Have you got enough jacking for a left rear blowout

Old and Grey · Senior Member

Have you got enough jacking for a left rear blowout

Mike Harding · Guru

An RACV Total Care membership card :)

Bow · Veteran Member

Never use soft wood blocks to support a Caravan.

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

G'day chaps,
I carry what I need to get out of roadside dramas - the car jack has been useful many a time.

Mike where are you at the moment? You might find your Auto Club card is handy in well populated locations but there are large areas in "my stamping grounds" where you won't have mobile coverage, let alone RACV, etc service. And you know about Mr Murphy, don't you?

We can't carry everything that we might need, just sufficient to make do & if some caring soul comes along, it could be so much the easier. A friend has a HF Radio that he uses in the more isolated areas; I'm not suggesting going down that path.
One item that another friend discovered extremely useful recently is a portable hikers' epirb. They were in Moorinya NP, far from the unstaffed ranger's station & had no drive - in any direction. He activated it & met a great "can do" policeman from Hughenden who fixed the car (D-Max) with a rubber band!

iana · Guru

I have much the same, ditched the supplied van jack, as it was under rated. Carry a 6T bottle jack, and wooden blocks, and an axle stand. Use these for doing the service, leveling the van, and changing other peoples flat tyres

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

A spade to dig out . A ramp to run
Flat tyre higher first !! I had a strong shaft with fitting welded or bolted to frame . Then carefully drive forward to lift frame .

Radar · Guru

Run the flat tyre up onto a ramp or block of wood.

Once you change the flat tyre, leave the block out.

I use either soft or hard wood of about 50 mm thick about a tyre width will make the job easier.

Whenarewethere · Guru

Going off on a bit of a tangent.

Get TPMS & hopefully you can catch a flat before you get into this situation. In 2018 TPMS saved us 3 tyres. We plugged the tyres & could keep going with our full compliment of spares.

We have an aluminium plate for the jack for softer ground & some blocks of wood.

Craig1 · Guru

www.youtube.com/watch, or look up Andersen rapid jack, about $100.00 Not sure about how good they are in OP 's described situation

erad · Guru

I have a simple Jayco Poptop caravan and suffered a failed right side tyre in a most awkward place - on a section of winding double line road. Karma being what it is, a Good Samaritan came to my rescue. I was just about to start jacking the van when he pulled up. I have done similar good turns for others often in earlier years and now that I have a severe respiratory condition, he came to my rescue. I was just retrieving the jacking adaptor to plug into the chassis extension on the side of the van next to the wheel when he came along with a high lift jack.

He jacked the van up and because of the road camber, the van was leaning towards the gutter. When the wheel finally lifted off the ground, the whole rig was very unstable and started to slide further into the gutter. I was able to hold onto the top of the high lift jack and hold it whilst the guy changed the wheel. It was a close shave, because if the van had slid into the gutter, the jack would have punched a hole in the side of the van. This is a reminder to use a high lift jack in the jacking socket with extreme caution. I would rather jack from below, even though access is very restricted.

Since then, I have bought from Fleabay a 5 tonne 12 volt electric / hydraulic jack which has a minimum height of about 90 mm (?) and a maximum of about 380 mm (?). The jack is very light and compact to carry, and I use this in my Pajero because it can fit into the jacking socket on the suspension arms. The capacity of the jack far exceeds the loads I will ever apply, but I tried a 2 tonne 12 V scissor jack which struggled to lift the rear wheel of my Pajero _ I think it was 2000 lbs not 2000 kg.

In retrospect, I would never use a scissor jack on a van because of its inherent instability. I had to buy an extension lead for the 5 T jack so it would reach the caravan axle, although I also have a jump starter which has a 12V socket and I could use that in an emergency.

Derek Barnes · Senior Member

My Golf Savannah Maxxi 390 off road caravan came with a simple scissor lift jack which was so short when jacked up that it didn't even reach the chassis of the caravan! We now use a solid plastic "top hat" (about 25 cm in diameter and about 25cm high) under the jack in order to reach the chassis. The "top hat" is rated to several tonnes and appears to provide a good solid base for the scissor jack.

Greg 1 · Guru

8 tonne bottle jack with large flat wood blocks for stability on soft ground, a trenching tool if I have to lower the jack to get it under the axle. Where there's a will there's a way.

Mike Harding · Guru

Warren-Pat_01 wrote:
Mike where are you at the moment? You might find your Auto Club card is handy in well populated locations but there are large areas in "my stamping grounds" where you won't have mobile coverage, let alone RACV, etc service. And you know about Mr Murphy, don't you?

Hi Warren

Fair point and when I was 4WDing in the High Country I carried lots of spares and stuff as no way would the RACV come into the places I went.

However the caravan in now the determinant of where I travel and my current location (in forest on the Murray) is about as much as it can do and I think the RACV would get in here without issues.

As for mobile coverage: I have a HF radio and an Amateur Radio licence and could put an antenna up in 10 minutes and have someone make a phone call for me two minutes later, no problem :)

This raises an interesting point thought: how many tools should we carry?

I have a socket set, set of ratchet spanners, set of mixed ring and open spanners, a wide range of general hand tools, a hand drill, an electric drill etc - this lot weighs, say, 30kg? Then I have an 18 month old diesel vehicle which is just about impossible to work on outside an equipped garage and is covered by a five year warranty and despite having done *everything* to cars in years past have zero desire to do more than drive them these days so do I really need all these tools?

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

G'day Mike,
I thought before that we had similarities; we're from the old school of repairing things, having adequate tools to get out of trouble. I carry similar to what you do - if I carried what the experts say we need, I'd need an extra trailer on the back!!

And I agree about working on new electronic cars that have busses carrying signals throughout the car's system - NIGHTMARES!!! I've only just bought a scan gauge that plugs into the Mtce Port just under the steering column. It seems workshop manuals are not in favour these days (I dread how complex the cct diagrams are).

So does that mean if we want to go to isolated areas, that we stick to older Patrols, Land Cruisers so we can have some hope of self recoveries?

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Old and Grey,
Sorry to side swipe your post.
Yes we can have the nice TPMS & save tyres but on the Birdsville Road, etc, often a sharp piece of jasper (a hard, sharp stone) could be just sitting there ready to slice through your sidewall & all of the electronics in the world is not going to stop the tyre from blowing. I've only blown one tyre in that area in 1976 - between Birdsville & Windorah - in an area free of rocks to help support the car!! Yes a TPMS might have saved the tyre but the only electronics my then 1967 Land Cruiser had was the 12v battery & no cig lighter skt to power anything off!

I've blown only one tyre on my van (& I only have two) - the driver just has to drive/control the rig to a safe stop as best they can. In my case, I stopped just east of Hughenden, on a sharp drop off with heavy transports rushing past with minimum clearance! Hairy wasn't the name of it!!

Radar · Guru

Greg 1 wrote:
8 tonne bottle jack with large flat wood blocks for stability on soft ground, a trenching tool if I have to lower the jack to get it under the axle. Where there's a will there's a way.

I starting to wonder about you race boy, an 8 tonne bottle jack to lift maybe less then a tonne..

Bobdown · Guru

Radar wrote:
Greg 1 wrote:
8 tonne bottle jack with large flat wood blocks for stability on soft ground, a trenching tool if I have to lower the jack to get it under the axle. Where there's a will there's a way.
I starting to wonder about you race boy, an 8 tonne bottle jack to lift maybe less then a tonne..

I have a 2 ton trolley jack that is quite low and easy to 'jack' up from the side of the van.

If too low, drive up onto ramps.

Cheers Bob

Mike Harding · Guru

Warren-Pat_01 wrote:
G'day Mike,
I thought before that we had similarities; we're from the old school of repairing things, having adequate tools to get out of trouble. I carry similar to what you do

And I agree about working on new electronic cars that have busses carrying signals throughout the car's system - NIGHTMARES!!!

So does that mean if we want to go to isolated areas, that we stick to older Patrols, Land Cruisers so we can have some hope of self recoveries?

Hi Warren

Yep, I've taken a gearbox out and replaced the clutch on the roadside - I was younger and poorer then :)

Mate, I did a fair bit of software and hardware design for one of the major motor manufacturers and have a good knowledge of electronics I also have a 250MHz digital storage oscilloscope in my van (I know, I know :) ) but I wouldn't have a clue where to look for an electronic fault on a modern vehicle. Without all the servicing info and the correct diagnostic tool (a lot more error codes are generated than a Scangauge can read) you don't have a hope.

This is why when I bought my previous 4WD which did the serious High Country stuff I put a buy limit of $10k on it. The places I went were so difficult to get to that *no way* could a vehicle be towed out so I took the view that I'd walk away from $10k but an $80k Landcruiser would be a different story.

Radar · Guru

Bobdown wrote:
Radar wrote:
Greg 1 wrote:
8 tonne bottle jack with large flat wood blocks for stability on soft ground, a trenching tool if I have to lower the jack to get it under the axle. Where there's a will there's a way.
I starting to wonder about you race boy, an 8 tonne bottle jack to lift maybe less then a tonne..

I have a 2 ton trolley jack that is quite low and easy to 'jack' up from the side of the van.
If too low, drive up onto ramps.
Cheers Bob

Yep, Bob, a trolley jack would be handy with it's low profile. In my case the caravan come supplied with a "side winder jack" which you attach to the side of chassis near the area you need to lift which is ample for the job.

erad · Guru

I have found that jacking the caravan UNDER the axle is by far the most stable. However, because Jayco in their magnificent quality control fitted the axle 25 mm offset, on one side of the caravan, I could not extract the wheel because there was not enough clearance between the axle and the body. This offset was corrected (by me) after Jayco/AlKo supposedly corrected an 11 mm toe out in the alignment (that didn't work either).

However, the most stable way to jack the caravan and remove a wheel is under the axle. Of course this means me getting under the van to place the jack and that is not nice when you are as old and decrepit as I am these days.

Mobi Condo · Guru

Being one who habitually takes too much stuff, I am now constantly looking at ways to double / triple / multiple use what ever I have.
Used to take a High lift jack to hook into Sunraysia rims etc. as none of my jacks could fit under axles when tyres went down.
Then we bought a Trailer Mate heavy duty with van jacking hook and have an adaptor to again fit Sunraysia rims. There goes the need for the high lift jack now.

With dual wheel chocks, van still hitched to vehicle we can safely lift which ever wheel and block under the axle and do the deed. Mind you the scary bit IS the sometimes VERY steep fall away into the road side table drains so with dual wheels we can carefully drive onto safer ground.

Single axle would see me choosing to damage a rim etc. than damage me with risk of sliding.

I agree with erad about the old and decrepit bit, and so part of our travel P.P.E. are good quality knee pads, fully enclosed goggles, leather riggers gloves etc. enabling me to look like a big old Hippo getting down and up.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Getting down is EASY ! Lol . Its getting back up
For me ! Changing tyres is one of those things . Your hands on mechanicaly minded or your not !! In some cases if you have to ASK ? You possibly shouldnt be doing it ? On your own anyway ! Maybe ask Mrs to do it ??? Putting flame suit on .