if your leveling jacks are hydrolic vs just the crank down type you can use them as you are suggesting to raise the wheel. If you just have the crank down stabilizer jacks leave them up and just raise the one wheel with the portable jack provided to you. Make sure to loosen the lug nuts before raising the wheel off the ground.

I would make sure they balance the tire after mounting it to your rim. Some tire places do not automaticly do that for if they know it is going on a trailer.

Sounds like you have a good handle on things, give it a go and be proud of your accomplishment!

Phil

peg513 wrote:

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When we recently parked for the month we noticed a large, deep gash on our back tire of the door side pair.  We bought our 2008 Mobile Suites used at a dealer.  We have put on about 7,000 miles on the trailer ourselves and have no idea how much from the previous owner.  I believe we can get the tire somewhat local, about 40 miles away and we are thinking of replacing the tire ourselves.

Given the size of the gash we do not want to drive to the tire dealer and risk a blow-out.  The plan is to pull in all slides; use the rear leveling jacks and factory provided tire jack to raise the tire off the ground; using the torque wrench, remove the wheel and take it to the dealer.  Have the dealer replace the tire and inflate it to 150 like the others.  Return home, attach the wheel with the new tire and tighten to the manufacturer recommened torque.

One other piece of information.  Our spare tire can be used, but not for long.  We had an axle alignment issue earlier this year and the tire is worn heavily on one side. 

Now, I have questions.

1)  should we replace the same tire on the off-door side so that we are balanced tire-wise?  Will it make a difference if one tire is newer than the others?

2)  is it safe to use the rear leveling jacks and wheel jack to do this? 

3)  is this an undertaking that is best left to a professional?  If the dealer will come do the work, should we just pay for them to do it?

Any input and advice is welcome.  Thanks.

Peggy 

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You have asked several good questions, but they indicate you don’t have a lot of experience with this particular aspect of RVing.

 

First, you mention 150.  Is that 150psi?  No Mobile Suite tires take 150 psi – at least not the ones that came from the factory.  That was the first tip off you may not be familiar with all you need to know.  If you measured 150 psi in the other tires, they are way over inflated and possibly ruined.

 

As to using the leveling jacks – on a 2008 MS I don’t think there was a leaving system capable of lift the rig.  If you are not familiar with this, don’t do it.  No, the “normal” stabilizing jacks, like come on most trailers, are not capable of lifting the rig – they will collapse.

 

Without going into a long email, in the interest of safety I would get some professional advice and help. This isn’t brain surgery, but your good questions indicate that some knowledgeable, professional advice, from someone on-site, would be the best direction to take.

 

Safe travels

 

Bill

Thanks for the feedback and advice. Both my husband and I have have changed tires on an auto, but this is one area of the rv lifestyle we haven't had to address yet. I did misstate the tire pressure, it is 110 psi not 150. Don't worry, we have not inflated to 150psi, all tires are at 110psi.

We do not have the level up system, only the rear hydraulic stabilizing jacks. Thank you for the reminder of their real function. Funny thing is we cannot find the jack at all, or it is so well hidden we haven't seen it in the 18 months we've had the trailer.

When we had the axle straightened in January while passing through San Antonio, all the tires were inspected to ensure that only the one was the issue. They also checked the other axle and ensured it was also adjusted correctly. All the other tires still look good without abnormal wear or gashes.

We will give the shop a call before heading out and get their advice.

Thanks again,
Peggy

We were successful in changing the tire yesterday. I will summarize the steps we took for any future user who may have a similar problem.

To set context and recap, we were safely in a campground and not alongside the road. The tire was in such bad shape we were afraid to travel any distance to a tire shop to have them do the work for us. It was actually quite an epic adventure, but I will leave out those details. Some may not have gone through all of this, but it worked for us. I have read about the tire changing blocks, we may buy one after this.

1) we ordered a tire from a local shop
2) we borrowed a 3.5 ton floor jack from the same tire shop after paying for the tire
3) we removed the spare tire from it's location under the rear of the trailer
4) pulled in all the slides and pulled up the rear jacks
5) removed the x-chock, but left the normal wedge chocks
6) hooked up and weighted the truck with the trailer. by doing this we removed the possibility of weighting one of the front jacks more than the other and potentially causing problems.
7) loosened the lug nuts on the tire in question using our torgue wrench
8) maneuvered the floor jack under and positioned the lift platform under the spring attachment points, not under the round axle
9) raised the jack enough to lift the tire off the ground so that it would spin
10) we then removed the lug nuts (our neighbor kindly loaned us his air gun making this a quick task)
11) removed the damaged tire and replaced it with the spare. we did this just as a safety measure as we doubted the jack
12) lightly tightened the lug nuts on the spare and lowered the trailer
13) lowered the front feet and unhooked.
14) took in the damaged tire and had the tire shop install the new tire on the rim, balance and inflate to 110psi.
15) we then repeated steps 6- 12 replacing the spare with the new tire. we used the air gun to do the first round of tightening
16) after lowering the trailer we finished tightening the lug nuts with the torgue wrench.
17) we unhooked and releveled