If you park your trailer on muddy, sandy, or generally mushy and soft terrains, you may have some trouble getting it hooked up and pulled out. Trailers can get stuck, and once that happens they're hard to attach. What's more, attaching your truck to a trailer that's stuck in the mud (or wherever) means your truck could get stuck too.
The solution? Hook up a quality wheeled trailer jockey, winch the trailer out of the mud (or the sand or whatever), and hook up where you've got plenty of traction. The trouble is, most of the wheels on a decent trailer jockey are tiny and useless in the mud. The solution to that problem? Buy a product known as a "wheel kit" for your trailer jockey, which promises to make it functional in bad conditions.
Unfortunately, wheel kits are a bad option. Here's why they don't work, and what we designed here at Ark to fix the problem for real.
Wheels Kits Are Not The Way To Go
So what’s the issue with wheel kits for trailer jockeys? In no specific order, wheel kits have LOTS of problems:
The bigger the wheels, the more likely they are to bend your jack/jockey. The bigger the wheels, the bigger the leverage they have. If you push or pull the trailer tongue and the wheels don't roll easily, the trailer jack/trailer jockey tube is going to bend. Once it bends, it's borderline useless.
They have a subpar load capacity. Most of the big pneumatic wheel kits for trailer jacks and jockeys use tires that aren't rated for the load. There's no such thing as a small rubber tire that can hold 1,000lbs+...at least not at the price of most of the wheel kits available.
Expect loss of tire pressure. If you go with pneumatic wheels, you're going to want to keep an air pump at hand, as they often lose pressure over the course of a few days. Again, cheap tiny wheels just aren't designed to handle big loads.
Every wheel kit comes with the wrong wheel. Wheel kits are adapters, added to a trailer jockey/wheeled trailer jack that simply was designed for the wheel it already has. Adding your own wheel to the jack or jockey doesn't make for reliable hardware.
The good news is that we've got a better option. You don't have to live with the shortcomings of trailer jockey wheel kits.
Using A Purpose-Built Wheeled Trailer Jack Instead
After hearing a lot of complaints over the years from our off-roading buddies, and experiencing these first hand, we decided to do something about it. This is why we designed a game changing jockey wheel that will stand up to abuse while allowing you to move your trailer in any condition without getting stuck. Our new Xtreme Off-Road (XO) Trailer Jack is tough and versatile, and will solve your trailering problems.
The XO Trailer Jack is a heavy-duty trailer jack with a swivel wheel that's designed for off-road use. If you park your trailer at a campsite and find out the next day that you actually parked in a mudhole, the XO wheeled trailer jack will help you drag the trailer out of the mud so you can hook up. It's also tough enough to stand up to the abuse of being winched over obstacles.
Here are a few of the features you’ll be able to put to good use:
- The heavy duty body is rated at 1,650lbs, so you can carry your dirt bikes, 4wheelers, etc. with ease
- It has almost 10” of height adjustability for a max height of almost 30”
- Wheel easily pivots on soft ground and under heavy loads
- Sealed bearing and off-road tread increases gripe and speaks the load
- Variable yoke lock allows for clearance of stone guards, toolboxes, jerry can holders, etc.
- The handle is magnetic removable, and side-winding for easy raising and lowering, and safe stowage
These features and more make the new XO Trailer Jack a product unlike anything else out there. It will more than pay for itself in one trip, so get it right the first time instead of wasting time and money on low quality wheel kits.