Tire swap

[0rion]

I have 4 new tires sitting in the garage that I plan to put on this week or next. Any tricks out there when swapping tires? I know you can drive up and raise one axle off the ground but I prefer not to do that because of the load it will put on the other tires. I don't want to chance busting a belt on a new tire when I do the 2nd axle. I have a spare which gives me 1 to rotate in but since I'll have to drive up to the place to have them mounted I would like to at least do 2 at a time if I can to save some time and trouble.
I was thinking about using my spare on one and then putting a jack under the spring mount and raising the other axle up to get the 2nd tire off. I would have all the jacks down taking some weight off the suspension so the jack won't be supporting the full load under the axle. That's my plan right now unless I can come up with something better. I really don' t like the idea of raising it by the frame either because of how cheap lippert frames are and it's so high up I'd have to use quite a bit of wood to get the jack high enough to lift it.

[raineman]

Originally Posted by 0rion

I have 4 new tires sitting in the garage that I plan to put on this week or next. Any tricks out there when swapping tires? I know you can drive up and raise one axle off the ground but I prefer not to do that because of the load it will put on the other tires. I don't want to chance busting a belt on a new tire when I do the 2nd axle. I have a spare which gives me 1 to rotate in but since I'll have to drive up to the place to have them mounted I would like to at least do 2 at a time if I can to save some time and trouble.
I was thinking about using my spare on one and then putting a jack under the spring mount and raising the other axle up to get the 2nd tire off. I would have all the jacks down taking some weight off the suspension so the jack won't be supporting the full load under the axle. That's my plan right now unless I can come up with something better. I really don' t like the idea of raising it by the frame either because of how cheap lippert frames are and it's so high up I'd have to use quite a bit of wood to get the jack high enough to lift it.

Not sure if this is an option or not, but I take tires to my local tire shop to be mounted since they have the proper equipment / insurance etc.

They use extremely high and powerful floor jacks that handle the job.

[wingnut60]

You are over-concerned about stressing the other tires. Just place a bottle jack under the spring pad and lift the tire off the ground, change it out and go to the other three. Your tires have WAY more force exerted on them when hitting a bump in the road than just raising one tire off the ground using a ramp. 2 jacks, 2 tires at a time.
Again, don't worry about putting too much static weight on a tire, they face more stress in daily towing.
Joe

[paz]

Originally Posted by wingnut60

You are over-concerned about stressing the other tires. Just place a bottle jack under the spring pad and lift the tire off the ground, change it out and go to the other three. Your tires have WAY more force exerted on them when hitting a bump in the road than just raising one tire off the ground using a ramp. 2 jacks, 2 tires at a time.
Again, don't worry about putting too much static weight on a tire, they face more stress in daily towing.
Joe

Correct! Higher than normal static load on tires isn't much of an issue.

The thing that destroys tires that are overloaded/under-inflated is heat. Heat is generated by excessive flexing of overloaded/under-inflated tires as the tires roll down the road.

[0rion]

I just know when I adjusted the brakes last time by driving the opposing axles up on wood those tires bearing the load were bulging pretty good. Just didn't want to chance that on a new tire. That has to be over the weight rating for both the tires and axle. Just looking for the easiest and safest way to do it.

[twinboat]

The bulging at low or no speed won't hurt them, unless you pinch them against the ground and rim.

Bus's, trucks, motor homes and tractor trailors ride the outer tires up on curbs, on tight turns, all of the time.

[jacknife]

Lippert frames are only made as cheap as the Rv builder requires.

[0rion]

got these swapped out yesterday....went off without a hitch. I did notice that all of my hubs had play in them. I put a little turn on all the castle nuts to take the play out while I had everything apart and shot some grease into the hubs.