Looking after your jockey wheel

[Ukdave2002]

I was prompted to write this post having just ordered a spare jockey wheel because I gave my spare away a couple of weeks ago....

We were on a site in Coniston, the pitch next to us was free until a family turned up with a single axle van. Rather than manoeuvre the van with the towing vehicle (the driver later confided that he wasn't confident reversing) they unhitched and used the electric movers, all perfectly fine its what they are for. The first thing I noticed was that for some reason the jockey wheel was at full hight, and as the van moved you could see strain by the angle of the jockey wheel yoke, they then did a sharp 90° turn that put so much force on the wheel that it broke the solid tyre.

They learned a lesson, keep the jockey wheel a low as possible and turn gently , at least until the jockey wheel is pointing in the direction of movement, oddly neither of these points were mentioned in their mover instructions.

I said that I gave them my spare wheel, it was in-fact a trade for some wine, so a win win

 

[Hutch]

Well done UkDave , a man after my own heart, a Good Samaritan, for wine.

 

[IanB1485]

Well done ,.At least they broke it whilst on site , I driving along a road near my house and I spotted this , being naturally curious I stopped and picked it up , don't know if its off a caravan or just a general trailer's jockey wheel. but someone somewhere probably had a shock when they unhitched the trailer

 

[Hutch]

I used to carry a spare jockey wheel in the van , but on a load lightening effort, I took it out, I suppose I should stow it in the car, for emergencies. But the car is getting heavier.

 

[JTQ]

We have the type that effectively the "tyre" is little more than a thin coating of softer "rubber" on a plastic hub, this probably would still have been viable. It certainly over the 18 years taken a few wounds from rocky stones but still works.
LINK

I definitely swat the nose down as low as possible when using the mover to minimise the leverage on the chassis as I know the chassis rails can readily spring, twisting thankfully elastically quite a lot.