Jack Points on 5th Wheel?
Does anyone really jack up their wheels by the frame? I tried that once and had so many blocks stacked up under the jack, plus you have to have two jacks, that it was really shaky and dangerous. I...
Forum Discussion
OP says wrote:
I suspect the axle people are just covering their donkeys. Any brilliant ideas out there? I used to be an engineer; why not just manufacture the axle with a flat plate (for jack) welded on close to the U-bolt location on each side of the axle?
You got it !!!
When I was a rookie I jacked the side of the trailer by the frame just to change a flat tire on a std leaf spring suspension. Well I bent the frame by jacking from one point on a fully loaded 18k flatdeck trailer. Dropped the trailer off at the manufacturer for them to fix my mess.
The service mgr showed me their 12 ton hyd jack stubby trucker special they sold. That was in the early '70s and I still use the old jack. It slides under the axle tube next to the U bolt or the U bolt. I welded a short flange 3.5" channel to the top of the jack. The channel cradles the axle tube so no slips while on the side of the road with trucks blasting the trailer at 75 mph. With a 10" x 10" wide base it works great on soft ground.
What ever method you go with make a dry run at home especially with some type of ramps or a torsion type suspension. Many folks found out the hard way the ramp didn't raise the flat tire far enough to get a tire off or on.
