Damaging axles?

[Glenn54]

I read something in another forum about someone wanting to remove their TT wheels rather than let tire shop do them because they were concerned about damaging them. What do I need to be careful with when I'm jacking it up or taking wheels off? Need to do a little side to side leveling.

[Jim & DJ]

The main thing most people worry about is bending the axle from putting the jack in the wrong place.

Usually don't jack up the wheel for leveling. Use 1 X 6 or 2 X 6

Just my thoughts.

[Glenn54]

I don't have a truck so I'll have to use a jack. Any suggestions? Where to put jack?


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[Ken / Claudia]

You put the jack under the frame as close to wheel as possible. Be safe, use another jack or jack stand on the frame at the other side of wheel being changed. Remember take the lugs loose, not off, before raising wheel. I use 2x6 blocks under jack so it is not near it's height limit when raised.

[hankpage]

I read something in another forum about someone wanting to remove their TT wheels rather than let tire shop do them because they were concerned about damaging them. What do I need to be careful with when I'm jacking it up or taking wheels off? Need to do a little side to side leveling.

Using a bottle jack ... place it as close to the wheel as possible on the spring between the hanger bolts. Place 2 X 8 under tire for each 1 1/2 inches to raise. Be sure to raise both axles so the weight is on both axles. Plywood can be used for thinner lift.

[rhagfo]

Using a bottle jack ... place it as close to the wheel as possible on the spring between the hanger bolts. Place 2 X 8 under tire for each 1 1/2 inches to raise. Be sure to raise both axles so the weight is on both axles. Plywood can be used for thinner lift.

X2

Under the spring axle intersection, is the safest location less distance to lift.

[Ayotte]

I always use a hydraulic jack and place on the axel between the two hanger bolts. Have never had a problem. If you jack on the frame you will have to lift the camper extremely high to get the wheel off the ground. Jacking on the axel you only have to lift so the tire just clears the ground. Always do it this way to grease the bearings. I am sure that if you were inside the hanger bolts you would still be ok. The axels are fairly strong. Just don't jack in the middle of the axel.

[CWtheMan]

I read something in another forum about someone wanting to remove their TT wheels rather than let tire shop do them because they were concerned about damaging them. What do I need to be careful with when I'm jacking it up or taking wheels off? Need to do a little side to side leveling..

I think the best thing to do with a new trailer is to follow the instructions in your trailer’s owner’s manual. You will be in compliance with your trailer warranty that way. If you don’t have one, here is a 2014 generic edition.

http://www.keystonerv.com/media/894590/krv_owner_s_manual_-_2015_-_3-19_-_1545.pdf


CW

[rhagfo]

Using a bottle jack ... place it as close to the wheel as possible on the spring between the hanger bolts. Place 2 X 8 under tire for each 1 1/2 inches to raise. Be sure to raise both axles so the weight is on both axles. Plywood can be used for thinner lift.

X2

Under the spring axle intersection, is the safest location less distance to lift.

I always use a hydraulic jack and place on the axel between the two hanger bolts. Have never had a problem. If you jack on the frame you will have to lift the camper extremely high to get the wheel off the ground. Jacking on the axel you only have to lift so the tire just clears the ground. Always do it this way to grease the bearings. I am sure that if you were inside the hanger bolts you would still be ok. The axels are fairly strong. Just don't jack in the middle of the axel.

.

I think the best thing to do with a new trailer is to follow the instructions in your trailer’s owner’s manual. You will be in compliance with your trailer warranty that way. If you don’t have one, here is a 2014 generic edition.

http://www.keystonerv.com/media/894590/krv_owner_s_manual_-_2015_-_3-19_-_1545.pdf


CW

Well I know for me, and assume for the others, we have many years of practical experience in jacking and supporting trucks, cars and RV's. I doubt that the person who wrote those directions never used the frame method to jack up a trailer.
The distance to the frame from the ground is at least twice the distance of the bottom of the axle to the ground. Makes for a real unstable situation.

[outwest]

Like others have posted, there's a few different methods. If for leveling, the easiest is usually to move the rig onto boards (may take multiple attempts if don't get it the right amount the first time, repeating until you get the right thickness) on the side that needs to be raised.

Since often stay in same spots in same parks, I've got a list of notes of which side needs how many boards to be pretty close to level.

On an aside, driveway is so out of whack from roots of a nearby cottonwood tree that I have to put 5 inches of boards on one side just to have it level in driveway :eek: Really need to get rid of that tree before it destroys house foundation, but we keep having an argument about that. Hers is that the shade is good for the vehicles, mine is that it's better to not have shade than to have a ruined house foundation :banghead: Tempted to poison the tree so that it looks like it just died for some reason; with my luck as soon as it started to die, a storm would blow in and it'd fall over on a car or the truck.

But anyway, back to subject of jacking up trailer - I needed to jack up one side just the other day and did like in manual (since was unhitched and hitching up just to raise one side would have been more of a pain). Put bottle jack on a couple of boards and put that under frame as close to spring hanger as possible. I would have put under the center of the leaf springs directly under where they fasten to underside of axle (in middle of hanger bolts), but trailer sits too low for that and floor jack wasn't handy.

I've also used the "build a ramp for good tire, after loosening lug nuts on bad one" method when having to change a tire on the side of the highway, which works pretty well.

[Glenn54]

Thanks all for the pointers. It doesn't sound too different than jacking up my boat trailers over the years. Just may need to be a bit more careful.