I have a flat tire. I tried to change it myself and have succeded in getting the old tire off but not the new tire on. The jack just wont go up high enough.
Question is, where can I put the new big jack to jack it up further.
The too small jack is in the designated spot. (under the little plate behind the wheel.)
Help! My trailer is perched outside on that little thing.
Heidi, try using the tongue jack to raise the trailer the rest of the way up to get the new tire on. The alternative is to deflate the new tire, shove it into place, then re-inflate the tire when it is where it is supposed to be.
Terry
if it is not on a paved or otherwise soilid surface just dig down until you have room.
a little work with a shovel is better than knocking it off your jack.
if it is on a solid surface, you will need to put the bigger jack as close as possible to the small one. just remember to stay inline with the other jack. you want to stay on the main front to back frame rail.
john
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you call them ferrets, i call them weasels.
Find something sturdy to set the coch down on. If you have to you could set the brake drum on a peice of wood but it might be best to put the wheel with the flat back on with two or three bolts. Take your wood leveling blocks and put them under the jack so you can get a little more hight.
I cannot stress how dangerous it is to have anything heavy up on a jack. I would strongly recomend some sort of safety stand under the coach so that if it falls it cant hit the ground especialy if your up under it or have your arms in the fender wells. If you don't have a stand a full size spare tire slid up under the frame and some wood blocks on top will be better then nothing.
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1959 22' Caravanner
1988 R20 454 Suburban.
Atlanta, GA
On concrete of course. Tried the tounge jack but I'm scared of that. I have learned my leson about not having the right equiptment. Will try right next to the small on on the front to back line. Thanks, ya'll!
Get a 4X8 piece of wood and back or pull the trailer tire that is not flat onto it. Assuming you have tandem axles. The tow vehicle will hold it in place and you will have easier access to the tire.
Must get a trailer with tandem axels. This is way too precarious.
Managed to get the tire into the well by raising the tounge jack.
Even though I'm just trying to put the flat tire back on now it's
just off by about 1.5 inches. I feel quite silly.
The tounge jack method worked to get the flat tire back on.
I had to squish it down as flat as possible. Now what? I'm back in the same boat I was 2.5 hrs ago. Just what kind of jack should I have? Does everyone drive around with a giant gas station jack in their tow vehicle? I'm real glad I was home when this happened.
Toaster- you wouldn't believe the stacks of stuff I had under the trailer!!Also has my daughter standing by ready to call 911.
Does everyone drive around with a giant gas station jack in their tow vehicle?
AS a matter of fact, I do. Probably in the future the best jack to have would be a ten ton+ capacity bottle jack, with a 4x6 block of wood to go under it on soft ground.
But, that doesn't help for right now.
I have been thinking about this, a dangerous thing for me...
Let's try this.
1) lower tongue jack to the ground.
2) using your little jack, and a good sized block of wood on top of it, jack the jack up as high as it will go. Hopefully, the tire is almost off the ground
3) This is not the safest thing... raise tongue jack as high as it will go.
4) remove flat tire and replace with good tire.
5) reverse other steps to get the trailer back down.
or...
6) Wait till tomorrow, and get a better jack, and do it then (my personal reccomendation.)
Terry
Heidi,
I personaly would wait until morning and call someone to come out and change it
And yes, Terry does drive around with the big gas station jack in the tow vehicle.
Marie
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Take a chance, you just never know!
Originally posted by sd90mac Heidi,
I personaly would wait until morning and call someone to come out and change it
And yes, Terry does drive around with the big gas station jack in the tow vehicle.
Marie
haha I think I can top everybody with my trail truck/service station. I carry spare axle shafts, drive shafts and all the tools to change them. Here is a write up on my trail truck.
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1959 22' Caravanner
1988 R20 454 Suburban.
Atlanta, GA
Believe me I'm going to call in someone to fix it. Really just tried to do it myself for practice in case it happened on the road.
Now that I survived it I can say it's a good thing I now know what I have wont work. I have to go buy a jack I guess. I just dont know where I'm going to carry it. I mean the bikes are going to go on the roof! Maybe I should trade the Tahoe in on a tow truck.
Trailer tire changing is a different kind of thing, not only is it dangerous especially on the road side, it can be almost impossible sometimes on the entry door side. I think trailer tires aren't suppose to go flat, if they were, the manufactures would supply DECENT JACKS. When we had a flat on the door side in a "SOB" many, many, many years ago, we could barely get the flat off the ground with the jack we had, but we yanked and wiggled until the flat came off taking a little lug thread with it. Well, what a fine fix we were in now, because there was no way to get the spare on. To our luck ,an old geezer pulled up behind us, I think it was a 1949 black Plymouth, got out came up to us, looked down and just smiled. Finally he said, "Hi boys, looks like you got a situation here." Rubbing his chin and eyeballing the trailer and jack he realized we were screwed. He stumbled around looking at the stuff we had in the back of our station wagon an noticed a couple of bicycles. "You boy's got an air pump for dem bicycles" he asked. "Think so", we answered. "Good" he said. Anyhoo, he had us let the air out of the spare and sit on it till it was really, really flat and we boy's pushed it on the trailer, listening to the ratchet of a little more lug thread pealing off. We were putting on the lug nuts while the old man drove off. We proceeded to inflate the spare with the bicycle pump. Man, that took forever, I MEAN FOREVER!!!, to blow up that once inflated stupid spare, not to mention the blisters we got on our hands taking turns at the pump. We learned a good lesson from the old geezer. (now we are the old geezers). Today I carry a plastic card that usually brings out a kid in a tow truck to change my tires.
I also carry an electric air pump, just in case.
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