17' Series moving spare tyre

[bigcol]

@Simon I learnt from experience as well........
left Peaceful Bay, driving back to Perth, stopped in Mt Barker, as my Fairlane was playing up (again) - low and behold, I had forgotten to remove the Jockey wheel....... and it had "unwound" itself (no wonder the rear felt higher)
wore out the bearing on the inside of the wheel..... by about 20cm

was another in a long line of miss fortunes for that trip
7 pin plug got jammed turning a corner,and tore off the back of the Fairlane - sitting on the side of Roe hwy at midnight re-wiring
headlight relay blew (at 2.30am) in the hills just out of Armadale - at 90km/hour - lovely - re-wire head lights
get to North Bannister (3.30am)- everyone is freezing (WTF) I was nice and toasty - bloody great hole in the floor - blowing freezing cold air into rest of car
finally get to Peaceful Bay - rear brakes collapse
plug in camper van to power at site - blows all the fuses in the Van....... their park wiring was crap...... had to re-wire the Van
Fairlane played up at Mt Barker - dirty fuel stuffed fuel filter, cracked fuel rail for the injection.....
finally fix that, heading home, starts to rain, put wipers on, and the bloody things fall off...........snapped the crappy cast alloy spindles

2nd last time I ever took HER car instead of mine away camping...........
was without doubt the worst holiday trip we have ever had that one.....

 

[Drover]

If you have the room and some basic gear you can do the axle at home.
You do need 4x jack stands, big bottle jack or trolley jack (not the Jayco "please kill me" jack. ) Accurate measure device, centre punch, new U bolts and nuts, a 50 x 50x5mm plate with a 13mm hole .
Jack van up high, support with stands on chassis, remove wheels, undo hand brake, disconnect electric brakes, undo U bolts, drop spring from hanger, remove axle..now the fun bit measure and mark the position of the spacer block and mark that same position on the opposite side and stick the 50x50x5mm spacer you have there, otherwise it's grind off the old one and use it.
Put spring back in position, bolt axle on using NEW U bolts with HT washers under the axle, connect hand brake cable, electric brakes, wheels back on, adjust hand brake, lower van back to ground.
Your axle is then in the same attitude as it was before except that it is under the spring, you will gain about 100mm. You cannot just roll the axle over, your brakes will be in the wrong position and will not operate correctly.

Of course it is assumed that the person doing this has some common sense and does it in a safe manner using normal safety precautions, if you have to ask then leave it to someone else as you will probably kill yourself. That would also include changing a tyre.....................sorry if I sound hard but there are some real dingbats in this world and as I get older more seem to be around.

 

[Simon]

@bigcol - mate thats sounds like the trip from hell. I think that should be awarded the Clark W Griswold Award for "Perserverance in the face of adversity".

 

[bigcol]

sorry if I sound hard but there are some real dingbats in this world and as I get older more seem to be around.

stop looking for them @Drover
you must remember "commonsense" is just not that Common

 

[bigcol]

if you have to ask then leave it to someone else as you will probably kill yourself. That would also include changing a tyre.....................

@Drover - how do make sure that the axles are at exact right angles to the centre line of the van? If its slightly out of whack would it affect the towing or wheel wear and tear?

you asked..............

you loose..............

hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[bigcol]

you measure and find the center of the Axle
and base all your measurements from there

 

[bigcol]

Simon said: ↑
@@Drover - how do make sure that the axles are at exact right angles to the centre line of the van? If its slightly out of whack would it affect the towing or wheel wear and tear?

And stop cheating by removing your post.......... hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[Simon]

@Drover - how do make sure that the axles are at exact right angles to the centre line of the van? If its slightly out of whack would it affect the towing or wheel wear and tear?

 

[Simon]

I deleted my post because I was going to put it as a follow up to @Drover's post rather than leave my patronising question - but got dragged away and didn't get round to it - NWS I have reposted it for @bigcol's pleasure and amusement.

you measure and find the center of the Axle
and base all your measurements from there

@bigcol - so I guess you are saying that to align the axles, that you need to find a point at the tip of the A-frame to measure from to the same point on the ends of each axle to make sure the axle is perpendicular/square? :thumb: :baby:

 

[bigcol]

or, measure the center of the axle - and mark it
then
measure the center of the Van - and mark it

remember, there is 2 sides to your van and the axle, so measure from BOTH sides to find the center................

as you have NOT moved the suspension mounting locations on the chassis forward or backwards - that will enable the axle to be "within spec" of where it was as long as you have correctly marked where the new spacer block is to sit,
when you re-assemble, make sure your center marks are in the same location

to do the measurement your way @Simon - you would STILL need to measure either the Van and or the Axle to find point D - the right angle

 

[bigcol]

I deleted my post because I was going to put it as a follow up to @Drover's post rather than leave my patronising question - but got dragged away and didn't get round to it - NWS I have reposted it for @bigcol's pleasure and amusement.

I only wanted it back, because without it, it made my "joke" redundant ;-(

 

[Drover]

Good questions but the answer is actually there in my original post on the subject.....an accurate measure......on tablet have to get to desk top.

 

[Drover]

Righto now moved inside, good points noted, you are not changing the aspect of the axle, just moving the spring............the axle has a spacer welded to mount the spring on, what you have to do is mark the position of this spacer on the opposite side of the axle for your spring to sit on thusly the axle should be in the same position, if you do it properly, the important bit is Mirror image. When I did mine I scribed the position of the spacer, centre punched the centre of the centre bolt hole and then transcribed this all to the other side of the axle and welded a new bigger 50x50x5mm plate in position, no need to go to the length of removing the old spacer just to be pretty spot on with your measurements.
Well it's a caravan so within a couple of mm is fine.
The spring has a bolt thru the centre of it which holds it all together ( called a Centre Bolt) and this is what aligns things up, well should anyway ?? If you have heard of a vehicle crabbing well it's usually the centre bolt has sheared and the axle had moved.
It's all pretty simple really, if the centre bolt position is 15mm from the front of the axle originally it should be in the same position, 15mm from front of axle when you move the spring to sit on top of the axle.

Now is that clear as I'm confused now.......anyway no need to overthink the geometry it's all been done with the original set up................unless you have tyres that scrub.......I can sort that out for you too but not tonight, requires a camping barbie trip.

PS: if you have dual axles then thats a whole other world, too.

PSS: re read of previous post's.........you are basically working your whole thing on the punch mark you made at the middle of the spacer centre bolt hole, thats the main align position, stuff it up and you have to do the geometry, if you have a look at where the axle position is located you will notice that the van ain't square, have looked at a few and the centre line is off.
Just a quickie but if you need to align , you need a nice bit of concrete, a marker, a big square and a good tape... I'd go to a tyre place myself.

 

[Bellbirdweb]

I mounted ours on he back bumper. We have only BE at the front, others have installed a fold down spare tyre bracket on the back
View attachment 28545 View attachment 28546
I then converted the old tyre holder into a basket to hold my annexe.
View attachment 28547
The other 'bracket' is one my sone made to hold 2 jerry cans of diesel.
Does that make sense? Mine is a 14.44-5 OB but should be adaptable.
See my thread for more detail.

@Marv_mart did you strengthen the rear bar or just add the spare wheel bracket ?

I want to do the same thing, but after crawling under the rear and looking at the Jayco welds, I was thinking they could do with some strengthening to carry the extra weight.

 

[Meanderthals]

@Marv_mart did you strengthen the rear bar or just add the spare wheel bracket ?

I want to do the same thing, but after crawling under the rear and looking at the Jayco welds, I was thinking they could do with some strengthening to carry the extra weight.

I don't know if all Jayco's are the same but I didn't like the look of the welds on ours either so although I made up a bumper bar it's not for wheel mounting. I added crush tubes internally to both the mounting bar and the chassis rails plus a couple of brackets as a part of the tie down points I wanted.
http://www.expandasdownunder.com/threads/phil-lyns-17-51-2ob.3590/

 

[Drover]

Welding on the rear bar bracket on mine looked good, I have used the original round bar just added some cross braces from the rail part to near mid way on bar and so far tyre rack hasn't showed any signs of parting after about 5,000kms to date. Like the idea of an insert in the tube though might make that an add on. Was going to make a new square bar but only had heavy stuff about 6 - 8mm too bloody heavy.

 

[Marv_mart]

@Marv_mart did you strengthen the rear bar or just add the spare wheel bracket ?

I want to do the same thing, but after crawling under the rear and looking at the Jayco welds, I was thinking they could do with some strengthening to carry the extra weight.

I had it checked by the bracket supplier and they considered it to be sufficiently strong. Has with stood 10,000+ km of travelling, mostly bitumen I must admit. Will double check it prior to Gibb RR next June.

 

[Bellbirdweb]

I had it checked by the bracket supplier and they considered it to be sufficiently strong. Has with stood 10,000+ km of travelling, mostly bitumen I must admit. Will double check it prior to Gibb RR next June.

Our of interest, who was the bracket supplier ?

 

[Marv_mart]

Dario caravan and repairs
http://mobile.dariocaravans.com.au/#
Marv

 

[Leechy]

Im sure heaps of people have considered this, but the low flying nature of the spare tyre on our 17.56-2 is becoming more and more problematic.it scrapes on most driveways and damages the concrete. Im wondering if there is a simple less expensive relocation option i can do myself. It has a normal length drawer bar also.

Ideas would be greatly appreciated.