One of the things that I really disliked about our 19FD was the low ground clearance. The sewer cleanout and the stabilizer jacks have been a constant source of worry for me. We have also had issues trying to fill our sewer tote on some sites as the sewer cleanout was below the top of the tote, so I had to do the slinky maneuver to transfer the black or gray water (not cool)

So last summer I bit the bullet and purchased a lift kit for our trailer. I had been looking around online for a while and found a Canadian reseller PJ Parts in Alberta. I have no relationship with this company, I simply purchased it from them as they had the kit in stock, and the price was the best I could find. The kit is the Toreflex K71-707-01. The lift kit increased our clearance by 2 5/8 inch and took a couple of hours to install. The kit was delivered for under a 130.00 CDN and came with the instructions and a list of tools required to complete the install.

Installation

I am not going to go into detail about the installation, but if your interested, check out the installation manual that comes with the kit. If you have any experience turning a wrench I would say go for it. The installation is not complicated and the instructions are excellent. Read the instructions over a couple of times before starting and have them handy during the install. Pay attention to the Caution Warnings in the manual.

All I will say, is that I used a lot of cribbing, a bottle jack, two jack stands and two floor jacks to get the job done. The cribbing was overkill, but I really didn’t want the trailer falling on me. While this worked fine there was one point when I wish we had one more floor jack to hold the axle. All the hardware is included in the kit, and you will only need a handful of wrenches, sockets and a torque wrench. An impact gun is very handy.

Aside from the trailer falling on me the only other concern i had, was insufficient slack in the electric brake wires. This turned into a non-issue. We were able to confirm there was sufficient slack with the kit installed and the suspension fully extended.

Finishing Up

With the trailer lift complete the final stage of the upgrade was the installation of the hitch head on to the new receiver bar. I needed to replace my receiver bar to account for the 2 5/8 inch lift to keep the trailer level when connected to the truck.

I think thats it. Bottom line, the installation was easy and it makes it less stressful knowing we have the additional clearance.