What's the best way to change a flat on a loaded trailer? Ran into this problem this weekend towing my K5. It sucked.:doah: Please include all necesary tool items in your response.
A bottle jack for the weight of the trailer and K5,wheel chocks and if posible impact with socket for the trailers lug nuts if not a 4 way lug wrench.
get you a chainsaw and a railroad tie, and then cut yur railroad tie in a trapezoid shape, if you have two or more axles, when you pull your trailer up on it you wont need a jack.
This just happened to me yesterday. I luckily had my handy dandy air compressor I got from Schucks that filled her up to get it home. I would have probably driven the K5 off and used the Dodge jack to get it off the ground. I do always carry a 4 way and my spare for the trailer when going on an outing.....
I always carry a 4 way lug wrnch, a small hydraulic floor jack, and a 4x4 block of wood. On a tandem axle trailer just pull the good tire onto the 4x4 and it will give you the clearance to get the jack under the axle that has the flat. Then just jack up and put the good tire on. If you carry the aforementioned RR tie, you most likely won't even need the jack, but I try not to carry around such large pieces of wood. The equalizer that is between the two axles is what lifts the flat axle up when the good axle is driven onto a block of wood. there are even companies that sell plastic ramps for this purpose, but it's cheaper to just make your own.
flats You can even buy fancy aluminum with a carrying handle. Just make sure that you loosen the lug nuts before you pull the good tire up on the ramp!! I've used wooden blocks and boards. It sure beats getting on the ground to place the jack under a low trailer. And if you have aluminum wheels, make sure that you re-tighted the lugs 2 or 3 times. Steel wheels seem to stay tighter than the high dollar aluminum wheels!!
Yep, it works good. The outside dual tire on a semi can be changed by driving the inside dual onto a block of wood also.
Thats IF its a buddwheel, most new trucks are going to hub centric.....you could maybe get away with doing it on rsty hub centrics as you usually have to sledge hammer the inner wheel off anyways, but i wouldnt try it. if your good you can change either style outside tire if you knoiw how to tak ea tire on and off the rim wihtout removing it from the truck. ive done it more than afew times, but still a PITA compared to doing them on the ground with my bead rollers.
I keep my RR tie cutoff with the trailer all the time. It's either holding the tongue jack out of the mud, serving as a wheel chock for the loaded vehicle, or strapped to the tongue for travel. It's got a 2 1/2" hole recessed 1" into one side to hold the tongue jack centered in place, and a rectangle cutout 1" deep for the hi-lift on the other side. It also works pretty darn well as a non-marring sledgehammer. Good little step stool too. Handy item to carry around.
call AAA... lol nah, i have a tripple axle that is loaded to its limits... i cant unload the truck from the trailer as it doesnt run..(6 years and counting... i know i know... SHADUP! lol) so IF i were to get a flat on the center axle i would block the front and rear axle, ratchet strap the middle adle and drive up the blocks. no jack needed. on a front axle IF i were to have another axle get a flat i would set the jacks, drop the air on the truck bags then use the bottle jack AND my floor jack to take the weight off the tire. floor jack for weight, bottle jack for security. Grant
Flat Tire Durn, But after a 7 mile bike ride, 12 mile horse ride and the rest of the day spent working on a older moter home, plus sucking down all the adult beverages I could hold, all that info is confuseing!!! Guess I'm just old and lazy!!!!!!!
Dude, I haven't consumed any adult bevs. and I'm still confused on that one. BTW, does AAA change trailer tires? Not that I would call them, but my father spends alot of time traveling with his camper, and I got him a AAA membership, so I'd feel alot better with him out there if they'd change the tire cause he can't, although he'd kill himself trying.
umm, a bottle jack that ios the aprpriate size is all you need.......... nothign hard about it.. a 12 ton bottle jack will pickup you whole loaded trailer, it will have no problem picking up one corner of your trailer. no ratchting, droppign bags, blocks of wood.... got 4 china bottle jacks at work, 12 tonners, use them to pick up the conrers of semi trailers, semi trucks, loaded dump trucks when the 30k gray jack is being used to fix tires no problem....... one bottle jack has no problem lifting up one corner of a loaded trailer, stick it under the axle so that way you dont run out of travel on the shaft and you are fine......
[quote='05 2500HD] BTW, does AAA change trailer tires? .[/quote] i dont know, but we do...... 48' loaded moving semi trailer on low pros with a SUV of some kind inside.
[quote='05 2500HD]Dude, I haven't consumed any adult bevs. and I'm still confused on that one. BTW, does AAA change trailer tires? Not that I would call them, but my father spends alot of time traveling with his camper, and I got him a AAA membership, so I'd feel alot better with him out there if they'd change the tire cause he can't, although he'd kill himself trying.[/quote] AAA and trailer tires... hehe... this one is funny... the correct answer is... it depends. on the state on the plan you got on the atitude of the company who they sent out. i stay away from AAA and i insure my trailer through farmers. if i WANTED i could get coverage for flats on all tires. even a flat spare.
Yep, this is what I was talking about. When I was OTR I carried a couple bars with me and a spare tire without a wheel. I had an outside tire on the tractor blowout and I changed it myself in a rest area. A shot of starting fluid and a match blew it on the bead, then I aired it up. It was a PITA, but a lot quicker than waiting for service.
May sound dumb, but could you post a few pictures of this? I underssand the 2 1/2" hole, but am confused on the hi-lift correlation? Also under what circumstances do you use this w/ hi-lift? Thanks. BTW, I just bought a 20' enc trailer & this has me thinking about flats.
i just got my 50ft ramp trailer and dually in service and i had 4 flats out of 6 in 500 miles... two trips... needless to say i REPLACED all of the tires and carry two spares... not a good way to start out a trip to tellico... :doah:
