Question Storing a motorhome - on jacks or not?

[Neal]

For those that camp for extended periods, you're on jacks (levelers). For those that store the coach for an extended period time, say 1 month or longer, are you storing on jacks to help take some pressure off of the tires? I was at one storage facility where they requested it as I was cratering the asphalt in the summer and having four more points to distribute weight helped their situation.

 

[redbaron]

The asphalt excuse is backwards. The jacks would do more damage than tires. Much more surface area with 8 tires than 4 jacks.

As for my storage, I usually don't store on Jacks, but dont mind doing it. Just a preference.

 

[Joe Hogan]

My thought, living in Florida, is that you are exposing the jack shafts to the corrosive elements while extended, especially for extended periods. In my opinion, if you choose to store with jacks extended then it might be prudent to wipe the shafts down with a solvent/oil as per MFG recommendation before retracting the jacks.

 

[Just George]

Well I haven't stored on Jacks in the past but I don't see any issue with it. Would add a small additional time to air down & air up which would be no big deal. My storage is on gravel so no damage although there can be some ruts when it's wet. Not sure if jacks would help or not.

 

[Neal]

My main goal is weight off tires, not concerned now with the surface as it's a non issue.

 

[MapNerd]

No. I also never hung my car from a tree when I left it in my garage for an extended period of time while going on vacation. The tires are engineered to take the constant pressure as long as you are within load tolerances...they’re tires.

Athe tire manufacturer would be negligent not to assume that the tire will always bear those loads and should be capable of doing so for the duration of its life.

Storing on jacks, in my opinion simply puts unnecessary stress on your jacks and exposes them to the elements for longer periods of time than they are expected to be.

 

[redbaron]

As for stress on tires, if they can't handle 6 years of continuous weight, then I will have a claim against the mfg. I am replacing tires because of age. The tires that I remove look perfect and usually can be sold for some extra $.

 

[RKins]

Our coach is beside the house sitting on jacks - been there for a few months, since before we went into lock down. I do it because my air bags leak down after a week and it doesn't leak down evenly, don't want to twist my new windshields, so I hold the height up where it was near ride height. I'll spray WD40 on them and wipe them down before I store the jacks and air up. Doesn't look like we will be going anywhere soon. My Sister and BIL are traveling up the east coast now and have had to skip states or go into 14 day quarantine.

 

[J&JD]

Everyone I asked at HWH said you could leave the jacks down forever if you wish with no problems. As for taking weight off the tires....total non issue. To me it’s sort of like using tire covers. Of the hundred & hundreds of millions (maybe billions) of tires on the road out there virtually none are up on jacks or covered. I think we rvers just like to worry or are easily sold extra stuff?.

 

[jmltech]

To me it’s sort of like using tire covers. Of the hundred & hundreds of millions (maybe billions) of tires on the road out there virtually none are up on jacks or covered.

When we had our class C, we had the DS tires age prematurely due to always being exposed to the sun constantly when parked at home. The tires developed cracks that were very noticeable. On the PS tires, no cracks. We had to replace the tires even though they had a couple of years to go. So, we now have tire covers on our class A.

For sitting, the tires are on wood blocks, mainly to keep the coach level while sitting so we can extend the slides without worrying about the frame twisting, and we don’t have the jacks down. I seem to recall that we were told (right or wrong) that we shouldn’t store the RV with jacks down - so we never have.