My new T5 camper looks great sat on blingy 20″ alloys (dreading tyre replacement time £££££!) however the larger diameter wheels mean the van is sat higher from the ground – about 9.5 inches, which means the jack doesn’t have enough lift to lift a wheel off the ground in the event of a puncture. Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement jack? I’m thinking something like a scissor jack from an old Land Rover Discovery or something, I would have thought that should have enough lift?

I am thinking about lowering it with one of the 40mm or so lowering kits, but worried about clearance with the wheel arches. The blingy alloys look great but are 20″ with 275 wide tyres!! I ideally don’t want to swap the wheels but might be the last resort as the speedo has been modified to correct for the larger wheels.

Cheers

Block of wood stored with the jack?!

Otherwise, a bottle jack (you would have to find a suitable jack point rather than the sill) would be my preference, its standard on my van and I’ll often use it over a cheap trolley jack.

Finally, on my Iveco there are locating points under the axles/wishbones which is fantastic, means you don’t need to lift the van until the suspension has fully extended…once the jack makes contact, its just a few pumps to lift the wheel off the ground and the body only lifts a few cm’s. Unfortunately, I suspect on a VW, there won’t be anywhere to do this and you’ll have to jack the body.

http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/products/high-lift-ratchet-farm-jack-48

Thought of a bottle jack but they’re pricy, so was wondering about a 4×4 scissor type jack. I’ll check out if there are any jacking points on the actual suspension rather than the body. It would make things easier. maybe a block of wood is the simplest solution.

Not sure where i’d store that ratchet jack!

Trolley jack and a proper bar and socket for the wheels. Nuts.

lol at the high lift in the link above

If the wheel tyre combo combined outer diameter is different from the original your speedo And odo might be wrong ?

The speedo has been modified to read correctly. According to GPS at 70mph the speedo reads about 74mph which is about the same as my last car. Big jacks are not going to work. Its going to have to be able to fit inside a cupboard inside the van – its a camper so can’t have jacks and tools rolling about inside. That’s why I’m hoping a 4×4 jack will work, but thought i’d check with the STW hive to make sure there wasn’t some clever solution i’d overlooked.

A trip to a local breakers yard maybe and see what’s around , some landrover discoverys came with bottle jacks not sure about disco 3-4

If buying used just make sure you get what ever handle you need with it

A 4 tonne bottle jack is £20.. hardly expensive.
Wait until the tyres have scrubbed and you have to cough up for 20″ load rated tyres….

If the wheel and tyre profile is that big you will also be putting an increased load on the drivetrain. Are they range rover wheels and tyres.

I have a T5 on 19″ Range Rover wheels dropped 40mm on HR springs. It’s a 2ton vehicle & I wouldn’t use a scissor or bottle jack because of instability. I carry a lightweight hydraulic racing jack capable of lifting 2 Tons. I carry it under the R&R bed at the rear. Suitable Jacks have been discussed on the T5 forum many times. You also you have a suitable spare with the correct bolts if it’s a steel wheel rather than alloy.
Good luck with your jack choice.

My better halfs 7.5t lorry has a bottle jack as standard for changing wheels and no issues with stability.
Your only lifting one corner not the whole thing so even a small
Jack has a large safety margin

Bottle jacks are the norm for heavy vehicles.

Scissor jacks are not called widdow makers for no reason.

Lastly . Do folks really hate their cars that much they lift on the sills ?

Thought of a bottle jack but they’re pricy,

You’ve bought a T5 camper with 20″ blingy alloys and you think a bottle jack is too expensive !!!

More like I’ve bought an expensive blingy camper so I can’t afford a bottle jack! Actually via the wonders of our credit based economy the blingy camper has cost me nothing. Sale of my last car funded the deposit and credit takes care of the rest with monthly repayments lower than my last car loan so it’s saving me money every month!! I now owe as much against the camper than I do against my house. But if the bullet proof T5 residuals deliver what they promise we’ll be keeping the camper for 4 or 5 years while the kids are young and small enough then selling it and clearing the finance. Simples!!

But the long-travel bottle jacks I looked at were all pretty pricy, but maybe i’ll take another look – didn’t know about the scissor jack reputation. Its a standard spare wheel so i’ve been told not to fit onto the front, so if I get a front wheel puncture I would need to do some wheel swapping to make sure the spare was on the rear.

What’s wrong with lifting by the sills? thats what proper garage lifters do. Its all reinforced around that area precisely for that purpose.

Not sure how a larger wheel would over-stress the drive train, it’s the drive train providing the power and it can only deliver the power and torque it has available to it. The conversion has been done by a professional conversion company who do hundreds a year, so not a keen amateur on their driveway. All their vans have blingy alloys so hopefully they know what they’re doing. Not sure how much bigger on diameter the alloys are over standard. They obviously have a much lower tyre profile so maybe the difference in Diameter is not that great.

Tyre prices are a concern! Looking like £150 a corner for decent rubber. SMax was similar prices for 17″ rubber when I first got the car but prices dropped to £100 a corner over the time I owned the car, so not completely out of the park compared to what I have paid in the past. But it all adds to the running costs. Still not sussed out what they are for a T5. Seems OK of fuel so far. Insurance is cheap. Just waiting for the driveshafts to go if T5 reliability threads are anything to go by.

another point . if they are a professional outfit putting on blingy 20″ wheels and supplying it with a spare wheel and charging many pounds ….surely this is their issue ?

They dont use the sills with a 2 poster – and a 4 poster inspection ramp uses the wheels.

only about 4 inches at each end of the sill are reinforced in anyway and are designed to take on a scissor jack which has a chanel in it BUT it means that people dont go jacking on hoses and brake lines under the car – ie its idiot proof.

Much better idea to use solid structure under the car if not using a widowmaker imo.

All Mk1 and MK2 (TD5) Discoveries used bottle jacks so there must be thousands of them out there cheap enough. Certainly be more than up to the job and with correct placement much more stable than the tin-foil scissor jacks most accountants specify for modern cars.

I don’t think you need a high lift bottle jack. Use your existing jack and some wood to calculate the lift required and then look at standard bottle jacks. They have telescoping sections so although it may look stubby, it will lift to three times its height.

As long as you chock the wheels, its much more stable than a scissor jack. You just need to double check for a convenient alternative jacking point.

Mine has 274/40/20 with a drop – 40 or 50. It failed it’s MOT because the wheels were fouling on the inside of the wheelarch. The original wheels were put on and it passed.
Maybe spacers might help – something to watch out for when dropping it.

I think the point being made reference drivetrain strain earlier is that smaller diameter wheels take less effort to get moving from a standing start.

If the speedo has been adjusted to suit, there is a difference in rolling diameter which can be calculated here

http://www.willtheyfit.com/

Not saying it’s wrong because I don’t know the set up, but this will tell you the difference over the standard wheels and may help you calculate the lowering.

Bigger wheels = higher geared = strain it wasn’t designed for.

You already allude to knowing T5s have ‘weak’ driveshafts, the wheels will increase the risk of damage to them a bit.

29er bikes had different gearing to 26ers back in the days when they made both for similar purposes.

Just ring the AA if you get a puncture they will sort you out.

For my T5, with it’s boggo steely wheels and cheapy hubcaps, I have a Halfords bottle jack and some sections of ply to spread the weight and make up the height difference. It’s all kept under the passenger seat.

The jack has the same ‘head’ as a scissor jack, so works on the sills.

Bigger wheels = higher geared = strain it wasn’t designed for.

You already allude to knowing T5s have ‘weak’ driveshafts, the wheels will increase the risk of damage to them a bit.

i know a few people with T5’s. the guy with the 20″ blingy alloys and the 250BHP ‘remap’ has had more problems than everyone else put together.

plus it rides like a crashy, bangy, rubbing bag of shit.