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Old 04-04-2011, 01:41 PM   #1
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I have a 2011 CTX and wanted to see if anyone new of the correct way to jack up the wheels to inspect the brakes. My understanding (if correct) is the axels are thin tubed and could crush or bend with pressure from a jack.
That being said I would think the best way to lift it would be on the frame near the wheels.
Does anyone have any experience on this?
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Old 04-04-2011, 02:35 PM   #2
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Yes You only use the frame to jack up the RV. Never jack it up from under the axles, you will crush them.
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Old 04-05-2011, 09:06 AM   #3
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This is one thing I never thought of. I assumed if a flat occured; you could just set the jack up under the axle for the tire that was flat. I also have friends that set their trailers up on jack stands using the axles during the off season months to keep the load off the tires. I have never done this. Seems like a lot of extra work for little assurance. Of course they don't owne Crossroads. Anyone have a link to jacking up a Crossroads unit. I guess I should study the units owners manual Huh ! Thanks for the heads up. Deputydog



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Old 04-05-2011, 10:38 AM   #4
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Here is a pdf from Lippert about changing a tire. http://www.lci1.com/LIP/6-7-10-0134.pdf
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Old 05-19-2011, 09:41 PM   #5
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I need to jack mine to replace tires & re-pack bearings. It looks like the gas line is mounted to the bottom of the right side frame. Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks!
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Old 05-19-2011, 11:34 PM   #6
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I have never used a jack on a tandem axle trailer. I run one wheel up on blocks and this lifts the wheel in front or behind off the ground. You can do this on both sides of the trailer giving you access to two wheels at a time. The just repeat the process for the other two wheels.

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Old 05-20-2011, 01:17 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rambleaway
I have never used a jack on a tandem axle trailer. I run one wheel up on blocks and this lifts the wheel in front or behind off the ground. You can do this on both sides of the trailer giving you access to two wheels at a time. The just repeat the process for the other two wheels.
I would recommend only one wheel at a time. Example the axle weights on my cruiserare 3980 and 3940. That is a total of 7920. The axles arerated at 5200. The lippert axles do not have much overload margin. You may bend an axle as a result. As for the frame problem I use a 2x4 that I have notched out for the gas line. But always use a block between the jack and frame to spead out the forces some.
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Old 05-20-2011, 03:02 AM   #8
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you can get cheap ramps from walmart that have a high enough load rating. I use them to pull the trailer up on. in fact I take them with me whenever the trailer is behind the truck. I changed a tire once with a jack on the side of the road, never again. with ramps, the load will be spread out more on the dirt (if you are on dirt) and won't sink like a jack. a set of heavy duty ramps is less than 30.00
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Old 05-20-2011, 03:55 AM   #9
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I have tried using my lynx levelers to try to "ramp" up one wheel up to get the other off the ground and it looks like it would take a very tall stack to get it done. I stopped because it just looked awfully precarious to me. Part of the issue I had also was the equa-flex suspensionsystem allowed a lot of movement without actually lifting the axle much. Because of this I have just jacked it up on the frame and I too have the gas line running right along the frame. This is just not well thought out to me. I guess the more I think about this, even running one wheel up on a ramp to float the other is nota viable option because aren't you just transfering all that weight onto one axle anyway? If the issue is the concentration of weight onone small spot on the axlethen what if you fabricated a "cradle" thatwould mate up with the top of the jack and the U-bolts that hold the axle to the springs. If that cradle wherecontoured to spread the force out onto the U-boltsevenly then you should not have to worry about crushing theaxle because of too much force in a small area. I would think it would be like trying to crush an egg by squeezing itinyour closed fist as opposed to squeezing it between your thumb and middle finger. Iam no engineer but maybe there is some logic to this?

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Old 05-20-2011, 04:53 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Chuck N. Wined
I have tried using my lynx levelers to try to "ramp" up one wheel up to get the other off the ground and it looks like it would take a very tall stack to get it done. I stopped because it just looked awfully precarious to me. Part of the issue I had also was the equa-flex suspensionsystem allowed a lot of movement without actually lifting the axle much. Because of this I have just jacked it up on the frame and I too have the gas line running right along the frame. This is just not well thought out to me. I guess the more I think about this, even running one wheel up on a ramp to float the other is nota viable option because aren't you just transfering all that weight onto one axle anyway? If the issue is the concentration of weight onone small spot on the axlethen what if you fabricated a "cradle" thatwould mate up with the top of the jack and the U-bolts that hold the axle to the springs. If that cradle wherecontoured to spread the force out onto the U-boltsevenly then you should not have to worry about crushing theaxle because of too much force in a small area. I would think it would be like trying to crush an egg by squeezing itinyour closed fist as opposed to squeezing it between your thumb and middle finger. Iam no engineer but maybe there is some logic to this?

Lonnie
When the springs are on the top of the axle as with most newer 5th wheels there is no weight tranfered to the axle tube by the Ubolts. If you do the cradle now you have trasferred the weight to the Ubolts and a very small contact area on the axle tube. You will most likely collapse a lippert axle tube. Lippert is very clear do not jack on the axle or axle componets.
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Old 05-26-2011, 07:46 AM   #11
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I sent Crossroads an e-mail last weekend for their input,unfortunatelyRandy & I are swapping voice mails. My new tires are sitting at Discount Tires waiting for them rims...
Guess I'll either drop the gas line, do the tires & bearings, & re-install it. Or, if their's enough play in the flex hose on the ends I'll mount it up higher where it should be.
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Old 05-27-2011, 11:37 AM   #12
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I got tried of moving that gas line out of the way every time I wanted to jack on the frame. So I moved it about 3 inches inward toward the centerline of the trailer. I just used5 pieces of 1 1/2X 5 inch X 3/16 thick steel flat bar to make extentions to mount the pipe to. I attached the extentions to the frame using the bolts that are already there holding the underbelly clamp material to the frame. That way I didn't drill any new holes in the frame.I had to cuta couple of inches off the front crossovergas pipe and rethread it but that was pretty simple.









As metnioned above, the placement of that gas pipe was not one of Crossroads finer achievements. Itnot only is a pain to deal with for us DIY folks, but you can bet thatmore thana few dealersjust use a floor jack on the axle because they can'tget to the frame without moving that pipe. I've seen them do it.More than once!
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Old 05-27-2011, 12:34 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridgeman
I got tried of moving that gas line out of the way every time I wanted to jack on the frame. So I moved it about 3 inches inward toward the centerline of the trailer. I just used5 pieces of 1 1/2X 5 inch X 3/16 thick steel flat bar to make extentions to mount the pipe to. I attached the extentions to the frame using the bolts that are already there holding the underbelly clamp material to the frame. That way I didn't drill any new holes in the frame.I had to cuta couple of inches off the front crossovergas pipe and rethread it but that was pretty simple.









As metnioned above, the placement of that gas pipe was not one of Crossroads finer achievements. Itnot only is a pain to deal with for us DIY folks, but you can bet thatmore thana few dealersjust use a floor jack on the axle because they can'tget to the frame without moving that pipe. I've seen them do it.More than once!
Yep I have seen the floor jack under the axle too at Discount tire. My local Discount tried to jack mine up with a floor jack under the axle. I stopped them and explained to them that they should not do that on any trailer as it will crush the axles. The tire tech looked at me with the deer in headlights look while I explained this. So when the manager came I explained it to him and he agreed to not jack up by the axle. So whatch it when you drop something off, you may want to be there when they put new tires on.
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Old 05-27-2011, 06:27 PM   #14
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That's why I'm taking mine off here at the house. I don't think their floor jacks will reach up to the frame. Plus, I want to do the bearings at the same time.
Not knocking Discount Tire, they gave me a great price on the tires, theymatched the discounttiredirect.com E-bay price! But, I'll jack up my own Cruiser.
The gas line won't be as easy to move as I thought, it runs thru the suspension. It sits of to one side of the frame, hopefully my bottle jack can catch enough of the other side to jack it up safely. Will find out this weekend.
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Old 05-27-2011, 11:21 PM   #15
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Last weekend, I had to replace two tires. I placed a 4ton bottle jack so that it was lifting on the spring just beside the axle shaft. This way, I only needed to raise the trailer high enough to remove and replace the tire. I figure that if the axle can push up on the spring then I can use the jack in the same way.
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Old 05-28-2011, 12:50 AM   #16
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Purchase a trailer aid just pull up on it and you can remove one wheel no worries about place ment of a jack

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Old 05-28-2011, 02:26 AM   #17
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A trailer aid would be nice for a flat, but taking one tire at a time to Discount would be too much of a hassle.
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Old 05-28-2011, 11:36 PM   #18
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Quote:
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A trailer aid would be nice for a flat, but taking one tire at a time to Discount would be too much of a hassle.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I put on the spare tire on one side and took off the tire on the other side and only made two trips to the tire shop. One trip for each axle.
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Old 06-10-2011, 04:56 PM   #19
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I installed maxxis tires on our cruiser. I jacked each side at the Trailair Equaflex shackle. Used a bottle jack that fit in the reinforced shackle area between the springs. Carefully jacked and checked for any irregularities as the RV was lifting. Able to lift both wheels on one side. Completed the tire work on one side and lowered. Did not find any signs on the shackle that a jack was used. The wide track stance allows a jack to be used between the tires. Used the same procedure on the other side. No issues.
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