Changing a wheel on a loaded wagon.

Seriously, changing a wheel (flat tire) on a wagon load of hay is a dirty, tough and dangerous job.
There must be a better way than crawling under it with a bottle jack, then praying that it does not
fall while getting the wheel and the lug nuts on. I always put blocks under it but on soft ground they are not very stable.

I can lift the front of wagons with the pallet forks on the 3 point lift of a tractor, but the forks are not long enough to reach the rear axle. And, most of the flats seem to happen on the rear.

Please share your ideas and methods, especially things to make it safer.
Thanks.

Probably not what you want to hear but run better tires so you don't have to worry about flats as much. Just this year I replace the tires on 2 of my hay trailers. Wasn't cheap but I've never had a flat yet on one. I also run airplane tires on all my hay wagons. I know I can still get a flat but I've greatly reduced the chances.

best thing I can tell ya is to have good tires aired to the proper limits ,,,. when a flat occurs transfer the hay toanother wagon r bring it in acroos the soft fields flrat to the barn to unload,, ..had enuf loaded flats myself , changing loaded gravity flow tires can get dangerous too , always have enuf blox , a good jack , and your cell phone , and a buddy is nice to have along too ,. I would ruin a rim before I risk a life changing a tire on a dangerous part of the road or a slope ,,,, ,. worst one was witrh a load of hogs with a pikup and pipe racks that extened onto the tailgate ,,,. I could get 15 hogs on the truck ,as luck would have it ,, hot humid rainy day , blew a tire ,, spare under the bed of the 76 f-250 , got under there to get the tire and wouldn't ya know it one of those hogs decides to take a leak over the side ,, , I was already soakt so what the heck ,,. decent ford jack raised up those hogs ,, and had the spare on in no time ,, went back home to change clothes .. and I was halfway to armours ,. wife was still in the shower from helping me load hogs ,,she laughed at me when she saw me and we had a good time cleaning up together,,. and then we got 4 kids ,,. lol

call your local farm tire repair man-I got hundreds of those calls over the years. been every where from along the road to down in the bottom of ditches. 1 guy even wanted me to help him reload his hay after he had been messin around 2/3rds of a day trying to get the tire off his hayrack.

We had one hay rack with 22 ply aircraft tires on it, they ran flat for 20 years til they got too thin to hold up. Had to cut them off then with a saw and torch.

There is no completely safe way. Sometimes spending some money for safe tools will save you from a getting hurt bad. If the wagon is on a steep hill or any place that is unsafe for jacking, pull it to a safe place even if it wrecks the tire. Take a couple of 16"X16" pieces of 3/4" plywood and glue and screw them together to use under the jack. Today we have some pretty darned strong electric impact wrenches available to us that will get the lug nuts off quick so you don't have to spend as much time under there. Any tire can go flat but newer ones reduce that chance. I have laid under a loaded combine trailer more than once jacking the jack down into an asphalt road. Scary. We finally got an air operated jack so we could stand beside the trailer while the jack was doing the work.

Bottle jack in the field sounds a little unstable to me - I'd at least go with a floor jack on some 4x4's, or something to spread the weight out.

Depends on the flat of course, but if a can of fix-a-flat and/or compressed air would get it rolling, that'd be my first option.

Personally if it's in a dangerous spot, I'd either give up on the tire and just drag it where it needs to go (or just a better spot), or I'd just swap the hay over to another wagon and be done with it so you can work on it safely.

If it's in a tough spot, you can't unload the hay, and it won't pull - I'd at least through a strap around the hay so worst case scenario it comes down, the hay doesn't unload on top of you.

8x8 cribbing under the wagon would be wise as well - in place of jack stands.

A screw jack sitting on a 3 foot 2 by 12 will do in a pinch. Turn the wagon parallel to the slope with the flat tire on the uphill side and chock two other wheels on diagonal corners before you start.

First make sure a tractor is attached with a good parking brake or park feature. Second make sure the hay rack was not compromised from the tire going flat. Third get a suitable jack in terms of tonnage. Do not use a 5 ton jack for a 6 ton load. If there are remaining concerns about the rack use a couple of high lift jacks in concert with the bottle jack to stabilize the area where the bad tire is. Make sure the jacks are going up straight or as straight as possible with no slipping. If things are slipping and you should be vigilant in terms of this then start over with the jacks.

Yeah I have a 50's pickup bed trailer here my dad made. Don't use it much just for hauling a water tank around. It has surplus WW2 bomber tires on it. They are heavy duty tires for sure. The new aircraft tires aren't half as heavy.

I've had to do that 2x this year already. Always have plenty of blocking, hook a truck/tractor onto the wagon and leave it in gear with the brakes set. First was a hay wagon with 1/2 a load on the back axle. Second was just this week on a chopper wagon, front tire while mostly loaded. Both times we used our bottle jack with some big blocks underneath it, and we usually have enough blocking to stack some up so the jack isn't holding the load while changing the tire.

The worst one I had was in the driveway on the hard gravel. I got the tire off and then the jack shifted. I had the tire laying on it's side under the hub, so it ended up catching the load. Scared me though.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Not such a big deal, block the wheels and put down blocks to set the Jack on. Start with a pair of 2x8 or simular then crisscross blocking on that, not just little blocks on each other that can roll over. Jack it up and put a block under the axle. Can never have too many blocks on the farm. I have pallets full of them on hand just in case

The pallet or hay bale forks work really well for lifting the front. Fast, easy, relatively safe, we block it immediately. But i can not devise a system to do the same in the rear. Axle is too far forward to reach from the back of the wagon and the weight would be far out on the tip of the forks, causing a bad leverage overload. I was hoping I would learn a new trick form someone,...but sounds like everyone else has the same situation.

In the fire-rescue service one of the basic rules is, as others have said, to follow it up with blocks as you lift. Chock blocks are, of course going to be better than just whatever is handy. Years ago I was suddenly struck with the danger and inconvenience of looking around for a rock or chunk of wood when swapping bale wagons in the field. I screwed a large screw hook into a cross member near the middle of each wagon, and hung a rubber chock block from each one. They proved to be very handy.

In the fire-rescue service one of the basic rules is, as others have said, to follow it up with blocks as you lift. Chock blocks are, of course going to be better for keeping the wagon rolling than just whatever is handy. Years ago I was suddenly struck with the danger and inconvenience of looking around for a rock or chunk of wood when swapping bale wagons in the field. I screwed a large screw hook into a cross member near the middle of each wagon, and hung a rubber chock block from each one. They proved to be very handy.

I know nothing about farming equipment (I'm only here because I bought an old tractor) but here's a technique I've used with forklifts in the past. Can you run the forks parallel to the axle (perpendicular to the wagon) under the wagon 'saddling' the axle? If you can then maybe you could put a heavy piece of 4x4 or tubing under the axle and across the forks and lift the axle with that?

Thanks guys for the input. My biggest problem is that my crawling around on the ground mechanism
is pretty much worn out, and my getting back up after crawling around mechanism isn't too good either.
Hope you all live long enough to have the same problems with your mechanisms.

Had 3 local farm tire repair operators. Now one is bankrupt =gone, one won't answer his phone, one is in jail.