caravan jack

mr glassies · Guru

caravan jack

FENCER · Veteran Member

Have just taken delivery of a new tandem axle caravan,and surprise surprise they dont supply a jack with it.Does anyone have any advise on what to get .The van has a tare weight of 1993kgs ' and the jacking point is app 30cm from ground

littledick · Senior Member

Trolley Jack. serves all purposes.

Dick.

TAJ · Senior Member

i use a trailmate but you need the right fittings under the van

leave mine on the A frame with a cover on it also carry small

bottle jack

suenray confuse confuse

03_troopy · Guru

Get a decent small (3tonne to 5 tonne) hydraulic jack from somewhere that sells Auto Spares or tools, and a piece of heavy timber (maybe about 200mm X 75mm X 400mm long) to use as a base plate.

Mark · Senior Member

I'm with 03 troopy

Hydraulic bottle jack for me too. The one off of the cruiser which is a screw type bottle jack works great as well, can get both wheel up on one side at a time.

Mark

PeterD · Guru

FENCER wrote:
and the jacking point is app 30cm from ground

It would have helped if you had let us know what van you have and/or what the jacking points look like. You will get some better answers if you do.

FENCER · Veteran Member

many thanks everyone for your helpful advise
In answer to Peter D the van is Creative Tanami and the jacking point is just behind the tandem wheels protruding about 500mm from under a main bearer

PeterD · Guru

Fencer, From your description and the pictures on the Creative web site you appear to have one of these welded under each side of the chassis. A pair of these come with every Trail-A-Mate hydraulic jockey wheel. Most manufacturers now fit them on their new vans (Jayco is the odd man out, their chassis will not take them without modifications.) You will see how the Trail-A-Mate lifts the van in this picture of the Trail-A-Mate Sidewinder.

I suggest, as others have, that the Trail-A-Mate is the way to go. Most of us prefer to use this as the jockey wheel rather than the cheap mechanical one supplied with the van. I always use the foot plate with mine rather than the wheel, It lets you get the front down lower when you are parked on a slope.

FENCER · Veteran Member

Many thanks Peter,unfortunately the sidewinder is only rated at 500kg The van weighs 1990 tare , it looks as though I'll have to go for the hydraulic one . Just fainted at the price , You would think with a new van they would supply one .
John

PeterD · Guru

John, the Sidewinder was the better one to show how they work, that's why I gave the link. All members of the RVMAA are supposed to supply a jack with their vans. The more switched on manufacturers do supply the Trail-A-Mate hydraulic model instead of the cheap mechanical jockey wheel.

FENCER · Veteran Member

Thanks Peter .Might have to contact the manufacturer (live in hope) The dealer claims they don't supply them.
John

ShortNorth · Senior Member

FENCER wrote:
.................The dealer claims they don't supply them...............

I had a similar thing with Avan. When I bought my Aliner last year, they said the tools are in the locker (stupid me didn't check did I). Went to do the first brake service - the van had a custom jack (to suit the unusual chassis of the Aliner) and a jack handle, but no wheelbrace. Rang Avan and they said they don't supply wheelbraces, just use your car one. Great if the van wheelnuts and the car wheelnuts are different sizes, like mine were. Just as well I found that out at home, where I could buy a multi-wheelbrace, rather than out the back of nowhere 50k from the nearest town and find I can't take the wheel off.

Ontos45 · Guru

I found that, on my single axle 2 tonne van, getting a steel RSJ 50x50mm welded across the width of my van (behind axle) allowed me to use a "hi-lift" jack to lift the van high enough to change a tyre even on un-even ground. Worked well. I carried the hi-lift on the rear step of my then Hilux 4x4. After being caught with over-tight wheel nuts on a garage fitted wheel (damn rattle guns) now carry a top brand socket that fits wheel nuts, a 3ft breaker bar and a 3ft length of pipe to extend leverage. Peter