Right way to change tire?

[Rmcgrath53]

Hello all .I just got my rims from the Teadit company. I now have to replace the rims on the Sundance . The new rims came today.What I was wondering is how the tire place will jack up my 5er. Will they ,or should they, jack at the axel. Or should they jack from the frame?
I am planing on having it done saturday because we are due for a warm snap 45 degrees.
Thanks
Ron

 

[SmokeyBare]

Frame ! Please don't allow them to jack on the axles..... they are not as thick as one would guess. They can be damaged from the weight of the RV being lifted.

Have them ONLY jack on the frame of the RV. Behind the bracket where the springs are attached is a good location.

Marv

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

On the frame is best. I've put the bottle jack on the spring perch right next to the axle tube and it seemed to work well too.

 

[TXBobcat]

Boy am I in trouble...
I have had my BH tires changed by Discount Tire, I jacked one tire up at a time while on the road to make sure my brakes were not dragging. Every time the trailer was jacked up by placing a jack under the axle where the springs are attached. In fact Discount Tire jacked up all 4 tires at the same time to replace the china tires with new Michelin tires.

I would be intrested in hearing from someone that actually damaged their trailer axles by jacking up the trailer to change tires. I would also like to hear from Lippert if they ever get on the forum..

Now I am not saying that you will not damage the axles. I am saying I have never damaged one and am intrested in some one that actually has damaged an axle.

 

[leftyf]

Boy am I in trouble...
I have had my BH tires changed by Discount Tire, I jacked one tire up at a time while on the road to make sure my brakes were not dragging. Every time the trailer was jacked up by placing a jack under the axle where the springs are attached. In fact Discount Tire jacked up all 4 tires at the same time to replace the china tires with new Michelin tires.

I would be intrested in hearing from someone that actually damaged their trailer axles by jacking up the trailer to change tires. I would also like to hear from Lippert if they ever get on the forum..

Now I am not saying that you will not damage the axles. I am saying I have never damaged one and am intrested in some one that actually has damaged an axle.

If you put the jack in the wrong place you will damage the axle tube. If you jack by the shakles or frame you wont damage anything. Other, that I'd prefer the frame myself. The shackle is just too small. The jack might slip off.

 

[Rmcgrath53]

I called the factory earlier, and they told me to have them jack at the frame ,near the spring attachment

 

[SmokeyBare]

Bob,

I'm not the one to say your in trouble. We all do what we feel is right... we all do what we feel is safe...

I just feel that lifting my BigHorn... which is well over 12,000 pounds of weight... OK.. say less than 1/5 of that weight because I'd be lifting one wheel... say 2,400 pounds of weight. If I was NOT as careful as you... or say it was easier for me to move the jack away from the space between the spring U bolts... because maybe my jack is a bit too close to the tire...

Just too little surface for the small end of a bottle jack... IN my View... pressing against a curved surface of the tube axle... to risk that weight causing the tube axle to become dented. Which Might... maybe... could be... cause it to damage the axle.

I've had our old Challenger Fifth Wheel axles worked on at Henderson Alignment in Bend Oregon... because they were out of alignment... so badly that I was burning off the outside edge of the tires. Over weight... yep I was Some... by some 300 pounds. Our Challenger went on a diet after that trip to the scales. Was the weight the cause? was it caused by hitting a pothole... was it ?? I don't know...

Yeah the dang frame is so much higher... it's going to take some cribbing to reach with most bottle jacks. But the surface is flat... the jack has more surface to rest against. You will probably be directly under the center of the frame of the RV. And chances are... the frame is designed to support the additional weight.

 

[TXBobcat]

OK.. I will go with jacking up the frame..
So if I have a flat or want to work on say the passenger rear axle tire. If I put the jack on the frame behind the right rear tire, won't it have to be jacked up a lot more to take the tire off the ground? Will it only raise the one tire or will it raise both tires on the passenger side?

 

[SmokeyBare]

Well.....

When I had my tire failure....

It lifted one tire... the rear driver side... along I-40 West of Albuquerque NM... with traffic blowing by... me grumbling about NOT deciding to change my Karrier Load Star tires soon enough....

 

[cookie]

Lippert's manual says "lift unit by the frame and never the axle or suspension" period. Read it here.

 

[Rmcgrath53]

Thank you to everyone for the responses. I have copied the lippert manual ,to take to Discount tire saturday. I will show them the warnings on only lifting the 5er from the frame.
Ron

 

[jbeletti]

Thank you to everyone for the responses. I have copied the lippert manual ,to take to Discount tire saturday. I will show them the warnings on only lifting the 5er from the frame.
Ron

If you own or can buy one, take an 8 to 12 ton bottle jack and some boards with you to the tire store. Doubt they have a jack to do it with.

Jim

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

When we put on new Generals last July the shop used four floor jacks on the frame itself. They put a jack in front of the front axle and one in back of the rear axle on each side and lifted the whole coach up at once. Took four guys a couple of minutes then one guy did all of the changing and the other 3 went back to what they were doing. Took about 1 hour and have been happy since then.

 

[leftyf]

OK.. I will go with jacking up the frame..
So if I have a flat or want to work on say the passenger rear axle tire. If I put the jack on the frame behind the right rear tire, won't it have to be jacked up a lot more to take the tire off the ground? Will it only raise the one tire or will it raise both tires on the passenger side?

It will need another cinder block under the frame or a taller bottle jack. You can turn the top of my bottle jack and screw the head out another 6 inches or so..don't know if the modern ones do that.

Dunno about how many wheels will go off the ground..but, I don't wanna be there if BOTH come up!

 

[Rmcgrath53]

Thanks guys for the advice. I went in there with documentation about lifting the 5er from the frame. Those guys at discount tire ,never knew how to change tires. Thanks to Jim ,I bought a 12 ton bottle jack, and blocked it up with 6 2x6, and picked up the frame , from just past the spring attachment. They didnt have a floor jack that was big enough. Both tires came off the ground. I think if I was along the side of the road and big semis are flying buy ,I might consider jacking the frame up ,maybe 4 inches ,and taking a smaller jack, and put it under the u bolts at the axel ,and pick it up the rest of the way. It worked well the way we did it tho Also I bought new lug nuts that are solid. not the plastic coated ones that come with the unit. Those were all cracked up after torgueing on them and taking them off . I saved the old ones. Dont know if I can get reimbersed Ron

 

[jmgratz]

I would doubt you could get reimbursed for the new lug nuts but you never know. One thing for sure. I would keep the old ones in case I ever lost one on the road. Hopefully that wouldn't happen but Murphy's law you know....

 

[cdnrver]

Why even bother with jacks at all - just change tires one at a time.

Take three 2x8 boards about 24" 20" & 16" long (cut 45 deg ramp on the ends of each board) - place them one on top of the other (longest board on the bottom LOL) - either behind the rear tire or in front of the front tire ( the tire opposite to the one you need to remove) - back your unit up or pull it ahead (again depending on which tire is being removed) until one tire is on top of the 2x8's - this will raise your unit and the other tire that needs to be removed will now be off the ground and easy to take off.

 

[Gzopete]

How about one of these

How about one of these.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/trailer-aid/10867

Could you use this on a tri-axle trailer?

 

[creeper]

Why even bother with jacks at all - just change tires one at a time.

Take three 2x8 boards about 24" 20" & 16" long (cut 45 deg ramp on the ends of each board) - place them one on top of the other (longest board on the bottom LOL) - either behind the rear tire or in front of the front tire ( the tire opposite to the one you need to remove) - back your unit up or pull it ahead (again depending on which tire is being removed) until one tire is on top of the 2x8's - this will raise your unit and the other tire that needs to be removed will now be off the ground and easy to take off.

The problem with this, is that you severly overload the remaining tire. You can damage it and have a failure shortly afterwards. One tire is not designed to carry the whole weight of one side. The tires and axles are pretty much maxed out as they are, adding even more to one tire is a recipe for disaster.

 

[klindgren]

How about one of these.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/trailer-aid/10867

Could you use this on a tri-axle trailer?

That's a good question. Has anyone ever used one of these "tire aides" to change a tire?? If it works, it would be easier carrying than a bottle jack and wood blocks everywhere, and to me it would seem to be safer along side a busy interstate than trying to crawl around under the unit to get a bottle jack on the frame.

Just wondered if anyone had one of these and has had to use one