Bottle Jack for Motorhome - recommendations

[VXman]

Looking for a bottle Jack for the motorhome.

A quick search of 4 ton jacks brings a range up from £17 - £28 with a height range from minimum around 180mm/190mm to maximum of 340mm - 370mm

Any particular recommendations or shallI just go with the cheapest?

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[muddygig]

Looking for a bottle Jack for the motorhome.

A quick search of 4 ton jacks brings a range up from £17 - £28 with a height range from minimum around 180mm/190mm to maximum of 340mm - 370mm

Any particular recommendations or shallI just go with the cheapest?

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I‘ve a little experience jacking vehicles being an ex vehicle technician and AA patrol. Although people might think a average 4 ton vehicle 1 ton in each corner will do or average 2 ton jack will suffice in practice I’ve found they really struggle And that’s the last thing you want when your expensive machine is up in the air and either goes on the wobble or the jack gives up. Yep I’ve been there. Before you even think of jacking make sure you know where to Jack, that it’s level and safe and on secure ground, use wooden flat blocks unless on hard concrete. I’m using a 5 ton bottle jack from machine mart and that even struggles a bit so the people talking about using a higher capacity are (in my opinion) on the right track and are safer. Remember if your having doubts about jacking , by all means carry a spare but leave the jacking to the experts, it might save you a whole load of misery plus you won’t have to buy a jack !

 

[NorwayNeil]

Wait till you have to raise a front wheel. Different kettle of fish with the scissor jack. You need muscles like Popeye to get the wheel clear of the ground.

I wonder why that is? Loaded up for a trip, the back axle is carrying more than the front on the 3 vans we've had (it's also rated for more - 2.0t on our 3.5t Ducato-based semi integrated).

 

[Realist]

I don’t need a jack maybe for the car but this looks handy.

 

[Jar.v8]

Have a search for Sprinter bottle jack; plenty on eBay. We've used one on our Frankia i7000bk (4.6T), built on a Sprinter chassis..

Looked on ebay and those sprinter bottle jacks are rated at 2.6 tonnes, seem good german quality and have a long extension (almost double). They also have a shaped head (a bit like the end of an axle stand) to prevent slip on a round axle tube. They start at about £60 and I imagine you could consider them as new (most will never have been used). Sounds like a very good call, I much prefer secondhand quality than cheap new poor quality and its recycling/ repurposing.

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[BOWHOUSE52]

Are you just going on the figures or have you tried lifting one corner of the vehicle.
We had the Autotrail Arapaho and tried lifting one corner at the rear axle to service the brakes, a four ton bottle jack wasn't happy with this task, we bought a 10 ton trolley jack and up it went no worries and we felt a whole safer, axle stands were placed once desired height was achieved.
Don't skimp on safety.

Could not agree Moore the bigger the better When you are working with a weight like that be safe or you my never drive your van again

 

[autorouter]

I wonder why that is? Loaded up for a trip, the back axle is carrying more than the front on the 3 vans we've had (it's also rated for more - 2.0t on our 3.5t Ducato-based semi integrated).

The force needed to move a scissor jack is variable. When it's nearly flat it takes much more force than when it's halfway up. Maybe the front lift point is a lot lower than the rear one.

 

[Clive Mott]

The jack supplied with the vehicle should be up to the job of wheel changing. Anything bigger deminishes payload. Never assume equal weight distribution on all corners.

 

[VXman]

Well this thread has taken on a new life. I originally asked this question back in December! Anyway -still haven't got round to buying anything but I feel compelled to respond to a few comments.

Are you just going on the figures or have you tried lifting one corner of the vehicle.
We had the Autotrail Arapaho and tried lifting one corner at the rear axle to service the brakes, a four ton bottle jack wasn't happy with this task, we bought a 10 ton trolley jack and up it went no worries and we felt a whole safer, axle stands were placed once desired height was achieved.
Don't skimp on safety.

I just want something for the rare occasion I might need to put the spare on while on a trip. Not intending taking a full garage load of equipment on holiday with me. I have done it with the supplied scissor jack but it was slow and hard work. I want something easier to use but still compact and small.

All this equipment needed to change a wheel when you could simply call the breakdown service you have probably paid for.

As above - don't want to take much at all. A small bottle jack that will lift one corner a little easier than the supplied scissor jack. IMO it is worth that. I had a slow puncture in Germany in September. I was able to put the spare on in an hour. No need to ringing a breakdown service, hanging around, being ripped off by a foreign garage that don't have good English. I just changed it and carried on with my holiday.

Maybe it's different on a Windows machine but I'm using an Android and can only see your cartoon car. VX220?

I mean the panel on the left with details of the vehicle. I can see you have a Murvi Morello.

In my view you really need 2 jacks, both twice as big as you think you will need.
One for home must be a trolley jack as big and as high a lift as you can afford.
The travel jack should still be a trolley jack but 2 ton is adequate and more important an axle stand/stands.
If its got to be a bottle jack to travel then as people say, spreader plates are more important than lifting capacity.
You aint gunner lift your complete Motorhome up!

Not thinking of setting up a motorhome service/repair garage. Just an emergency tyre change!

The jack supplied with the vehicle should be up to the job of wheel changing. Anything bigger deminishes payload. Never assume equal weight distribution on all corners.

Yes the scissor jack is up to the task if you are careful but it's slow and hard work. I would imagine a bottle jack would require less effort and not take up anymore space.

 

[stuartholmes]

I mean the panel on the left with details of the vehicle. I can see you have a Murvi Morello

Still baffled. Can't see any panels except the one I'm writing in. Prob not irportant anyway..Maybe I'll try a desktop sometime.

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[VXman]

Still baffled. Can't see any panels except the one I'm writing in. Prob not irportant anyway..Maybe I'll try a desktop sometime.

Odd. I am on a laptop. Can't remember what it looks like on my tablet or phone to be honest. Maybe not visable there.

 

[PaulOH]

I'm very glad this thread has reinvigorated. I'm in the market for a bottle jack as my old van came with no wheel changing equipment at all, but fortunately has never let me down.

Luck favours the prepared so a 5-6 tonne bottle jack is on the shopping list, and a selection of those bits of substantial timber I throw in the corner of the garage shall be analysed for loadspreading suitability. I think I'm going to have a practice of jacking and removing the wheel from each of the four corners. It'll also mean I'll be able to slacken the nuts - I remember being stranded in a car and having to pay for breakdown assistance because the tyre-gun tightened nuts couldn't be opened without special equipment.

Given the small heads on bottle jacks and the various homemade solutions to this, would it be advisable to prepare a piece of timber to fit over the top of the jack at the point of contact with the jacking point?

I've a picture in my mind of wild and unseen instability , but I'd be worried that the bottle jacks could do damage to the jacking point by concentrating the load?

 

[Dave Scadding]

Just a thought. Would a bottle jack fit under the van when the tyre is flat and if it did would it then lift it high enough to get the wheel off the ground??

 

[JockandRita]

Just a thought. Would a bottle jack fit under the van when the tyre is flat and if it did would it then lift it high enough to get the wheel off the ground??

Under the van on the chassis, possibly, but under the axle, possibly not.
Driving the flat up on to a block of wood may provide the clearance required.

You only need ro raise the wheel enough to facilitate removal and exchange, ie, a minimal raise where possible.

If in doubt, get recovery out.

Cheers

Jock.

 

[the1andonly]

The one thing that has just been brought up is undoe the wheel nuts at home to check you are capable and don't forget to tiewrap the wheel trim back on. Took me over a year to buy a sensibly priced Fiat one let alone Rapido.
What specific height (low and high) requirements are there for a Ducato cab (rear is ok with std jack) .
Are there any sensible locations for the front lift other than the jacking point? Currently the jacking point is used to mount my door steps.

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[stuartholmes]

Odd. I am on a laptop. Can't remember what it looks like on my tablet or phone to be honest. Maybe not visable there.

View attachment 711433

Yep, completely different on Android phone!!

 

[Jev88]

Picked up a 10 ton bottle jack MachineMart clearance. Not that much bigger than my old 2 tonne bottle.

 

[NorwayNeil]

Odd. I am on a laptop. Can't remember what it looks like on my tablet or phone to be honest. Maybe not visable there.

View attachment 711433

This is a screengrab of my 8 year old iPad Air2 (9.7" screen)

 

[stuartholmes]

This is a screengrab of my 8 year old iPad Air2 (9.7" screen)

View attachment 712367

I solved the puzzle!! It's not about the device or the software, it's the orientation!
I normally operate with my phone in portrait mode, & don't see the side panel, but if I turn it to landscape the view suddenly matches yours. Same in both of my browsers. Must have been deliberately made to work that way as a design choice to avoid my portrait view becoming impossibly narrow.
I'll be testing this on other websites in future in case I'm missing other great stuff!! Thanks for helping me discover it, even though it has (almost) nothing to do with campervans, mobile homes or bottle jacks!!