On caravans that are built on the lightweight ALKO chassis, jacking points do not exist unless you purchase an add-on kit. This video shows how to jack up a caravan without the jacking add on kit in a safe controlled manor.
I never knew that you needed to put the bottle jack under the axle plate...so far I have been lifting up the van on the chassis Rail beside the wheel. Big lesson learned....thank you !
Had to replace a tyre while on a pitch (twin axle caravan), Tyres on the drive (Halfords) had the correct size and load capacity tyre and came to fit it. The tyre fitter had a hydraulic jack which covered a wide area of the chassis and he'd obviously done this before. Attached the car and chocked the opposite side. Lifted the van, wheel off, new tyre fitted and wheel back on in about 10 minutes. Lowered the van and then the question "what's the torque setting for the wheel nuts?". Ooops, I had no idea! Into the handbook and found the settings whilst also on the phone to a caravan friend for advice. 115Nm! Always keep that information handy, along with the wheel sizes. My other tips is: Get a torque wrench (handy if you have to change a wheel yourself) and know the settings for your wheel nuts (both fitted to alloy wheels and steel wheels (spare)).
You have produced a series of practical videos. Permit me to make a suggestion which makes things easier in real life. Should you have a flat tyre, use the car to run the flat tyre up to the top of your levelling ramp before starting to jack the caravan up. This avoids the problem that there may be insufficient clearance between the ground and the chassis to allow the jack to be inserted. The spare tyre will be inflated and needs more ground clearance than the flat it replaces and the jack may be unable to give sufficient lift to accommodate this if it was started from the lower point. This also allows more clearance for the underslung Al-Ko spare wheel carrier to drop down and clear the longitudinal chassis members, especially if the flat tyre is on the side of the release. I trust that this is not seen as a criticism, just an improvement?
Thanks for the video. I've fitted a jacking bracket which I made myself from some square steel tubing with a bolt through it to locate the head of the bottle jack. I'm lucky enough to have access to an engineering workshop. The only thing I would say about the way you jacked the van is that I would have put a piece of wood between the jack and the axle tube to protect the tube. Keep sharing the love!
Morning, yes - the wood is an excellent idea, and in subsequent lifts, this is indeed what we have done. Sound like your solutions is an excellent alternative. Thanks for stopping by Take Care Dan
Having seen your video about fitting the shock absorbers, I wondered why you hadn't fitted the Al-Ko jacking points which would make the process of a wheel change so much easier, better access and zero chance of the jack slipping, down side like the shocks slightly added weight to the unit, but well worth the effort.
Thanks for that will be checking my caravan at the weekend for jacking points. Better to know about it now then on your journey in the dark, wet stuck on the side of the road
Excellent Andrew, its worth having a trial at jacking, getting the spare wheel off and also changing the tyre, it requires more thought than that of a car. Let me know how you get on. Dan
Another episode of ‘van life carefully explained - your vids totally ace it 👍 I have a newby question - could one not chock the jockey wheel side-on to prevent the ‘swing’ effect? Only I’d quite like to do a quick winter tyre rotate and hitching up to the car leaves it half out in the road and also blocks the pavement. If not, it taking the van for a tow around the block having chalked the tyres’ current position could be the thing to do, especially as I’ll also need the handbrake off. Alas I don’t have a few feet of drive to just roll it back or forth a bit. Any top-tips welcome!
Good tips on jacking up but The weigt of spare wheel and jack etc I decided that I would call out Greenflag to assist especially if on route and the time delay wouldn't be much different by the time I attempted to do it myself and you can't on motorways anyway.
I always carry a small trolley jack in its own case ,bottle jacks are very unstable and need to be on good ground ,also carry wood to put under jack,so you have the wheel of ,cars coming past rock the van ,real danger of jack slipping ,small piece of wood between metal surfaces,iejack to van ,yes you are right steadies are not for jacking ,but I would certainly put down until I had the new wheel on,better the van got damaged not you
Thanks for this. Really useful. Crazy that caravans aren't routinely supplied from new with jacking points. I was surprised Lunar simply tell you to jack up on the chassis if you can find the right area behind the wheels. Not impressed. So many extras to think about when you take up caravanning, don't you think? When I queried this at the dealer on pickup, they simply said get the breakdown service out. Hardly useful advice for routine maintenance and turning wheels in storage etc.
Hi Phil, yeah that's pretty poor advice from the dealership, however - if on a motorway and I had a flat tyre, I would certainly get the 4th emergency service out. also its pretty hard to get a jack under the axle tube when the tyre is flat, so its quite a challenge regardless. Glad the video has helped. Have a look at us installing the Ko-Jack system onto the van, that saved us when we had a flat tyre. Speak soon Dan
Just a note, obviously not recommend unless your really stuck. But I have successfully lifted a caravan and changed the wheel using the corner stands. I would also recommend once the van is up on the bottle Jack and you are about to remove a wheel or preform work put the corner stays down just to steady the van and limit the risk of the Jack slipping.
I was wondering (though I do not know if the caravan floor can take it) if you had used a wooden plank to spread the load on the floor above, could it have taken the load and given you a better jacking point? I used to do simmilar to rusty old cars who's jacking points were always the first thing to rust away (Irony, I think it is something with a lot of iron in it).
Hi Rob, No - the wooden floor is actually quite weak. The floor is a thin ply, with a foam inner core, then another thin ply. There is a real rush of splitting the floor if any weight is applied to it. With caravans it is best to use either the dedicated jacking point, or the very far ends of the Axle tube. Hope that helps - and a really valid point, so thank you for raising it. Dan
Out of interest when we had the van at the dealer we bought it from to sort a problem with the Al-Ko wheel lock receiver they jacked it up with a trolley jack under the motor mover. Is this is good idea or not? Carrying a small trolley jack around for emergencies could be an option and because they start low it should in theory be much easier to get it under a van with a flat tyre. Great channel by the way, keep up the good work, very informative for someone who is new to caravanning like myself.
Thanks for video. Had the tyre been flat and therefore the caravan lower to the ground, do you think the jack would have fitted under the jacking point that you used?
Good video but it makes you wonder with caravan manufacturers they fit a spare wheel and storage cradle but not a jacking point it reminds me of a caravan technician when asked why did manufactures of caravans do not treat the timber framing on caravans agains rot I was told it add to much weight to the van really I just shook my head
HI Dan, Do you think it possible to make a jacking bracket yourself? I.E. 2 correct size bolts, length (A) metal metal to fit the 2 bolts through and a bit of metal (B) attached? (welded) at 90 degrees to (A) to fit the bottle jack top? (KOjak & Alko side jacks are very expensive for what they are?), it occurs to me that as long as the welded 90 joint between A & B is good it should be alright? your comments will be invaluable (Caravan resident genius)
A good point, slacken the wheel nuts before lifting, nip up before lowering, I like to tighten when the wheel is back on the ground. Another good video by the Trudgians.
I have a Reich motor mover Remote control only working In reverse back three buttons I'm getting nothing In forward three buttons Could you give me any advice Thank you Bill Tomkins Single axle abbey Safari 460
I didn't hear you mention that as soon as you have jacked up the van, an axle stand should be placed under the axles to support the van should the jack fail.
Hi Ben, I would strongly recommend you DO NOT use the steadies. on ALKO chassis, they are not connected to the chassis, they simply are connected to the floor. They are not designed to take a lot of weight, and they will split the floor. Finally to minimise the jack slipping, i would use a Axle stand to ensure the 'van doesn't move further - but with the tow car connected its movement should be minimised. Look out for a follow up video in a couple of weeks - where we install some jacking points on the 'van Thanks
Well, like I said not recommend but got us out of a pickle. I find it odd that a manufacturer would not make the stays strong enough, as often on sites we found ourselves having to put a fair amount of weight on them to level up. But we don't stay on posh sites like you 😝. Farmers field normally. Good channel and content though mate. 👍
Cheers Ben, Remember these are steadies, not jacks. in days of old, you could have gotten away with more abuse, but not on the ALKO chassis. Its about time we had a meet up again soon eh ? I'm doing less and less on radio at the mo. so its about time we had a catch up. Speak soon fella.
Would a trolley jack be easier? I noticed that when the bottle jack was being pumped up the caravan was moving and could've fallen off the jack. It isn't really all that much different to jacking up a car. My 1991 Coachman came with the handbook which shows where to jack on the (galvanized) chassis.
Morning, Im sure a trolley jack would be easier, but a couple of points. Because the location of where we need to jack, the trolley jack would have very little swing to operate the handle. Another point is carrying a trolley jack when going on holiday - we simply wouldnt have the room. The caravan would always move slightly forward or back when jacking regardless of the jack used etc - hence why its so important to have the caravan connected to the car. It was after this video that we decided to purchase the Ko-Jack system, that made the whole operation a lot easier. Hope that helps Dan
I would be very wary of using the jack directly onto the axle tube. The point loading will be very high and potentially deform the tube.. Personally., I would interpose a flat metal plate to spread the load.
HI Rob, yes absolutely. all brakes must be fully on and also add some chocks to the side of the caravan that is not being lifted. I hope that helps. Dan
Hi guys. Someone has already mentioned about the 4" drop when jacking following a flat. Had this with a friends van as we were travelling in convoy (of two) on a motorway. Not good but it was near side and away from the traffic. We left the second outfit a good 25 yards back from the injured one to act as protection against anyone straying on to the hard shoulder. Yes the axle was too low to get the jack under so after a combination of using the bottle jack to lift via the chassis (yes I know it's a huge no no but needs must at the time) we then plonked the trailer axle on to an axle stand which I keep in the locker for when the van stores for any length of time. The stand held the unit up enough to get the wheel off and when bringing it back down we could use the better jacking point on the axle to lower the van on to the lovely new tyre. Now then. We had applied brakes and the car was still hitched but van movement from the motorway traffic flying past while we were on the hard shoulder was an issue. We dropped the corner steadies to cancel this issue. Worked just like on site on a windy day and made the job a good deal easier and it felt safer. Corner steadies retracted prior to lowering the van back down obviously. Curious about those AL-KO jacking points as they fit to the chassis which is lower than the axle. Interested to see the shape and how they fit. Thanks for the vid.
Seen the side jack point now. It gives a lot more room for jacking. Doubtless it will be away from the motor mover. Be daft if it was obstructed by that ;-) Buy jacking bracket point thingies at next opportunity :-)
Have you thought about having to jack a caravan to change a flat tyre where the caravan would be 4 inches lower you wouldn't get the jack under the chassis. You need a lower jack.
HI Nigel, you are correct, hence why we purchased the KoJack system, however in some cases it will still be too low. So in that case - a good way around this issue is to use either a levelling ramp to pull the caravan wheel up by a few inches, or a plank of wood to give that clearance. Thanks for popping by. Dan
When jacking up a caravan it should be hitched to a tow vehicle to prevent it from pivoting round and falling of the jack. Corner steadies should raised.
Shit I thought it was for a Dodge Caravan, not a camping trailer. I didn't know they call the "ground" a "floor". How do you buy flooring planks for your house? Ask for wood grounding? "I need a 40 square yards of vinyl grounding please". Just kidding . Nice video.
Hi Kurt, we have some odd logic here. Flooring planks - well they are known as floorboards. and we'd ask for 25 meters of Floor boards or wooden flooring, 1 inch thick... Yep, mixing imperial with Metric... No wonder no one understands us...
I think u should be changing the wheel when its flat, like a real sinareo, I don't think the bottle jack would fit. So what u have done is totally misleading..
If using AA or RAC, do contact them and ask "what if i have a caravan and a collision" or "What if i have a caravan and require recovery" you'd be surprised how may recoveries are undertaken without the knowledge of a caravan in tow.
Sorry guys but using a bottle jack like shown just does not seem safe.Any movement and it will surly slip off.Ok much safer attached to the car and the opposite wheels chocked but even then I would not risk it.
Im confused, have you actually watched this video ? The caravan is attached to the car, the opposite side is chocked, the caravan does not move. If you have another way of safely jacking a caravan, please share it with us all. Also, please watch the Jacking points video we created after this one, which demonstrates the add on jacking points. Thanks
Yes I have watched the video.I am talking here about personal experience and my opinion. I have looked at trying to lift the caravan so both wheels are off the ground for winter storage.In my opinion the top of the bottle jack does not locate into a secure locking position to the chassis and in my opinion can and may slip.Also to get a decent leverage to pump the jack up is very difficult as the lever on these little jacks is very short and this can result in you actually moving the jack accidently.Maybe will work on a very firm ground,no wind and chocked very securly. Personally for me after experiance attempting to use a bottle jack I resorted to getting a small trolley jack.Yes ok for me as we tow with a land Rover discovery D4 so no problem with weight or space.I am adapting the top of a axle stand with a U shaped top cut to fit over the top of the bottle jack ram which will I hope make it secure.Thanks for your prompt reply you must be at your PC like me.Have a great Christmas and happy new year.Love your videos by the way.
Ahh, ok - i think it was lost in translation, sorry. Yes i know what you mean about slip, this was the reason we installed the Purple Line system to give a good connection to the bottle jack. This was a far better solution than the ALKO side jack system in my opinion. As for ground conditions, i couldn't agree more. As you can see the ground at our storage yard is pretty gravelly so we used wide planks to disperse the load. Will be really interested to see your U shaped bracket, this is something caravaners would love to see im sure. Thanks for the wishes, just sat at the computer finishing off a few things before the sherry & mince pies take over ;-) take care Dan
