Pneumatic jockey wheel recommendation

[Sam Vimes]

I have to move my van over a gravel driveway with the motor mover and the standard plastic jockey wheel digs in a bit. Can anyone recommend a pneumatic jockey wheel as I think this may be better. There are several I've come across but as usual with mixed reviews. It's a light weight 2 berth van.

Thanks

 

[Buckman]

You would need the whole jockey wheel assembly as generally the pneumatic is wider. The whole assembly with heavy duty jockey wheel costs under £50.

 

[Jcloughie]

I use one of these, puncture proof. I can highly reccomend. And they make going over gravel massively easier.

You do need to make sure the yoke will take it. The yoke on mine is bigger than the norm but I have to shim it down with 4 off 3mm thick washers.

This is mine.



Keep away from the conventional pneumatic. Continual punctures.


John

 

[otherclive]

I prefer a low profile wheel-tyre as it is far more resistant to coming off of the rim. Pneumatic are out as fas as I’m concerned. You can get 75mm extra width low profile wheels. When we had a gravel area I used some old boards to ease the positioning of the van.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Thanks for the link, John, that's one I came across this morning. I'll keep it in mind.

Otherclive: yes the prospect of tires coming off have occured to me hence the request for some real expierence.
My drive is up an incline and about 30m long - that's a lot of boards Mind you it does well to get up there anyway and I think going up backwards would probably be better although its not so easy to turn it round at the bottom to start with.

Thanks all

 

[otherclive]

Thanks for the link, John, that's one I came across this morning. I'll keep it in mind.

Otherclive: yes the prospect of tires coming off have occured to me hence the request for some real expierence.
My drive is up an incline and about 30m long - that's a lot of boards Mind you it does well to get up there anyway and I think going up backwards would probably be better although its not so easy to turn it round at the bottom to start with.

Thanks all

Wow that is a long haul. Your right going up backwards would undoubtedly help but as you say it isn’t easy to position. You could try off loading the noseweight when you get home. I do that to get off muddy pitches by my wife going inside and counter balance the noseweight. But thats a rare occurrence compared to doing it for 30 m each time you get home. 5 x bags of sand?

 

[Hutch]

Wow that is a long haul. Your right going up backwards would undoubtedly help but as you say it isn’t easy to position. You could try off loading the noseweight when you get home. I do that to get off muddy pitches by my wife going inside and counter balance the noseweight. But thats a rare occurrence compared to doing it for 30 m each time you get home. 5 x bags of sand?

Your a brave man, I would Never request "SWMBO" to go into the van to off load the nose weight, I am not brave enough.

 

[JTQ]

The first aspect to determine is can a "balloon" wheel, conventional pneumatic or foam filled, be stowed on the "A" frame? Our present van can't but an earlier one could and I tried a pneumatic, a short lived experiment.
The type I like best is Al-Ko soft heavy duty wheel.

You don't need 30 metres of ply boarding to track on.
Get B & Q etc to slice, just two cuts, a UK standard 8 foot by 4 foot sheet of 19mm into three bits, each 8 foot by 1 foot 4". Then just prior to tracking off the last one, move the other two forward. Put lanyards on them to aid recovering them from under the "A" frame. Six moves, and you have covered the 30 metres.
With the wider Al-Ko HD soft wheel I find the noise it makes directly tracking over gravel, is the worst bit, it still rolls over quite well.

Also "squat" the front down as low as possible, so the jockey wheel just misses the handbrake's undergear. This will minimise it twanging about by flexing the "A" frame's chassis rail it is fixed onto, thus behave with more grace.

 

[Jcloughie]

Sam, if you look at my picture above, you may notice it’s bigger than normal wheels, but mine fits fine and that’s within the ‘A’ frame. Although it hangs a little lower, it does not ground. The picture is taken at my storage. Notice the gravel surface. The wheel travels over that with ease.

The foam filled, puncture proof tyres are a world of difference from pneumatics, as I already said. Most, if not all, of the pneumatics are unsuitable, they are designed for wheelbarrows and totally unsuitable for them as well.

John

 

[Sam Vimes]

I should just say that the reason for using the mover is that my 2 wheel drive car can't tow the van up the driveway. The mover works well getting it up there, it's just that I need a few course corrections on the way as the jockey wheel makes it act like a super market trolley.

The other night as I watched it crawl up the drive I saw my wheelbarrow and it has a pneumatic tyre so that led me to think about getting one for the van. Using bits of wood sounds like too much trouble, especially when its dark and raining, but thanks for the thought anyway.

I'm going to measure the Jockey Wheel size this morning but I'm not in any hurry for this - just maybe a nice to have.

 

[Johnb]

I think measuring the wheel is vital.

I bought a pneumatic wheel some time ago and it fitted my then Lunar Clubman ok. Certainly it reduces the ground clearance but can't say I had any problems on ferries and the like.

I've not tried using the pneumatic jockey on my present van simply because whilst it travels more smoothly than the solid tyre wheel I had some issues.

The first was that over time - and only a matter of months - it lost pressure. Whilst is not a big job to inflate it's still a job and the valve is almost impossible to get at. Frankly a frustration that I felt best avoided.

The second problem and one linked with the loss of air was the tendency for the tyre to roll off the wheel. It never did, but I was often concerned to the extent that I spent more time watching the wheel than the van!

 

[Jcloughie]

I think measuring the wheel is vital.

I bought a pneumatic wheel some time ago and it fitted my then Lunar Clubman ok. Certainly it reduces the ground clearance but can't say I had any problems on ferries and the like.

I've not tried using the pneumatic jockey on my present van simply because whilst it travels more smoothly than the solid tyre wheel I had some issues.

The first was that over time - and only a matter of months - it lost pressure. Whilst is not a big job to inflate it's still a job and the valve is almost impossible to get at. Frankly a frustration that I felt best avoided.

The second problem and one linked with the loss of air was the tendency for the tyre to roll off the wheel. It never did, but I was often concerned to the extent that I spent more time watching the wheel than the van!

Johnb. For the very reasons you have stated that is why I have tried to stress to the OP that pneumatic tyres are NOT suitable. The puncture proof, foam filled tyres, though looking similar. bear no relation to the pneumatic. They are much stronger, never deflate and to not come off the hub.

John

 

[Johnb]

Johnb. For the very reasons you have stated that is why I have tried to stress to the OP that pneumatic tyres are NOT suitable. The puncture proof, foam filled tyres, though looking similar. bear no relation to the pneumatic. They are much stronger, never deflate and to not come off the hub.

John

Agreed John.

I think most are saying beware of pneumatic tyres. If I, one day, decide that my solid wheel has had its day I'll take your advice to get a foam filled tyre. I already have a suitable assembly that it will fit.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I measured my wheel and it looks like the one in John's post would fit but I'm not hurrying to do this just yet.

 

[Buckman]

Johnb. For the very reasons you have stated that is why I have tried to stress to the OP that pneumatic tyres are NOT suitable. The puncture proof, foam filled tyres, though looking similar. bear no relation to the pneumatic. They are much stronger, never deflate and to not come off the hub.

John

I did look at them but it seems that the maximum load is 100kg? We would like that caters up to 150kg noseweight.

 

[Jcloughie]

I did look at them but it seems that the maximum load is 100kg? We would like that caters up to 150kg noseweight.

Or get a light van!

I think you would be OK to be honest. They are tough things.

John

 

[Buckman]

Or get a light van!

I think you would be OK to be honest. They are tough things.

John

I made the error of fitting a pneumatic just before our first trip to Spain. Needless to say that it came off the rim on first use embarrassing us as we were stuck in the site roadway. Luckily for some reason I had had the sense to place the old wheel in the front locker so was able to change it back.
Our current jockey wheel has a steel rim with solid rubber for the tyre. Better than the plastic ones, but still digs in if doing a sharp turn or running over soft ground. We actually bent the assembly (BPW) on the previous caravan as I was standing at the back with remote for mover and did not realise it had dug in.

 

[Alanbrooke]

I've had a pneumatic tyre on my jockey wheel for 10 years. Not the same tyre though as one got too old and showed cracks and the second, a tubeless, got a slow puncture. It's so much easier manoevering the van and it goes over kerbs without difficulty. I've never had a tyre come off and I've been in Spain, Italy, France etc. on all kinds of pitches. My recently purchased used caravan came with a solid wheel which was really worn. I've just replaced the jockey wheel because it, too, was worn and wouldn't swivel properly. I bought an Alko jockey complete with 260mm diameter pneumatic wheel from my local dealer for £39.45 - money well spent!

 

[Jcloughie]

I've had a pneumatic tyre on my jockey wheel for 10 years. Not the same tyre though as one got too old and showed cracks and the second, a tubeless, got a slow puncture. It's so much easier manoevering the van and it goes over kerbs without difficulty. I've never had a tyre come off and I've been in Spain, Italy, France etc. on all kinds of pitches. My recently purchased used caravan came with a solid wheel which was really worn. I've just replaced the jockey wheel because it, too, was worn and wouldn't swivel properly. I bought an Alko jockey complete with 260mm diameter pneumatic wheel from my local dealer for £39.45 - money well spent!

Is this their so called, ‘soft wheel’? How does it compare to the pneumatic? (Or pneumatic type).

John

 

[Alanbrooke]

It's a tyre for use on a trailer, not for road use. I inflate it to 2bar but I can go up to 4 bar. At 2 bar it's "softer".

 

[Sam Vimes]

I've just replaced my Alko cheap plastic jockey wheel with a solid rubber one from Kartt as its virtually the same size. The difference over our gravel drive is very noticeable. The plastic one was noisey and tended to skate over or dig into the gravel. The rubber one is much quieter and rolls better over the gravel.

Took less than 10minutes to change.

 

[Jcloughie]

Is that a solid rubber one or pneumatic. I would be interested to know if it did kerbs (or similar), like mine in post #3. But I think they would have to be observed next to each other.

But it definitely looks excellent.

John

 

[otherclive]

Is that a solid rubber one or pneumatic. I would be interested to know if it did kerbs (or similar), like mine in post #3. But I think they would have to be observed next to each other.

But it definitely looks excellent.

John

They are solid tyres. Should be better than the black one as the orange is a larger OD and with the thicker rubber has more resilience than the very low profile stiff black one. When my tyres have to mount a kerb I use off cuts of decking boards.

 

[Jcloughie]

They are solid tyres. Should be better than the black one as the orange is a larger OD and with the thicker rubber has more resilience than the very low profile stiff black one. When my tyres have to mount a kerb I use off cuts of decking boards.

My query was referring to the resilience when compared to mine in post #3. I don’t deliberately go up kerbs, but the example demonstrates the ability when compared to jockey wheels that do not have pneumatic characteristics.

John

 

[otherclive]

My query was referring to the resilience when compared to mine in post #3. I don’t deliberately go up kerbs, but the example demonstrates the ability when compared to jockey wheels that do not have pneumatic characteristics.

John

Well you did ask in your post 22 above "is that a solid one or pneumatic"?