Jacking your van for Wheel Change
Help please. We bought our first van last year, had a full service done which included four new tyres, amongst other things and we were under the impression from the previous owner that if we needed to change a flat tyre for the spare, our car Jack would be sufficient. Now we are a bit more savvy with Caravanning it occurs to me that a Mitsubishi Shogun bottle jack, although capable of lifting two tons has the ability, it does not have the safe and correct contact with the chassis of the van to make a secure and safe lift. Our van is a 2003 Swift Conqueror 645 Lux twin axle and does have chassis mounted brackets behind the trailing wheels only, to take a jack. Can anyone tell me what kind of jack I should now seek to purchase, a bottle jack, scissor jack or side-arm type or better still can anyone tell me if there is a purpose designed jack for this type of van. I have today proved to myself that our car Jack is capable of lifting the van, but as I say, it was by no means a secure fit and on a motorway hard shoulder with wagons whooshing by, I am sure any gust of wind would knock the van off the Jack which might then puncture the floor of our van. PS: We have a heavy duty single axle motor mover attached in front of the leading two wheels (works fine) and there are no Jacking points forward of this only after the rear wheels. Many Thanks.
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My first reaction is that I would never, ever contemplate changing a wheel on a motorway hard-shoulder. It's far too dangerous with traffic speeding past at 70mph just feet away from where you're working. That's what I pay Mayday cover for.
Personally, I have a Lock 'n Level air bag and have used it to change a wheel in the past on our TA Barcelona and would recommend it as a safe and effective way of jacking the van - especially as we have AWD motor movers fitted and it is impossible to get a conventional jack anywhere near the jacking points. Even on a TA, with a deflated tyre, the 'van settles down and with ours you wouldn't get a bottle jack underneath anyway.
Another advantage is that it doesn't matter what sort of ground you are on - soft or hard - it is equally effective with no danger of the van falling off, once jacked up. The only downside is that you need a means of inflating the air bag and that might mean having the car alongside, allowing your air pump to be connected to the battery but there are ways around this.
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We have an Alko side lift jack as, like you, we have a twin axle with a motor mover fitted to front wheels only. The jack is made to fit into the jacking points on the caravan and it does lift it safely. Is it easy to use? Not really!! It does require some scrabbling around underneath to get it into position and I have a small piece of wood to help stop the jack from sinking into soft ground. It would be easier to use if I had three hands! We use it regularly to fix the Alko lock to the second wheel. Would I recommend it, probably not as it's a real faff, but it works and fits securely.
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Our twin axle caravan came complete with an Alko side lift jack. I tried it while on my drive. I can only suggest that it's used as a chock behind an opposite wheel while you use a proper trolly jack to lift your caravan. It's not even as much use as an ash tray on a motorbike. A small trolly jack can be bought for very little from machine Mart/etc
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You beat me to it, MM. The Alko jack doesn't even make a good anchor.
A trolley jack every time.👍🏻
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We have a single axle c/van with fitted Alco jacking points and jack which we have used to line up wheel lock, and it has been fine quite easy to use with wooden "pad" to stop sinking,do not know about TA use,but as Alko say do not jack under chassis members the only other place is under the axle plates which are not easy to access
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the only jack I would use would be a trolly jack, I woudn't even use the alko jack as if the van tries to role the jack will role over.
I don't carry a jack, I would call Mayday if I was on the road
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There are some times in life though that it's best to stand on your own two feet. I'd never wait for recovery for a simple wheel change. You could be where you wanted to be before recovery turned up. I do take the point 're your safety on a hard shoulder but you could also argue that you could be on your way sooner rather than later doing it yourself ...... a flat bed with flashing lights isn't going to prevent 40+ tonnes of HGV from hitting you.
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common sense demands that a motorway breakdown requires the presence/assistance of an experienced breakdown operative.The saving of 20/30 minutes is not nearly as important as the saving of your life!!!!!HOWEVER....if you must....then a trolley jack is the only answer.
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I have a Kojack type jack with the smaller brackets fitted to the caravan.With the caravan attached to the car as instrutions it lifts the caravan with no effort.I have tried a trolley and find it very akward to position it under the axle and difficult to operate.
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Agree that the Alko jack is a piece of junk not worthy of the name 'jack'.
We also have a trolley jack that we carry in the boot.
I have changed a wheel on the motorway. Not a pleasant experience but perfectly do-able. How do you think the breakdown service do it?
Vehicles tend not to veer off the motorway into parked vehicles. Nor do aircraft tend to plunge from the sky into them.
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I totally disagree with your statement about vehicles veering off the motorway....usually large hgv type! (and aircraft do crash onto vehicles!!!!)Breakdown/recovery operators are trained in self protection and even they can be caught out!!!Do not be tempted>(in my opinion)
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Thanks to all of you that have replied to my plea for help. Albeit, I feel I have been told off now for even considering changing a wheel on the hard shoulder. I was of course referring to any situation of changing a wheel. I am actually a fully paid up Mayday member so could call them out but like some of the comments say, I would like to think I can change a wheel without having to cry for help plus you could sit around waiting for a couple of hours before they turn up. I am going to go with the general consensus and get a 2t Trolley Jack from Halford's who seem to have many on offer around the £30.00 mark. This is a shame as I did have one of these many moons ago but left behind when we moved house 14 years ago. I wonder if they still have it! Many thanks all once again.
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Something to bear in mind, last week I had a slow puncture on a car wheel which fortunately the local garage managed to repair. When I returned home I decided to check the wheel nut torque. Could I slacken the wheel nuts? no chance, even with my spider brace. The nuts were on so tight they were impossible for me to budge. So I couldn't have changed the wheel even if I needed to. I had to go back to the garage. Their air gun was set for too high.
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As I said above, changing a wheel on the motorway (or anywhere else) is pefectly do-able. If you have the right jack (a trolley jack).
Unless of ourse you are worried that a plunging aircraft might hit you. In which case, it's best that you stay permanently indoors.
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"Vehicles tend not to veer off the motorway into parked vehicles"
What a shockingly incorrect statement, I believe this is the biggest (and significant) cause of fatalities on a motorway. I have personally witnessed this on the M74, killing one of the drivers.......
If I had a twin axle caravan and I got a puncture I would drive it (drag it) slowly on the one good tyre (on that side) to the nearest safe place, an exit or somewhere the hard shoulder fanned out or something. Being stopped on the hard shoulder is the most dangerous place there is in the UK and unless my vehicle was totally incapacitated, no way would I stop there.......
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The easiest and safest way to lift a wheel on a TA van is to put a decent wedge under the other wheel on the same side and push/pull the van onto it. This will lift the whole side of the caravan.
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I was thinking about getting the best of both worlds by cutting off the top of the Alco jack and using it to make an adaptor for the trolley jack. Of course, I can't find the Alko jack any more.
Could some kind person who still has one and can master the photo uploading please pop on a picture of the said item.
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