Any recommendations on jack stands and air jack to lift bus?

[kyle4501]

Southern yellow pine is structural rated, so you can predict it's behaviour under load.

I'd prefer pressure treated southern yellow pine for cribbing. Can be stored outside when not needed under the bus.

[lvmci]

Luvrbus, would you happen to remember what shop in Vegas you got those jacks at, lvmci...

[luvrbus]

I don't remember the name but he was on Charleston Blvd not very far from the big upholstery supply on Charleston a small tool store and I think he was mobile also I have saw him in Lake Havasu before, cash talks with him like it does with everyone in Vegas lol

[belfert]

My first thought would be to find somewhere that sells reclaimed railway sleepers (railroad ties?). Garden centres sell at lot of them for people doing landscaping work.

My concern with railroad ties is many of them I see have cracks or splits in them.  There might some good ones, but I've never looked all that close at them.  There are places all over to buy railroad ties.

[Melbo]

Railroad ties are "USED" and have been under more weight than you or I can imagine or want to know about.

I have some I cut at an angle and I drive up on them (four pieces one under each drive) and I don't worry a bit about them letting the bus down. I mean what are they going to do evaporate??

Just my way

YMMV

Melbo

[Jeremy]

On the subject of rejecting wood as being weak because of cracks and splits...if you look at wooden beams in old houses, or wooden masts on old sailing ships, they invariably have lots of cracks and splits in them. I've seen cracks in masts which are 6 feet long and wide enough to get your fingers inside, but those masts are still entirely satisfactory - it was pointed out to me once that a longitudinal crack in a length of timber is like the thin vertical element in a steel I-beam - the strength comes from the bits on the outside, and as long as the bits on the outside are still held together the strength remains.

But masts and house beams are in tension of course, whereas blocks of wood under a bus are in compression, so the same logic doesn't necessarily apply

Jeremy

[belfert]

If the railroad removed a tie because it wasn't strong enough for railroad use do I really want it holding up my bus?  I do find it interesting that almost every picture of used oak beams for sale on Craigslist shows cracks in the beams.  I need to go over to place locally that makes LVLs and see what they have for cheap or free scrap pieces.

[rv_safetyman]

I seem to remember that some pallets are made of Oak.  You probably have either a pallet manufacturer or pallet recycle business in your area.

The cross members are not large (3x3?) but they would make a wonderful "Lincoln log" type cribb and that would be quite stable.  They may also have raw wood that they could saw larger sizes for you.

Jim

[Busted Knuckle]

Brian,

The rail road right across the hwy from us is a major rte. (like 8-10 trains or more per day)
And they come through once a year and replace EVERY tie.

As a matter of fact there are 2 bus size piles of the used ties about a 1/4 mile from us now.

As far HF jacks go we use both the 12 & 20 ton air overs around the shop and they typically last us 2-3 yrs each with fairly heavy use. @ less than $80 apiece I just throw them away and buy a couple more when on fails. (a lot cheaper than some of the $500-800 jacks I've had that lasted less than 10 yrs.)
  BK 

[wagwar]

For jack stands, I took a short section of 8" I beam, chopped it into four pieces and welded 1/2" plate on the top and bottom. A 4' section of red oak 4"x4" chopped into 12" pieces allows me to add cribbing if I need to. The I beam is used vertically - no way to break or compress it with a bus. I can lift the bus with my hydraulic levelers, slide the jack stands under the frame jack points and have plenty of clearance. My front stands are 2" taller than the rear due to the higher ground clearance up front.