Early next year I will be looking at getting my 1st caravan.
Probably looking at around 18-19'.
Because of where I want to store it in the front yard there wont be much extra room on the sides so am looking at getting a powered jockey wheel to manoeuvre it into place.
The area is just about flat and a mixture of concrete and gravel.
Do any of you use these and how easy are they to use.
Looking on the net there seems to be a few different prices from around $350 to $2000.
Is there much difference between them for the price.
Also there are the traction type where you mount it under the van and wind the small wheel onto the van tyre, but with a duel wheel van this can be quite expensive.
Re the powered jockey wheel - we had a cheap(ish) one and was fine on the flattish driveway at home but managed to burn it out just on the camber of the road outside our house. I will say in it's defence however that we knew that the capacity of the unit was a little smaller than the true weight of our van (2000kg unit to 2300kg van from memory). Would also suggest that a double clamp is the way to go - the twist on the unit while we were trying to turn the caravan 90 degrees when on the camber was quite frightening.
In a nutshell know the weights of your van before buying one as you must match it up correctly.
90 degree turn with duel wheel puts a lot of pressure on powered jockey wheel and clamp. I had a Powerwheel (http://www.powerwheel.com.au/) and it worked well but a double clamp is needed.
My question re whether a turn is needed was because my situation was straight in but very tight. Powerwheel did the job OK but I found that using a boat winch to pull it out worked well and I was able to tickle it into position by a little bit of crowbar and a slight downhill situation.
Point is that if it can be setup boat winches and appropriate anchors on the ground and/or the vehicle may be cheaper and easier at about $100 a pop.
ibought one about 3 yrs ago one of the cheaper ones it is great , if some thing goes wrong with it i would buy another one the next day worth every cent
I bought one of those Doug but it couldn't push my 2 ton van up a 25 degree incline, sold it and bought a Power Wheel which did the job effortlessly. I had to fit a double clamp as the single one couldn't handle the torque.
Sold the van and the power wheel is now for sale but for collection in Perth only
Early next year I will be looking at getting my 1st caravan.
Probably looking at around 18-19'.
Because of where I want to store it in the front yard there wont be much extra room on the sides so am looking at getting a powered jockey wheel to manoeuvre it into place.
The area is just about flat and a mixture of concrete and gravel.
Do any of you use these and how easy are they to use.
Looking on the net there seems to be a few different prices from around $350 to $2000.
Is there much difference between them for the price.
Also there are the traction type where you mount it under the van and wind the small wheel onto the van tyre, but with a duel wheel van this can be quite expensive.
Any ideas and advice would be very welcome.
Ross
Hi Ross,
Have you ever seen a set of 4 Go Jacks in action.
I own one 6mtr boat on a tandom boat trailer, loaded 1800-1900kg.OAL =8mtrs.
I own one Jayco journey Outback. Loaded 2650kg = OAL 8mtrs.
One 200 TTD.
I have 3 garage doors 1 x 2.7W x 3.0 H. the other 2 doors are standard 2.4 x 2.1 jobs.
My cave is 9mtrs D x 9mtrs W.
The driveway in front of my cave has a fall of 200mm
I built the cave in 2002 to accommodate D boat at the time only as the KK camper could make it through the middle door. Simple. Till lambie got Poorly. So we Brought the van and sold the camper in 2015. But I had to do the maths first.
The boat had to be moved into the centre bay SIDE WAYS Some car buffs I new said simple, 2 sets of go Jacks for $400 at Super Cheap Auto. (will be on sale again after Xmas).
My problem was that I had only one tank to push up the 200mm rise in front of the cave door. Sooooooo at the back of D cave I got a 400mm x 400mm x 6mm steel plate made up with a plate mounted on top to fit my old 3000kg boat winch to.
The van, once removed out of the the cave with the tank, needed to be moved side ways,WITH the Go Jacks. to allow the boat to be moved side ways on the pair of Go Jacks. A one man operation. Back the tank up, hook the boat on and tow clear.
Place the go jacks back under the van and push sideways again. I hook on the 12v winch and press the button. And the van rolls back up the 200mm rise into the cave and shut the door. The winch cost me $112.00 of Ebay.
The whole process using just me, 45mins total.
The secret to using the Go Jacks is to have all 16 wheels pointing in the same direction you want the van or boat to go.
They say a maxium of 650kg on each x4 =2600kg. I have never had a problem on my own. I weight 80kg total wrining wet.
Hope this solves a few problems for you Ross and perhaps a few others. Do your homework.
G'day Ross. I have used an Optitec half a dozen times to manoeuver into a tight spot. With the remote it is a cakewalk. Worth the cost in my opinion just to make life easy. 2minutes compared to Hey Jims 45 minutes of hard work. I like to make my life easier where and when I can afford it. But you have plenty of choice.
Cheers, John.
__________________
"My mind is made up. Please don't confuse me with facts."
I use a $300 electric wheel. I need to position my CT within about 20mm of the colourbond fence so I can raise the roof past the roof gutter. The handle is right in the middle of the hitch so it's difficult to judge where the CT is in relation to the fence. As a result the fence has a few new dents now. I've been meaning to make a new handle so I can position myself on one side, but I'll be selling the POS shortly so I won't bother now. But It's all flat and paved so no real problems aside from a few new dents in the fence every now and again.
I have a roll a Door front and back and the space between pillars in the garage is only about 2-3" either side so I have to remove the extension mirrors and rely on the wife to let me know how close I am to the pillars; Unfortunately, the driveway is on an ever so slight incline so the electric wheel is useless there.
Last time I backed it in, the wife wasn't there so I relied on the car's mirrors, never again, a couple of holes in the gyprock now. Shadows in the garage hide where the back of the CT is. Nothing a bit of Spakfiller won't fix though.
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 22nd of December 2017 06:32:25 PM
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 22nd of December 2017 06:33:24 PM
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 22nd of December 2017 06:35:39 PM
