Winding the jockey wheel up on my caravan is hard work! Very hard work.
So, the engineer in me thought: how about using a bottle jack to progressively lift the A frame and when the jack runs out of lift dropping the jockey wheel putting a wood block under the jack and repeating the process.
My theory is that the jack will have more leverage than the jockey wheel. I appreciate that with energy there is nowt for nowt.
Any comments?
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
There's something commercially available which is a combined jockey wheel and hydraulic jack, called a Trail-A-Mate. No affiliation, and I haven't got one, just seen them around and thought it looked interesting....
Its funny, I see all these guys pumping franticly on their trailer Mate jacks, and yet our van has a high ball weight, I use a jockey stand and wind it up with no problem. So is the jockey wheel the cause of the problem, putting a side load on the mechanism making it hard to raise.
Jockey stand has a plate, no wheel. I was told to get rid of the wheel, as with that weight we were not pushing this van any where.
If you lower your bottle jack as far as possible then mount it on a solid flat block of wood or a brick, you may might only need one maybe lifts.
I use a trolley jack to swap over my jockey wheel and a motorised version (I don't leave it in the elements). The trolley jack lets me do it in one lift.
Maybe there is a cheap light trolley jack on special for Father's day. It just needs good height range not a large weight capacity.
Sounds like hard work to me why dont you part with some of your hard earned in a trail a mate hydraulic jack about 400 dollars and retire that unsafe jockey wheel that should never be put on caravans with heavy towball weights cheers
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John
2017 dmax lovells upgrade full CSM trade aluminium canopy,3.5 m quintrex tinny and rear boat loader mangrove jack aluminium trailer
Sounds like hard work to me why dont you part with some of your hard earned in a trail a mate hydraulic jack about 400 dollars and retire that unsafe jockey wheel that should never be put on caravans with heavy towball weights cheers
I still have trouble understanding why or how a mechanical jockey wheel be unsafe with out steering this tropic off in another direction.
I have both a trailmate and a mechanical jockey wheel,, the trailmate could blow a seal and lower itself, to me it reasonable work pumping it up with the suppied pump handle, may be I could extended the pipe to make it easier.
Our wind up one get a little dash of lubricant now and then is fairly easy winding up sub 300 kgs. To be deemed unsafe, never.
Using a trolley jack, never that is looking for trouble, picking it up is enough to do your back in. Getting down to jack up the caravan and then getting up again, I can feel the pain.
And the chance of the trolley jack slipping. No way I would look at that idea.
Mike my response would be to look at the thrust bearing in the jockey wheel. They are almost always crap. A visit to a bearing supplier will get a good quality replacement, lubricate well with water proof gease and you will find a vast improvement.
Like I said, both my wife and I have no trouble with winding up the jockey stand. So what Alan above recommends sounds a good idea. Because we have a heavy ball weight, I find that by putting an axle stand under the hitch plate and taking the load off the jockey stand also steadies the van quite a bit.
I do wonder the advantages of a "Trail-A-Mate" when changing a wheel with off road suspension, one would have to jack the body of the van very high to get the wheel off the ground, as opposed to putting a jack under the suspension wish arm.
I carry a Trail-a-Mate as a jack for the van, and it's really easy to pump up. I've been thinking of using it in place of the jockey i.e. carry one device instead of two and save a few kilo's. I like the idea of the base plate to prevent the van rolling or skewing (even slightly) when unhitching. It also comes with a jockey-type wheel which can be used instead of the plate if any rolling is needed. Mine is pretty new, so provided the hydraulics hold up it seems like the best solution. BTW, they're as low as $299 on Ebay at the moment.
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Cheers,
Tony
"Opinion is the medium between ignorance and knowledge" - Plato
From a safety concern i would be worried about just using a bottle jack under a "A" frame. Only need van to slightly move and the jack falls over! Trailer mate or conventional jockey wheel attached to "A"frame is far safer. Also its not advisable to rest a jack on a brick. They can crumble and collapse. Also the block of wood needs to be substancially thick so it also does not split under then load. I am lucky with my car. I just raise the air suspension until van is level. Wind down the corner stays and then lower the car and drive away. Hook up the next time is just the reverse. One of the few advantages of a LR with Tow assist and air suspension. No need for an assistant to line up the tow point!.
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16.5 Discovery 4 with a few mods and New Age MR 16' Deluxe
From a safety concern i would be worried about just using a bottle jack under a "A" frame. Only need van to slightly move and the jack falls over! Trailer mate or conventional jockey wheel attached to "A"frame is far safer. Also its not advisable to rest a jack on a brick. They can crumble and collapse. Also the block of wood needs to be substancially thick so it also does not split under then load. I am lucky with my car. I just raise the air suspension until van is level. Wind down the corner stays and then lower the car and drive away. Hook up the next time is just the reverse. One of the few advantages of a LR with Tow assist and air suspension. No need for an assistant to line up the tow point!.
I also dont need a person helping me reverse my townall to the hitch. This set up cost me under $5. Line up the fibregalls rod until they touch, remove them and reverse 80mm. Lower hitch.
-- Edited by Eaglemax on Saturday 31st of August 2019 05:31:13 PM
Mike, has the engineer in you thought about changing the ratio of the jockey wheel winder.
Cut the handle in half and insert a length of rod to suit and weld together. On mine I added 50 mm
My van has a ballweight of approx 280kg and this made a huge improvement.
Make sure you have clearance to gas bottles etc that may be close by.
This is the second van I have done this to.
Barry
Hi Barry, thats cool, on the way home from this little tour via my welding mate he can do that for me while we are there. That is a top idea, just brilliant and the wife will love it.
I carry a Trail-a-Mate as a jack for the van, and it's really easy to pump up. I've been thinking of using it in place of the jockey i.e. carry one device instead of two and save a few kilo's. I like the idea of the base plate to prevent the van rolling or skewing (even slightly) when unhitching. It also comes with a jockey-type wheel which can be used instead of the plate if any rolling is needed. Mine is pretty new, so provided the hydraulics hold up it seems like the best solution. BTW, they're as low as $299 on Ebay at the moment.
I just brought one of these 12 volt jacks to replace my jockey wheel and winding up all the time.. It works a treat, just push the button up/down... Cost $150.00
I suspect Alan may well have identified the issue as being a poor quality thrust bearing and, of course, the jockey wheel is off-centre thus putting a side load on it. I shall investigate and report.
As for lengthening the winding handle... no thanks: the thing should be designed to work with the standard handle and lengthening it, although it would make winding easier, will likely break something.
The Trail-a-Mate looks interesting, but expensive. As someone mentioned I don't actually need a wheel as I'm never going to push 2.7T of twin axle van!
Some excellent food for thought, thanks again.
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
I just brought one of these 12 volt jacks to replace my jockey wheel and winding up all the time.. It works a treat, just push the button up/down... Cost $150.00
Branchie
Where did you get it for $150?...says $355 on the ebay page.
Glad you found the posts helpful. yesterday I brought a new bottle jack, 3t, $48. Hope it will last longer than the last one, will if I don't do the valve up so tight.
I also dont need a person helping me reverse my townall to the hitch. This set up cost me under $5. Line up the fibregalls rod until they touch, remove them and reverse 80mm. Lower hitch.
-- Edited by Eaglemax on Saturday 31st of August 2019 05:31:13 PM
But mine raises the van to level and automatically hooks and unhooks the hitch. No need to wind up a jockey wheel or pump up a trailer mate!
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16.5 Discovery 4 with a few mods and New Age MR 16' Deluxe
As for lengthening the winding handle... no thanks: the thing should be designed to work with the standard handle and lengthening it, although it would make winding easier, will likely break something.
You are joking Mike, what can break. ???
Any way good luck with what you decide. I will keep using my longer handle that I lengthened years ago.
I don't quite understand the difficulty. Maybe I'm lucky, but I have two jockey wheels; the originally supplied small wheel one for home and a bigger wheel ratchet style one for travelling. The lever/ratchet has helped on a couple of occasions for straightening the van with the tug disconnected - once to get out of an embarrassing situation amongst trees where it was impossible to reverse the combined rig out. Both these jockey wheels raise/lower the A-frame with minimal effort on a 2.5 tonne single-axle van. Is a dual axle van harder to raise the front?
I have a trail mate jockey wheel, with all the accessories, but it is pre - hydraulic, it is a side winder instead, have had it since new for 4 years. Very, very, very easy to wind, and also easy to jack up van, that has off road suspension (simplicity independent). I would not buy the hydraulic version, for all the problems they have.
-- Edited by Bicyclecamper on Friday 6th of September 2019 11:00:17 PM
