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 jack? Forget the jack and call the nearest truck tire guy? Seems the sheer size and weight of this beast would make self -changing a risky adventure.

Welcome to the forum.Buy a Roadside Assistance policy. The most popular are Good Sam and Coach-Net.They will send someone to change the tire for you.Also, check your RV insurance policy, maybe you are covered.To answer your question a bottle jack would be easier/smaller to carry. But a floor jack would probably be easier to use. Your call. :)And, check the age of your tires. RV tires usually age out before they wear out. Most replace the tires at 6-9 years.Monitor your tire pressure, that's important.Don't hesitate to ask questions on the forum. Someone will have the answer.Enjoy your travels.

Haven't had to use it, but I plan on using truck jack if I'm in a hurry, otherwise call my roadside service co.

12-ton hydraulic jack with the double-extending piston. Allows jack to be short and get under the axle when the tire's flat, yet extend enough to clear room to change the flat. I carry that plus a short jack stand for extra support, a truck-sized 4-way wrench AND one for the nuts on the wheel simulators. I'd hope for professional help. Or somebody to help me. Finally, change it myself and I've done it before. I'd just hate to have a service truck roll up and find he'd lost the right socket, had too tall a jack, etc.A whole Class C doesn't weigh near 12 tons. But, much less than a 12 jack is too hard to pump in the awkward location on the axle to change a rear tire.This guy. About $20 more than a single-acting 12-ton and very much worth it.

Bottle jack and scissors jack. If it's the outer tire on the rear, I use my leveling blocks under the inner tire. Good luck!Bill

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.

Jack for changing flats? | Good Sam Community

22 Replies

padre1944
Explorer
Apr 03, 2017
Haven't had to use it, but I plan on using truck jack if I'm in a hurry, otherwise call my roadside service co.
gbopp
Explorer
Apr 03, 2017
Welcome to the forum.
Buy a Roadside Assistance policy. The most popular are Good Sam and Coach-Net.
They will send someone to change the tire for you.

Also, check your RV insurance policy, maybe you are covered.

To answer your question a bottle jack would be easier/smaller to carry. But a floor jack would probably be easier to use. Your call. :)

And, check the age of your tires. RV tires usually age out before they wear out. Most replace the tires at 6-9 years.
Monitor your tire pressure, that's important.

Don't hesitate to ask questions on the forum. Someone will have the answer.

Enjoy your travels.

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Jack for changing flats?

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