I'm looking for suggestions on which jacks you have found are the best for lifting your bus. I have an MCI MC-9 (1983). I'm looking for your experience on best value for reliability, cost, and convenience. Also, what weight rating should I be looking for? If you have any specific shops/stores you prefer buying from, I'd love to hear those as well. I'm hoping to find something we can take on the road with us, but I assume that's not abnormal? Hit me with your top picks!
Ron
I have two of these 20 ton air/hydraulic jacks from Harbor Freight. They well very well for the cost.
https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-air-hydraulic-bottle-jack-69593.html (https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-air-hydraulic-bottle-jack-69593.html)
Minimum of 12 tons. Short hydraulic with 4x6 blocking underneath. I saw some at Harbor Freight for about $32 yesterday. I think they are on sale.
I have one as well. Buy it with 25% off coupon or when it is on sale. They also sell a low profile jack in 12 & 20 ton, but not air assist. Low profile was necessary to Jack under air beams on our 4104. Only problem with low profile is the range is only 3 1/2 or 4 inches. There are also air assist low profile jacks available, just not from Harbor Freight.
Hardly fake used to sell the low profile 20 ton air assist bottle jacks back in the day but not anymore sadly.
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Northern Tool has a good selection of jacks at all price ranges and it's free shipping most of the time
I have a few of the HF bottle jacks. They're cheap enough to not worry too much if they begin to weep and cannot be resealed - just get another! Is there any real difference between one brand and another of cheap generic Chinese jacks? I have two 20-ton, a 12-ton for the front, and a low-profile 12-ton in case a front tire is completely deflated. I also have two 12" x 12" squares of thick steel plate to put under them, and six lengths of 6" x 8" pine to go under tires. One of the 20-tons is beginning to weep slightly after several years of occasional use, so I'll try to put new O-rings into it - if that doesn't fix it I'll buy another when HF has their next sale.
John
Great minds think alike - two generic air/hydraulic 20 tons and a low profile... You really do need two at least, you can't get the front tires out of the wheel wells unless you get the body way up out of the way. If you can drive the bus and the tire has air in it, you can get it high enough with run-up blocks, but if you can't drive it on blocks, you need the low profile jack to get under the body jacking point. There's other ways to get it, but that's the most straight forward.
Brian
My next jack purchase is going to be an air assist low profile. It sucks when it is so low to need one. Little range or leverage to move handle. Then it still doesn't get tire off ground, so lower screw, use spacer and do it all over again.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017YP874E/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017YP874E/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Picked this up a while back, works great! Def Chinese; stand is cheap steel and the functions are not that great, but the bottle jack is solid. $150
Bird
Are jack stands also needed with bottle jacks or are they reliable enough to not leak out?
If life or limb is in danger a solid support is in order. What that is is also subject to debate.
Quote from: windtrader on February 08, 2018, 09:39:58 PM
Are jack stands also needed with bottle jacks or are they reliable enough to not leak out?
NO JACK is reliable enough to not leak out.
If you don't get under it, you have no worry.
Blocking is good.
What types of wood make good solid blocking? Railroad ties seem solid and pretty cheap.
Quote from: windtrader on February 08, 2018, 11:57:10 PM
What types of wood make good solid blocking? Railroad ties seem solid and pretty cheap.
Used railroad ties are removed from service for a reason. They have exceeded their useful life. New timbers are available but then the 'cheap' part goes away.
If you have a real lumber yard near you that deals in hardwoods you can see many other options. I'm using 2" thick blocks of oak which are about as free of cracks and flaws as I could find. They get covered with a piece of 3/8" steel plate to keep the metal on the bus from damaging the wood or splitting it should the bus fall suddenly. I went with 2" thick pieces so I could get them underneath at times my bus is not at full height. If I was using them only at full height I'd probably rethink this a bit. This is what I have - I am not suggesting it will work for you. You should do your own research before trusting anything to hold up the bus with you underneath. Bus owners have been killed in recent years working under their bus.
ALSO IMPORTANT: When you bus is being lifted, you must use appropriately sized wheel chocks. My research shows that appropriate sized means approximately 1/4 the height of the tire. For most of us that means wheel chocks which are about 10" tall. Those little things suitable for a Honda will not hold a bus from rolling if it wants to roll, especially if one end of the bus is being lifted up. A piece of wood from the wood pile is not a suitable wheel chock either, although I see them used all the time.
Quote from: windtrader on February 08, 2018, 11:57:10 PM
What types of wood make good solid blocking? Railroad ties seem solid and pretty cheap.
oak.
pipeline cribbing/skids is good :) 6"x 8" 60"
they used a lot of it (a whole lot) for warming fires on the TAPS.
until the bill came in to the comptrollers...
then they bought cord wood.
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cranematco.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fstyles%2Fproduct-detail%2Fpublic%2Fproduct-images%2FHardwood-Skids-3_0.jpg%3Fitok%3DOnnzrNX7&hash=7365f5924c2a97114d65102a8c4eeafa191e60b0)
1) air over hydraulic, squat/short jack that will fit under jacking points. A manual jack will expend a lot of today's busnut energy, leaving little for the job at hand. Tired hands take short cuts, make mistakes, or skip the job all together. Work that is easy is more likely to be done, done safely and done correctly.
Some busnuts, to do their annual wheel end tear down, put the bus in the air today, and that's it for physicality until tomorrow, or maybe the next day. All that jack and crib and jack again at each corner wears you out. Other busnuts just skip doing wheel end service cuz it's too much work...
2) no jack is to be trusted for going under any vehicle, car or bus. Violation of all workplace safety recommendations and legislation. These safety rules are in place for a damned good reason. A jack is for lifting. Cribbing or jack stands are for holding the raised vehicle.
3) a busnut may reliably use common 2x, 4x or 6x lumber in layers for cribbing. Nothing special is needed. Large pieces like old railway ties, some intelligence regarding the condition of the wood, and a layer of finished wood to prevent splitting opportunities by direct edge contact of the coach. Lay each layer set crossed 90 degrees from the last, with a large enough foot print in comparison to the heights involved, that it cannot be tipped over. Think in terms of this: If the raised vehicle were to be bumped into by another vehicle, will the cribbing stand, not tip over, and will the raised vehicle slide the top layer of cribbing? Or the coach starts to lean over as your suspension leaks faster than you get the other side raised up...
4) don't forget to block the axles at the bump stops to keep your under body work area as big as possible while the suspension air leaks away. 4x4 blocks about a foot long or so with a ring in the end and a short rope for easy retrieval work nicely.
Using the "small living" principle of everything needs to have more than one job, the collection of finished lumber also lives in the coach for use on the campground for all manner of things, leveling, tent string weights, etc.
happy coaching!
buswarrior
I once had a block of wood at the bump stops split in the middle of the night. I took a piece of pipe about 4-5 inches long, welded a flat square on top and inside of the bottom welded a round piece about an inch up inside so it would sit over the piece that the bump stop contacted and could not slide off of it.
What ever you use, never use cement blocks. They will/ can suddenly collapse.
Quote from: chessie4905 on February 09, 2018, 03:59:54 PM
What ever you use, never use cement blocks. They will/ can suddenly collapse.
I agree with Chessie here. I have handled a lot of cinder and cement blocks in my life and they are as brittle as they can be. I cringe when I see them used to jack up a bus or trailer. Good way to get hurt or killed. ALWAYS use wood, metal, or fiberglass blocks. The harder the wood the better. Wood may split, but they never completely crumble to a pile of dust.
I use 4 x 6 yellow pine. I crib them so that there is a wide stable base. I also use a piece of oak hardwood flooring to absorb and spread out the load and to reduce the chance of the coach slipping off the cribbing.
Air over hydraulic jacks are so much better than the manual ones.
BUT -
The ones with wheels & a long stick handles are much easier to get under the coach. ;D
We carry two 20 T stubby manual jacks and an assortment of pt pine & oak blocking. The stubbys are the only ones that will fit under our axles.