Top suggestions for bus jacks

[eagle19952]

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.

[buswarrior]

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

[Ed Hackenbruch]

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.

[chessie4905]

What ever you use, never use cement blocks. They will/ can suddenly collapse.

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

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.

[kyle4501]

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. 

[dtcerrato]

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.