I have rarely had to use a jack on my caravan. Touch wood. I have used a scissor jack on my drive, and also tried an inflatable jack. Also a hydraulic jack.Each in ideal conditions during routine maintainance. But the scissor is long winded, and the blow up makes me wonder how safe. As a mech, we always used trolley jacks, but maybe a bit heavy to carry on trips out. So in reality what have you used for a breakdown on the road?
The last time I had to replace the wheel on the camper* at the roadside I wound up using both the scissor jack and a small hydraulic bottle jack! The problem with the latter is it doesn't fit under the axle easily.
I used to carry a trolley jack when I had a Landrover but don't now I've got a car.
*My own fault - hadn't tightened the wheel nuts properly. Fortunately everythign survived.
Had a blowout on the motorway last year and could not get the scissor jack to start as the van was too low so we ran the van up the ramp that we use for levelling the van on site which made it much easier.Take a small trolley jack now.
Quote: Originally posted by geeljay on 01/2/2009
Thanks for that. The ko jack looks the gear to me. Piggy bank raid before we start our adventures. Cheers
I thought of buying one but compared the weight to a smallish aluminium trolleyjack and decided to buy the trolleyjack - more useful generally perhaps - also trolleyjack was cheaper.
Quote: Originally posted by geeljay on 01/2/2009
Thanks for that. The ko jack looks the gear to me. Piggy bank raid before we start our adventures. Cheers
I thought of buying one but compared the weight to a smallish aluminium trolleyjack and decided to buy the trolleyjack - more useful generally perhaps - also trolleyjack was cheaper.
I've previously used a trolley jack no problems but having switched to Ko jack ,which is quite a heavy bit of kit i'll concede, imho the Jo Jack wins hands down on two points,firstly it doesnt need any movement on the ground or try to move the van other than upwards to make up for not being able to move, as a trolley jack tends to , because it lifts straight up and secondly it fits very snugly onto the fitted plates.
If an when I change my camper* I may well go over to the Jo Jack. I accept they're pricey and heavy, but I would like the peace of mind of the secure fixings (plus the ability to use it easily for levelling - some boat rally fields I camp on are very uneven!
*Mine's a 1978 chassis so doesn't have the fixing points for the brackets. As I'm hoping to change it this year I decided to wait.