What jack to use

[cb2710]

Hi All
Firstly want to say how great this site and forum is. It's been a great source of advice for a novice camper.

We have a standard off- road galvanised soft floor camper and I was wondering what jack everyone carries to change a flat. The trailer has an ATM of 1500kg and is obviously higher than a regular trailer. I was looking at getting a hi- lift jack but have read some horror stories of them not being very stable. A few suggest a standard bottle jack with a block of wood to get the extra height needed.
Does anyone have any thoughts as to the best option?
Cheers
Chris

[phil_oz_au]

I've had need to change a blown tyre in the middle of nowhere, or was it back-o-Burke.
I used the standard car (Prado) jack with few problems. As you mentioned height can be an issue.
I overcame this by sitting the jack on blocks of wood.
I always travel with a few blocks of wood, for this and many other purposes.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Phil

[cb2710]

Thanks Phil. Sounds like a few off-cuts is the way to go.
Cheers

[robcaz]

I always keep a wooden jacking plate about a foot square in the car for placing the jack on, also in the camper a couple of 3x5 inch short off cuts to put the rear legs of the camper on if needed when camping on uneven ground.

We did have a blowout on a camper wheel once & I found I could only get the Patrol's hydraulic jack halfway along the axle with the rim on the ground & at that position I could not lift the wheel high enough. After jacking as high as I could, I carefully placed the two blocks under the axle & repositioned the jack under the fish plate where you would normally jack a leaf suspension from.

You may find there is nowhere to place a highlift jack on a soft floor camper as the bedbase overhangs the trailer making it difficult to get the highlift close enough.

The Jeep's scissor jack is a lot flatter & I don't think I would have much trouble getting that under the fish plate of the trailer when the tyre was dead flat.