While parking the van with the mover on the gravel after our recent jaunt, I noticed that the jockey wheel seemed to be a bit wonky and not turning as smoothly as I would have liked. When I removed it to have a closer look, this is what I found.


The nylon bushing to the centre of the wheel had collapsed and instead of rotating around the centre spindle, the whole assembly was wobbling about on what remained of the wheel hub. The black bits in the wheel are what was left of the bushing.


As you can see, the pneumatic tyre was also badly perished and just waiting for a puncture to happen.

The clamp and jockey wheel assembly were also pretty rusty and the bottom of the external tube didn't have slots to keep the wheel from flapping about while towing. I decided, therefore to replace the whole assembly with a heavy duty Alko Air jockey wheel and at the same time fit a new clamp.


The old clamp, the wheel central spindle and bits of the disintegrated nylon bushing.

The first thing to do when removing the jockey wheel assembly is to make sure that the drawbar is adequately supported . I used an axle stand but bricks or timber blocks would serve just as well. Once the clamp has been released, the jockey wheel assembly can be waggled out from underneath but if this is not possible, just unscrew the two parts of the assembly by turning the jockey wheel down as far as it will go.

The clamp is held to the drawbar by two bolts and you will need two 17mm spanners to remove the Nylok nuts. I used a ring spanner and a 1/2" drive socket on a short extension bar.


Drawbar securely supported on an axle stand.

The original winding handle had a rubber cover that sealed the top of the spindle but to remove it and refit it on the new assembly would have involved driving out the two rollpins (easy) and removing the winding knobs (not so easy). The plastic knobs have been pressed onto the ends of the spindles which have a couple of projections at the end. The original knob had split and was easy to tap off but as I had visions of smashing the new one I decided to fit the assembly as supplied.


The original assembly showing the rubber rain cover.

Fitting the new clamp and jockey wheel was simple and straightforward. After bolting on the new clamp and greasing the clamp screw thread, I waggled the assembly into position from below and clamped it in place.



The finished job. I wonder how long it will stay that shiny?