Hello.
Well I "lost" my trusty 1990 Cotswold Windrush mostly to the axle rusting away on the end plates.
I am now the proud owner of a 30 year old ABI Marauder in lovely condition. The axle , including the end plates are still in good condition with just some surface rust.
So, I need to get under the van which sits on my driveway, to wire brush and then , on the advice of my local garage who restore vintage cars, hammerite the axle to stop further rusting, especially a problem living a couple of hundred yards from a beach !
So, I feel I should know the answer to this question, but are the four support legs of a caravan designed to hold the entire weight of the van ? When I park up I wind the legs down, but not far enough to lift the tyres off the ground.
I was thinking to do the work that I could put blocks under the legs and wind them right up so the tyres are off the driveway, hopefully giving me enough room to work. I just need to know I'm safe underneath.
Any suggestions most welcome, Mark.
The corner steadies are there to steady the van, they are not designed to lift the caravan. The steadies are usually fixed to the floor so if you try to jack the caravan up using the steadies you will probably hear some nasty noises as the steadies punch their way up through the floor.
You need to jack the caravan up using a suitable jack and then support the chassis on axle stands or something similar to give you access underneath. Do not rely on a jack to support the caravan while you are underneath it, jacks are designed to jack up the vehicle not support it and can fail.
The other possibility is to raise the front of the caravan as far as possible using the jockey wheel so you can get to the front of the axle and then lower the jockey wheel so the rear of the axle is accessible. You will still need to support the chassis on axle stands before you get underneath.
Steadies.. not jacks I believe you will damage the floor. When I fitted a motor mover I lowered the front end as far as I could and managed to crawl shuffle under. Not easy but doable...Safety first
All you have to do is pull the caravan up a pair of levelling ramps and apply the handbrake as that should provide enough clearance to gain access to the underside.
If you had a puncture then you have to jack up the caravan with a suitable lifting jack on either the steel chassis or axle tube as the corner steadies are only fixed to the timber floor so not exactly a good idea to lift over a tonne in weight without doing some serious damage. Always lift the caravan on metal for support.
Thank you for the above replies. As I thought, the legs aren't designed to take the weight of the whole van.
My confusion comes partly from last year when a local mechanic did just this when having a look at my old Cotswold. He said they were OK to take the weight of the van. Luckily all was OK when he DID use the legs to lift the van up. Mark.
Have you used Hammerite before? You don't so much paint it on as ladle it on. It requires as thick a coat as you can get without it running, and if a second coat is required this has to go on after a couple of hours.
An alternative, although not as pretty, is Waxoyl. This is easily sprayed on, even with an old spay bottle from some domestic cleaner product. This makes it easy to top up again if necessary, and also allows easy work on nuts and bolts without damaging the finish
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Topic: Getting under caravan to work on axle.
