a salable 
vehicle. 
One of the areas where the cost factor can be improved is that where 
structural expedients can be made to serve more than one purpose. 
Stabilizers have long been treated as accessory items even though, like a 
spare tire, they are, as a practical matter, always included as an extra 
part of the package. Even when supplied as part of the package, they have 
not heretofore been made part of the basic design and made to serve any 
purpose other than that of supplying stability and leveling when the 
vehicle is parked. 
When a house trailer, for example, is parked for use as living quarters, 
occupants in moving about tend to rock the trailer an amount sufficient to 
cause discomfort and inconvenience. The invention here disclosed is a 
stabilizer attached beneath the trailer body with legs folded upwardly 
during travel over the highway and which can be cranked downwardly into 
ground-engaging position when the trailer is parked. In that way the 
stabilizers serve to prevent the trailer from rocking when used as living 
quarters. Other types of trailers have comparable needs. The stabilizer 
herein disclosed comprises left and right-hand units with load supporting 
channel members in telescoping engagement with each other so that they can 
be adjusted to trailer bodies of varying width, and attached as part of 
the underside of the trailer body at whatever location might be most 
advantageous, usually where there would need to be a cross-member for 
rigidity and strength. 
Even though in relatively large trailer structures well equipped with shock 
absorbers the movement may not be great, any movement at all is often 
objectionable. Movement may also be the result of high winds where the 
trailer is parked. 
It is therefore among the objects of the invention to provide a new and 
improved adjustable stabilizer for trailered vehicles which is 
substantially universal in its design so that it can be readily fixed to 
the undercarriage of a great variety of kinds and sizes of trailered 
vehicles and made part of the structure. 
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved adjustable 
stabilizer of a substantially unitary or modular construction which when 
attached to an appropriate vehicle is immediately ready for operation. 
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved adjustable 
stabilizer device where supporting members are such that they are in a 
telescopic arrangement thereby to make the device readily adjustable for 
vehicles of a wide variety of widths. 
Still another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved 
adjustable stabilizer structure which can be permanently attached to 
trailers of different widths and undercarriage structure, the adjustable 
stabilizer being of such construction as to provide support throughout its 
entire upper surface, thereby to accommodate reinforcement for virtually 
any type of undercarriage and at the same time perform a dual function in 
the installation, serving also the need for stabilization and leveling 
when the vehicle is parked. 
Still another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved 
adjustable stabilizer for trailer type vehicles of such character that it 
can be installed virtually anywhere on the frame. 
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved adjustable 
stabilizer device wherein right and left-hand units fold compactly into a 
small compact overlapping package beneath the trailer when not in use and 
which can be readily extended to a proper stabilizing position by 
manipulation of a convenient crank shaft carried, if need be, adjacent the 
adjustable stabilizer itself. 
With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the 
construction, arrangement, and combination of the various parts of the 
device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter set 
forth, pointed out in the appended claims, and illustrated in the 
accompanying drawings.

In an embodiment of the invention chosen for the purpose of illustration 
there is shown a portion of a typical trailer body, indicated generally by 
the reference character 10, which may be any one of a great variety of 
different kinds and of virtually any roadable width and length. Such 
trailers are conventionally trailed over the highways on wheels (not 
shown) and may be equipped with appropriate conventional shock absorbers 
and springs (not shown). For convenience in description, the trailer may 
be described as being provided with a frame 13 built in part of side 
channels 14, 15 and cross-members 16 for supporting the trailer floor 
structure. When the trailer is parked for living purposes, it is normally 
wheeled out to an appropriate supporting surface 17, either in a trailer 
park or at some other appropriate location and stabilizers extended as in 
FIGS. 1 and 2. 
The invention here under consideration is that of an adjustably constructed 
stabilizer assembly which, in a form suited to installation beneath the 
frame 13, is a dual telescoping arrangement of left and right-hand units 
20 and 21 and which, telescoped together and installed, may be identified 
as a stabilizer assembly 22. 
The right-hand unit 21, taken as an example, and of which particulars are 
provided as in FIG. 2, consists of supporting parts, namely, a beam 23, a 
leg 24, and a movable stay 25 serving as a motorized actuator for 
extending and retracting the leg, and also serving as a brace when the leg 
is extended. More particularly, the beam 23 is a modified rectangular 
section consisting of side walls 30 and 31 separated by a web 32 forming 
between them an elongated pocket 33. 
The left-hand unit 20 is similar except that the beam 23' consists of a 
modified rectangular section formed by side walls 34 and 35 separated by a 
web 36 forming an elongated pocket 37. The left-hand unit differs from the 
right-hand unit only to the extent that the pocket 37 of the left-hand 
beam 23' is sufficiently larger than the outside dimensions of the beam 23 
of the right-hand unit so that the right-hand channel section can slide 
telescopingly into the left-hand channel section. 
Of special consequence in the structure of the beam 23 are flanges 38 and 
39 on the side opposite the web 32, separated as shown by the space 40. 
Similarly the left-hand beam 23' is provided with flanges 41 and 42 on the 
side opposite the web 36, separated as shown by a space 43 which is 
coincident with the space 40. There is a complete telescoping fit as a 
consequence of the structure described so that the individual beam 
sections 23 and 23' when joined act as a single continuous beam serving as 
a cross-member between the side channels 14, 15. A bolt 44 may be 
employed, if desired, to attach the beam sections 23, 23' together to 
provide a cross-member of desired length. 
Further particulars of the right-hand unit, which are substantially 
duplicated by the left-hand unit, include forming the leg 24 from a 
channel section consisting of side walls 45 and 46 separated by a web 47 
and providing a chamber 48. There is at one end of the leg 24 a footpiece 
or shoe 49. 
At the end of the leg opposite the footpiece is a trunnion 50 of special 
construction. The trunion consists in part of a central cylindrical core 
51 at opposite ends of which are pins 52 and 53 provided with respective 
heads 54 and 55. The adjacent side walls 46 and 45 of the leg are engaged 
by the corresponding pins 52 and 53. The heads of these pins are adapted 
to slide in slideways provided by the flanges 38 and 39, respectively. 
Pins 52 and 53 are separate and subject to attachment and removal from the 
cylindrical core 51. In use the heads provide a compact rugged mounting 
for the core in sliding engagement with the side walls 30, 31 and 
corresponding flanges 38, 39. 
The stay 25 for the right-hand unit 21 as shown consists of a pair of 
structural members comprising strips 56 and 57. At the left end, as viewed 
in FIGS. 3 and 4, the strips are joined to bosses 58 and 59 which in turn 
are pivotally secured to respective side walls 46 and 45 of the 
corresponding right-hand leg 24 by means of a single bolt 60. The bolt 60 
extends from one strip 57 through the side walls 45 and 46 to the other 
strip 56. At the other end of the stay, namely, the right-hand end, bolts 
61 and 62 extend through the side walls 30 and 31 and respective spacers 
63 and 64. The spacers in turn are secured by weldments to a transversely 
mounted angle section 65. One leg 66 of the angle section serves as an 
attachment to the side channel 15'. The other leg 67 is attached to 
adjacent ends of the respective side walls 30 and 31. 
What may be termed a motor is embodied in a threaded shaft 70. External 
threads 71 at the left end threadedly engage a transverse internally 
threaded opening 72 through the cylindrical core 51 of the trunnion 50. 
The right end of the shaft 70 projects through the leg 67 and is anchored 
in place by a collar 73. 
At the left-hand end of the threaded shaft 70 is a plate 74 which rotatably 
accommodates the shaft 70. The collar 73 is welded to the shaft and forms 
in effect a bearing which cooperates with a nut 75 at the left-hand end to 
secure the shaft 70 in its rotatable position. At the extreme right-hand 
end of the shaft 70 is a wrench hold 76. By welding side edges of the 
plate 74 to the side walls 30 and 31 of the web 32, the structural 
integrity of the beam 23 is materially improved. 
For moving or extending the leg 24 from the collapsed position of FIG. 3 to 
the extended position of FIG. 1, the shaft 70 is rotated in the 
appropriate direction by applying a suitable wrench to the wrench hold 76 
and rotating the shaft so that by reason of the threaded engagement of the 
external threads 71 of the shaft with the internal threads of the 
cylindrical core 51 of the trunnion 50, the trunnion is moved along a path 
from left to right, the heads 54, 55 sliding in the corresponding 
slideways formed by the flanges 38 and 39. This movement causes a shift in 
position of the left-hand end of the leg 24 and, by action of the stay 25, 
the right-hand end of the leg 24, provided as shown with the shoe 49, is 
tilted downwardly until it ultimately is moved into contact with the 
supporting surface 17. The wrench is then removed from the wrench hold 76 
of the right-hand unit and applied in a similar fashion to the left-hand 
unit in order to extend the left-hand leg downwardly until it is also 
moved into contact with the supporting surface 17. Should there be an 
uneven portion 17' of the supporting surface, movement of the leg 
downwardly is effectively discontinued upon engagement with the uneven 
portion. 
When the leg is to be collapsed to the folded position, rotation of the 
shaft 70 is reversed. It should be noted that in folded position the leg 
24 is nested snugly against the beam in close parallel relationship and 
the strips 56 and 57 straddle the corresponding side walls of the channel 
section forming the beam, thereby to permit the compact parallel 
arrangement shown and described. 
There is a comparable structure for the mounting and operation of the 
left-hand unit 20 with a modest but significant difference. A plate 80 
extends between and is secured to side walls 34 and 35, and preferably 
also the web 36, by an appropriate weldment. In this way the structural 
integrity of the left-hand beam 23' is similarly improved. 
As shown in FIG. 1, the plates 74 and 80 are located in the relative 
mid-portion of the stabilizer assembly 22. As a result, the mid-portion of 
the assembly shares in the structural integrity which is built into the 
beams 23, 23'. The result is improved service as a transverse beam as well 
as that of a stabilizer assembly. 
There is in the plate 80 a centrally disposed opening 81 to accommodate a 
threaded shaft 82 for the left-hand unit 20. Because the side walls 34 and 
35 are spaced wider apart than the side walls 30 and 31 on the right-hand 
side, heads 54 and 55 of corresponding pins 52 and 53 of the cylindrical 
core 51 are set at a wider distance apart so as to ride effectively within 
the larger beam 23'. A proper positioning can be made in the core at the 
time of assembly. 
By reason of the telescoping arrangement of the substantially rectangular 
channel sections forming the beams, the left-hand and right-hand units 20 
and 21 can be extended outwardly far enough to span the main frame of the 
trailer and then move inwardly toward each other until the angle section 
63 is in snug alignment with the corresponding side channel 14 or 15, as 
the case may be. Once adjusted to proper width, appropriate holes may be 
drilled through the legs of the channels 14 and 15 and conventional 
screws, bolts, or a weldment used for attaching the angle sections 65 to 
the channels. 
Clearly by reason of the webs 32 and 36 of the rectangular sections 
providing an upwardly facing elongated flat area throughout the entire 
width of the trailer body, the stabilizer is one which can accommodate 
virtually any type of floor structure, and also can be placed at any 
appropriate location between front and rear ends of the body. 
The wrench hold 76 is shown at the outer end of an end section of the shaft 
70. The end section can, of course, be made of any appropriate length and 
cut off to whatever length may be appropriate in order to position the 
wrench hold 76 as near as may be feasible to the side panel of the trailer 
body, in that way to minimize projection of the shaft. All that is 
necessary is to have the wrench hold within reach of an appropriate wrench 
or crank applied from the side. 
While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been shown and 
described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and 
modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its 
broader aspects, and therefore the aim of its appended claims is to cover 
all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and 
scope of this invention.