Jockey Wheel
Hiya folks. Towards the end of a long journey home, I could hear something bottoming out. I pulled up to check and it was immediately apparent that the jockey wheel had ‘unwound’ itself. I thought I had wound it up as far as it would go. Thankfully, no real damage done. So, do we think I didn’t tighten it up enough, or should I be looking at some method to prevent it happening again?
Cheers...Freddy
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Fasten a Bungee cord round the handle, then vibration won't be able to slacken it, then allow the handle to turn and unwind downwards. Have the road wheels ever been balanced, to reduce vibration? Look to see if there are any small lead weights attached to the wheel rims.
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Be preared to lie down on the ground and take a torch so that you can check both sides of the wheels. If there are no balance weights I would take them off to a tyre garage and have them balanced. Excessive vibration won't do the inside of the van any good, eg all sorts of screws working lose.
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be prepared to insist they balance them when the realise they're off a caravan. I've used a local tyre independent for years & even he surprised me when he said you don't need to balance a caravan wheel ..... I insisted .... he balanced them
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Having caravanned for 2 decades I suddenly experienced the jockey wheel unwinding on a twin axle. My practice had been to wind the wheel almost fully up then pull the central column up so that the top side of the wheel came into contact with the underside of the A frame cover. I then gave a further turn upwards to tighten the wheel against the frame. Whilst this had worked on previous caravans I discovered that there was a certain amount of flex on the A frame cover so it did not hold the jockey tightly enough in place.The answer is to tighten the jockey wheel up as far as it will go ensuring the the two flanges on the column engage in the two receiving slots. When that is done just pull the column fully upwards. I never had any further problem and did not need a bungee cord etc.
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Ensuring the side flanges are in the receiving slots and the wheel is against part of the A frame or it's cover makes absolutely no difference to it's security. If the handle on the top turns due to vibration then the wheel will drop, even when the wheel doesn't change it's orientation.
Concentrating on getting the wheel tight is a red herring and gives a false sense of security, it's the handle at the top that must not be allowed to turn. Vibration is a likely cause.
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but if the handle fully tightens the wheel up in the slots there's little chance of the handle being vibrated loose. I've never found the handle of my jockey wheel anything but still tight whether we've towed a couple of miles or 100's of miles
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I would disagree that a correctly lifted jockey wheel will never come loose.....
When we had caravans, five in all, with the first four, I never ever had a problem. The fifth and last one we had, the jockey wheel regularly unscrewed itself just as Nuggy describes above. With everything as it should be, in slots, fully up, handle tight etc. the handle revolved when on tow and down came the wheel. To test what was happening I tried gently "slapping" the handle in the unscrew direction and it soon became loose and gradually the wheel gets nearer to the ground despite been previously tight in slots etc etc. Perhaps the last van had been over lubricated at service, perhaps the design was slightly different, perhaps the tow car vibrated differently, I really don't know, but I stopped it happening by fitting a bungee around the handle to the A frame to stop any rotation of the handle whilst on the road.
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As it seems that self lowering jockey wheels occur on so few caravans it does imply that it's due to operator error. 🤔 I'd guess that the assembly is being lifted before the wheel bit is wound up tight so that when the handle is turned, it's tightening the rubber/plastic wheel to the underside of the A frame .....
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You can never rule out user error or luck of knowledge.
I lost the lower part of the jockey wheel on my bailey when it was less than a year old. I now remove it when towing, once bitten twice shy!
Recent Bailey caravans and some others, don’t have the jockey wheel central in the middle of the rails. They are mounted on the outside of the near side rail. You can’t jam it up against the underside of the A-frame, just try and turn it into the rail against the flimsy plastic cover.
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