Jacking up fifthwheel

Better your fifth wheel than mine.

I agree with placing the jack under the U bolts. I also have jacked my 5er by lowering the nose as low as it will go and putting wood blocks under the frame a few feet in back of the rear wheels. Than I raise the front till all four wheels are off the ground. Sure is handy for doing a brake job, packing bearings or tire changing.

Happy Camping

The axle tube is hollow and subject to distortion jacking on the tube itself especially if the jack has a lip. It is safer to jack on the frame if possible or with a wood block, under the ubolts.

Shoe2728 wrote:
Got new tires put on, guy jacked up trailer on axle, told him didnt think that was a good idea, he said as long as it close to where its bolted on no problem. Wondering what others think about this.

Preferred method with the std leaf spring suspension.
I use this method on all of my trailers with axles from 1750 lbs on up to 10k lbs.
My experience with rampmig one tire wasn't so good.
I ramped a flat 16" E tire on the road one time even though my tire dealer says not too. The tire holding all the weight popped as I was tightening the lugs. Made it down the road a few miles too a small town truck tire dealer. The tire that popped had a split tread belt. I should have listened to my tire dealer.

I use a 12 ton shorty hyd truckers special jack with a 10" wide base. The jack come with a axle cradle that fits over the end of the jack made just for that purpose.
The jack in the pic is lifting the weight of that one tire. So its not like the thin wall ST tire on a ramp that may sit with twice its load capacity for 20-30 min while the flat tire is changed.

I've curbed tires and hit pot hole in the road on my trailers before and came away with a cut sidewall or worse a tire bruise that became a flat tire some where down the road.
Like our tire mfg tell us..... tire damage is cumulative.

Now..... Thin wall axle tubes on a torsion suspension would be a different story.

I have to agree with Russ on this trailer-aid stress issue. That super tire, does not show any stress.

I have used my trailer-aid for some maintenance work, and my D rated tires looked stressed. My Equa-Flex suspension seem to handle it pretty well. I carry my trailer-aid for emergencies, but I think I'll stick with my jacking system for maintenance.

I've had no tire problems, from using the T-aid.

Jerry

Cummins12V98 wrote:

CumminsDriver wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
IMHO this is a great item to use for maintenance and the road side repair. TrailerAid Plus

This was along Hwy 1 CA

That tire doesn't look like it's under any stress from taking all the load. Are they 17.5's ?

GY "H" 17.5" tires with about 105PSI no where the MAX.

Fine in your situation, but with a suspension built like a brick s*** house, you are fine, but some less expensive rigs may have an issue! I will stick with the 12 ton bottle jack, works better than a floor jack in a gravel storage yard.

Before I got smart and started using a TrailerAid the cup on the end of the jack would fit just fine under the "U" bolts and there was no chance of slipping off.

Oh for the TrailerAid Nay Sayers how much pressure do you think is applied when you hit a chuckhole at freeway speed on a tire?

CumminsDriver wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
IMHO this is a great item to use for maintenance and the road side repair. TrailerAid Plus

This was along Hwy 1 CA

That tire doesn't look like it's under any stress from taking all the load. Are they 17.5's ?

GY "H" 17.5" tires with about 105PSI no where the MAX.

frizzen wrote:
gmw

Did you put a pin in the middle to keep the blocks from sliding around on the top of the jack?

It seems to me that having the jack under the axle next to the ubolts with the adjacent tire on the ground is putting a lot less stress on the tube than having the weight of one side of the trailer on a single axle as in the pix above.

No I didn't put a hole and a pin in the block, but that's a good idea.
Having said that, I've used it a lot, and it always seems very stable. As has been noted, one advantage of lifting under the axle is you only have to lift a small amount to get the tire clear of the ground.

gmw

Did you put a pin in the middle to keep the blocks from sliding around on the top of the jack?

It seems to me that having the jack under the axle next to the ubolts with the adjacent tire on the ground is putting a lot less stress on the tube than having the weight of one side of the trailer on a single axle as in the pix above.