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safety points to support bus
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Had fun over labor day drivers side tag axle tire blew while parked at a campground in janesville wi It was 91 degrees that day side wall blew thank God there were no children present drew a large crowd lucky for me i use truck serv out of janesville they came out tues they put a 20 ton bottle jack under frame rail running along side of engine bus went right up allowing easy tire removel had replaced steers so had tire to replace had pass side done friday the dot date was read wrong by me they were old tires 3 digit new dot is 4 digit with 7 yr dot window lucky i was not on road at time of blow out TAG
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If my understanding of where they placed the jack is correct you are fortunate no damage occurred.
People who do roadside service are likely not familiar with the safe lift poins for the axles or chassis. As owners we have to understand where those points are because there is a great deal of danger associated with using the wrong points to place a jack.
I would urge each owner to learn where those points are, and if necessary spray them with some real obvious colors so you can tell a service technician to jack up under the yellow post or something like that.
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Now might be the time to mention that sometimes it is difficult/impossible for a tow truck operator, for whatever reason, to get the jacks they carry under the coach jack points after a tire has blown and the wheel rim is on the ground while on the side of the road. If there is a 20 ton short jack available, I intend to get one, but so far the 20 ton bottle jack(s) I have worked to raise the coach to the point where the tow truck pneumatic jack could be positioned correctly.
My two cents again.
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If a tire is down that puts the axle close to the ground. the key to raising it is to ask that the tire changer bring some short sections of boards you can drive the flat up onto to increase the space between the ground and jack point.
It helps if you raise the coach on air bags in the corner needed to help the tire guy have a little better visibility. With the coach down, or even at ride height it is hard to see under there.
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Ken,
I have one one of those short 20 ton jacks I use at home to get under the front end and good point about carrying it in the bus.
2005 XL Thompson Coach
Rarely tow anything behind us.
Sold: 1993 Liberty that we loved for 12 years. -
Jon and Tom make good points, as always. I carry short sections of 2 X 8s for the purpose Jon mentions. In some areas of the country, NE particularly, tow/tire truck operators have to be listed/approved/regulated to do business on certain roads. In the distant past, it seemed to me they carry the least equipment and aids for their emergency work unless they are one of the big rig tow operations with tow trucks the size of a Prevost, and so I carry jacks, and stands with metal shims (made by Jon’s folks; thanks, Jon), wood boards, air pressure doubler, etc.
Hopefully then, of course, you won’t ever need them.
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Ken is a belt and suspenders guy with good reason. And he is correct about tow operators being regulated to provide service on certain roads which means no competition so you hope they carry the equipment needed to tow or service your coach.
All the bad stuff happens to us when we are on the road, never in our garage or driveway so there are certain things we have to do to protect ourselves and if that means a shorty bottle jack or some 2 X 8 boards that will be for our protection if the service truck operator is not well equipped.
I would urge all to know and understand your chassis support points as well as the axle jacking points. It is your coach and a poorly trained service guy or one that just doesn’t care can do a lot of damage. If you have to take some really obvious spray paint colors and mark those points.
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Excellent advice about spray paint Jon.. Thx.
Bill S.
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This past winter in Florida, I happened to come across a tow truck getting ready to lift the back of an “H” by hooking to the tow hitch in order to get the guy out of a ditch. If I wouldn’t have happened along at that moment, think about the damage that would have been caused by attempting to lift the ass end of the “H” by the hitch!
I won’t mention any bus owner names, but the tow truck operator was extremely pleased with my help….
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How long should the 2×8’s be? Construction grade OK? Or should it be seasoned, kiln dried oak?
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If you have a steer axle flat it puts the jacking point for the wheel close to the ground, and in some cases too close to get a jack beneath it so the wheel can be raised enough to change it.
The alternative is a very low profile jack, or anything you can drive up onto so the jacking point is high enough off the ground to get a more conventional jack beneath it. In the absence of those two alternatives it is almost assured the guy who has to raise the wheel off the ground to change it is going to get creative and jack the bus up wherever it is convenient and that has the potential to lead to some serious and costly damage. If you have to drive up onto a rock, a board or anthing it doesn’t matter what if you need to get the jack point a little higher.
The same is true if the coach has to be towed. You have to insure the operator can get to and beneath the lift points. Some coaches are very low and you may have to use level low so the sheet metal below the bumper is not damaged. A solid front axle coach just needs the lift beneath and secured to the axle. With IFS a wheel lift has to be used. But in addition the tow truck lift has to extend out far enough so when making turns the rear of the tow truck and front of the bus do not come in contact with one another.
I’m familiar with the incident Tom talked about above and if Tom had not appeared on the scene it is highly likely the engine of that coach would have been sitting on the ground a short distance from the bus. The point is our coaches are very well built, but when they have to be lifted, raised or towed it all has to be done properly or there is likely to be damage.
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I had to be towed earlier this year. I had to use the low level system to get the front of the bus high enough for him to get under. I also had to utilize a trick I learned on this site where I lifted the tag axle up so I could get the front even higher.
One other thing that this tow driver learned the hard way when towing another bus was that he needed to loosen the mirror on the passenger side. His boom would have destroyed the mirror if we had not loosened it and move it out of the way. He would have destroyed my mirror also if we had not loosened it.
I have learned a lot from this site. Thanks everyone for the input.
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