Jack for changing flats?
Hi all: New to this wonderful RV world. Just bought a '98 Bigfoot Garage model (29') on a Ford E-Super Duty chassis with dualies. What do you all use for a jack to change tires? Bottle jack? Floor...
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I use (well, I hope not to use) a hydraulic bottle jack; I believe mine is an 8 ton version. I also have an E-SuperDuty chassis. For the lug nuts, I just use a socket and a 24" breaker bar, which is plenty of leverage to undo any that are even reasonably close to the correct torque of 140 ft-lbs.
With this year and chassis make certain you have and use wheel chocks before jacking up one of the back wheels. The parking brake is on the driveshaft, so when one end of the back axle is raised off the ground there is no braking action on any of the wheels from the parking brake. (The differential will allow the wheel on the ground to turn one direction and the wheel in the air the other direction.) Wheel chocks should, of course, be used whenever you jack up any vehicle, but are rather more urgently needed in this case.
In general, though, I'm not sure the weight makes it vastly more risky than changing the tire on a car. In either case, if it comes down on any part of your anatomy, you're going to have a very, very bad day.
With this year and chassis make certain you have and use wheel chocks before jacking up one of the back wheels. The parking brake is on the driveshaft, so when one end of the back axle is raised off the ground there is no braking action on any of the wheels from the parking brake. (The differential will allow the wheel on the ground to turn one direction and the wheel in the air the other direction.) Wheel chocks should, of course, be used whenever you jack up any vehicle, but are rather more urgently needed in this case.
In general, though, I'm not sure the weight makes it vastly more risky than changing the tire on a car. In either case, if it comes down on any part of your anatomy, you're going to have a very, very bad day.
