Jacking up Motorhome for winter

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Howard Blake

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Posts
59
Location
Danville, il
Hi
Not sure where this question belongs. I checked the library but came up with nothing.

Should I jack up my Motorhome for the winter or just take some pressure off of them. I live in Illinois if that makes a difference.
I do not have hydraulics on the motorhome just so you know.

Thanks in advance

Howard and April
 
It's actually the best thing that you can do for your tires but it sure seems like a whole lot of work.  Since the tires will probably die of old age before you actually wear them out you might be overthinking this just a little.

Keep in mind that "I" tend to overthink just about everything, it's not such a bad thing.
 
If stored on concrete- get some plastic cutting boards and have your coach sit on them
 
Sometimes concrete (or other materials) contain chemicals that can "leach" the preservatives out of a tire, causing early deterioration.  I don't think this is much of a problem any longer (modern tire materials), but the legend persists and tire company brochures seem to sign up for any and every conceivable measure that might in some way preserve a tire. Michelin is one company that suggests placing something under the tires. Goodyear does not include this recommendation any longer.

If a tire can be affected by the chemicals in concrete or even plain old dirt, why do we think that the chemicals in pressure treated wood or various plastics might not do damage as well?

Download the Michelin RV Tire Guide or the Goodyear RV Tire Guide. Both address storage, tire life and other tire questions.
 
We live in Colorado. Before we started heading south for the winter, we didn't do anything for the tires. As others have said, you need to replace them after about 7 years anyway and we never had enough damage to replace them sooner than that anyway.

Wendy
Colorado
 
I have left my travel trailers sit for as much as 6 months at a time on gravel and there seems to be no ill affects. I have done the same for my boat trailers on concrete and they also seem to be ok.
 
We are moving north and I will take the motorhome up likely end of Dec or Jan.  I had a new garage built for it with a concrete floor, I have lots of cardboard boxes will it work to put those under the tires?  We didn't have the garage insulated, just metal with a vapor barrier in the roof.  Just trying to protect it from the elements.
 
Like Foto-n-T  said they will most likely die of old age before you wear them out. So far with all my RV's I've never bothered to jack them up or anything. Just keep them under cover if possible but my newer TT is too big for the shed so I cover the wheels what little that does. This is the 3rd Winter with the Jayco and the tires still look factory fresh really.  ::)
 
I will say about cardboard...DON'T.

Cardboard and papers in general will have acids in them that can attack various substances.  A case in point is in the photography world, framing a valuable photograph or painting and not using acid free mat board and backing will destroy the piece that you are trying to display.

Tires are pretty tough in reality, they are designed to be driven over all kinds of surfaces, some of which can be corrosive in and of themselves so leaving them sit on concrete should really not be an issue.  If you're truly concerned about them being damaged by sitting on something which they were designed to roll across in the first place I would suggest maybe purchasing some Lynx Leveling Blocks and just driving all tires up on those.
 
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