China bombs

[jmgratz]

The best way to do it is to call Good Sam Emergency Road Service, sit in the Air Conditioned TV while waiting for them to arrive and then while they are changing the tire stand by with a cold drink making sure they do the job right. Get back in your TV and carry on with your trip.

 

[osims]

Jim
I think you and I are working out of the same play book on this one.
Bill

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

Being the nice guy that I am I will help the road service guy change a tire on my coach. I will push the button for the level up and get my tires off of the ground.

 

[wdk450]

Supporting the Jack

Before you go through all the trouble of jacking a tire off the ground - have you tried rolling one tire up a ramp and eliminate the jack issue altogether?

That is easy enough to test the next time you move the trailer. If it works for your configuration go and buy one of those "ride on jacks". Not the one you roll the axle onto, rather the one you run the good tire up on.


The wheel rated at 3400 pounds holding up 5000 pounds is not an issue, you are stopped and have no dynamic loads on the wheel.
Besides, if you have a flat you already have a dynamic load on the good wheel while trying to get off the road.

My trailer sat on frame jacks for 30 hours at Mor/Ryde with no problem.

I see no reason why you can't jack on the frame. The problem is the distance from the ground to the frame.

Personally, I would use a 12 ton bottle jack, and a low profile one at that. and block it up to get as close to the frame as you can before extending the piston.


BLOCKING THE JACK
This is the critical part. Use multiple pieces of wood and criss cross the pieces as you go up. See the attached PDF for an example.
We have picked up tens of thousands of pounds this way.

You don't have to get as fancy as the PDF shows, we tend to overdo everything

For us, I would think 2x6 boards about 12" long would work fine. You probably already have some of your cribbing in your landing gear blocks bin.
A block of wood between the jack pad and the frame too. Unless you have a friend make you up a "jack" cradle (U-shaped piece of steel to cradle the frame with a piece of pipe welded to the center).

You all would be best off, if you have the inclination to do this, to try it on a level area when you are having a "good" day.

Do it once having a cup a coffee and you will be able to do it when you "have" to change a tire.

Either way I wouldn't change a left side tire on the highway, unless my brothers in the big red trucks were "lane blocking" for me.

Duane:
I value your experienced advice and the PDF. When you put the 12 ton jack on the "platform" at the top of the crib, are you asking the center 2X6 to support all of the jacked weight?

 

[porthole]

Duane:
I value your experienced advice and the PDF. When you put the 12 ton jack on the "platform" at the top of the crib, are you asking the center 2X6 to support all of the jacked weight?

Bill, the cribbing in the PDF was to give an idea of what I was talking about. That cribbing is typical of what we would do if we needed to lift something large and or heavy. Realize that when we are involved in an operation using this we usually have a lot of hands for help, and we are not going "up" more then the thickness of one crib level. And we would be using multiple cribs.

Done properly we can pick up rail cars this way using nothing more then lumber and air bags.

That said. No I would not be using a block crib like in the PDF.

Think of it this way, using all 2"x6"x 12".

2 2x6's, side by side, north/south

2 2x6's, side by side, east/west

2 2x6's, side by side, north/south etc.

Does this help?


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.

 

[wdk450]

I got it

Porthole:
I think I now understand that you recommend using TIGHT cribbing with 2X6's for jacking. If I was using the spaced cribbing, I would have the top 2 levels be the tight platform crib to properly bear the load from the jack and transfer it to the spaced cribbing below.

I think that this jacking need for 5th wheels and other high clearance vehicles begs for some sort of welded jackstand-type metal support that the bottle jack would bolt into.

 

[caissiel]

Great thinking, why do they not do like the jack location for cars, being there for years since the 50's and before, when there was holes in the bumper for the jack. And the proper jack is included with the new vehicle, not worth much but there.

 

[htneighbors]

Being the nice guy that I am I will help the road service guy change a tire on my coach. I will push the button for the level up and get my tires off of the ground.

 

[lwmcguir]

There should be a place on the frame for a bottle jack to match up with. This would keep someone from having a jack slip off at some point down the road. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[Delaine and Lindy]

Jack location...

I have used a bottle jack on many different 5th wheels and never had a issue. However I never put a jack under the Alxe Tube. Its very dangerous to use a Bottle jack under the frame. Just to much space from the frame to the hard stand unless you have a lot of cribbing material. I always carry a 12 ton bottle jack. But as Tom said the last two 5th wheels I have owned I only have to push a button to raise the entire 5th wheel tires off the ground, but I alway use a Jack stand if I remove a wheel and tire. GBY....