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TomC1216's avatar
TomC1216
Explorer
Jul 15, 2019

Jacking up a Fifth Wheel

I posted this on another forum, but didn't get much of a response. I have a 2011 Open Range fifth wheel. I just purchased the Morryde wet bolt kit and will be replacing the original tires with GY Endurance as well. As I plan to do this in my driveway, what did others use to support the fifth wheel frame once its jacked high enough to work on? The front of the unit is already 3 feet off the ground! That's a lot of cribbing!
Thanks for the tips and pointers.
Tom

14 Replies

  • I jacked mine up one side at a time. You don't need to get the whole trailer jacked up all at once, but have to get all the weight off the axles to get the bolts swapped out. I also upgraded the suspension to the SRE4000 equalizer with the crossmember if you haven't done/considered that yet. Made a world of difference with bumps and wind and not too costly.
  • rhagfo's avatar
    rhagfo
    Explorer III
    Well when I put wet bolts and the 1/2" shackles on our 32' Copper Canyon, I made cribbing out of 1' sections of 2X4. I also added extra support at the landing gear as an extra safety measure. I did NOT leave it attached to the TV, and my driveway had a slight slope I needed to shim the low side to be level with the high side.
    Once it was full supported on the cribbing, I put a hard shoulder push on a back corner and it didn't budge.







  • I bought four 12 ton jack stands at Harbor Freight.

    Used my floor jack with cribbing to do the lift.
  • Done that. Left it on the truck & lifted the frame aft of the rear axle. Don't forget to loosen lug nuts before wheels come off the ground.

    Do the wet bolts one side at a time. You may need to do some creative jacking & wedging to get holes to line up but it gets done.