Pad for Airstream Leveling Arm Foot

This pad is specifically designed to cushion the foot/shoe of an Airstream leveling arm. Typically, you would put something under the arm before leveling the trailer and tightening the arms. With this pad, you can skip that step yet still accommodate gravel or dirt surfaces and also protect your garage floor or driveway. Thus far, using these pads has entirely eliminated the squeaking you can sometimes get when walking inside the trailer.

Note: I have no idea if different Airstream models have different size shoes on the leveling arms. I made this for a 2018 Flying Cloud 25FB which has a shoe that is ~ 138mm x 140mm.

Material: TPU95A (flexible filament is mandatory. You may get away with different hardness levels, but I found that TPU95A works well.)

Printing:

I used the following key settings:

Nozzle: 0.6

Layer height: 0.3

Top layers: 5

Bottom layers: 3

Walls: 3

Infill: 20%

Infill pattern: Gyroid (you must use a pattern that is vertically very strong)

Filament: Overture HS TPU95A Black (as always, make sure it is very dry)

Required Parts (note all parts should be stainless steel to avoid rusting).

• M8 25mm pan head machine screw @ 8
• M8 flat washer @ 8
• M8 lock washer @ 8
• M8 nylon lock nut @ 8

Use a flat washer on the bottom between the machine screw and the pad, and the lock washer on the top between the shoe and the lock nut. You can argue that using both a lock washer and a lock nut is overkill, but I'd rather not have things shake loose on the highway. You can decide for yourself.

Printed on a Bambu Lab X1C Carbon with the textured PEI plate. This is a fairly big part that takes a long time to print, so I made the following changes to the defaults based on my experience printing the prototypes:

1. set the bed temp to 65ºC to prevent corner lift
2. set the hot end fan to 100% full-time
3. set the aux fan to 80%
4. removed the cover and opened the door (2-4 done to ensure adequate cooling)
5. 0.2 X-Y hole compensation

I used Orca Slicer 2.1.1. It has a bridging setting for counterbored screw holes, which I set to “sacrificial layer.” This is necessary to provide a base for printing the 8mm screw hole on top of the 16mm hole for the pan head of the machine screw. If your slicer does not have something similar, it will be difficult to print, as supports on this TPU part will be challenging to remove at best and impossible at worst. Orca is free and supports a wide range of printers, so perhaps this is your opportunity to try it out!