PA State Inspection

LarryJM wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

LarryJM wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
So how did you want him to do it?

And why do you think he would have bent the axles?

The jack was so large that it would have contacted the axle well inboard. Anyone that has a clue knows that you should not place a jack towards the center of an axle. After seeing how incompetent he was, I didn't want him doing anything else.

Sorry, but I just can't believe that he would have as you say have to have put it well inboard towards the center of the axle. For information just how close do you think you have to be to the wheels on the inboard side to be safe and where do you get that number.

Larry

From Dexter:
MISCELLANEOUS - Is it okay to jack up my trailer?
Dexter recommends that you do not jack up the trailer on the suspension components because there is always the potential for damage. Bent hangers, leaf springs, or axle tubes can cause bad axle alignment with bad tire wear resulting. Also, many trailer builders do not use Dexter hangers and we have no idea how strong these hangers may or may not be. Therefore, we take the conservative approach and recommend jacking up only on the trailer frame.

The above is from the Dexter Axle website. Sorry that you cannot understand. The axle tubes are rather thin and putting the weight at a single contact point on the tube can very easily indent or bend the tube. The farther inboard, the higher the weight. If one wants to go against Dexter's advice, then at least jack it directly under the springs.

Again, the floor jack was the largest I have ever seen and it would have contacted the axle tube well inboard. If that is what you want for your trailer, have at it.

You believe as you wish, I am just reporting what happened.

OH I understand perfectly thank you and have been jacking up TT longer than many here have been alive (35+ years) and IMO I like to do it directly under the frame as close to the axle attachment point as possible with a bottle jack. I'm also well aware of Dexter's conservative position on jacking up a trailer which I think is a good idea for the most part. However, that was not my question which you failed to answer. Your OP left us with the impression that he was jacking on the axle too far inboard and all I asked was how far that was and at what distance inboard from the axle you would feel comfortable raising say a tire using the axle as the lift point. Now if your original post has said he was going to raise the tire by jacking on the axle (position inboard has no bearing here) and that was what you were objecting to then fine, but that is not the discussion ... it is at what point inboard were your objecting to and what would have been the point where you would not have objected. The size of the jack is irrelevant to a large degree and you seem to leave open that a smaller jack on the axles closer in would have been O.K.

BTW I think you will find the wt will be very close to the same for say the first foot or so inboard of the tire and it's not that the weight changes, but that the bending moment increases the closer to the center of the axle you get.



Larry

I didn't measure the jack. With the jack wheels against the trailer tire the lifting point was well inboard of the spring. Why is this so difficult to understand? Nobody is going to jack my trailer by the axle tube alone.

Now with a 6 foot long axle the center is just 3 foot in. please do your homework and see how much the weight is at 2 foot from the center.