This container corner jack with trestle is a first for the container industry in Southern Africa. This offers the user a simple mechanical method to lift the corners of their container without the need for special and expensive lifting equipment, such as cranes.
The unit was designed for the purpose of assisting container users to safely jack up their containers to allow the foundations to be installed after a container has been landed or the levelling of the foundations if the container is landed on the existing foundations.
The part of the jack that fits inside the corner casting is part of Twistlock Africa’s in house IP which has been designed for ease of insertion into the corner casting. The design has a positive engagement to the corner casting providing the necessary tensile strength to prevent the unit from pulling out during operation as well as shear strength to safely accommodate and transfer a load of container to the jacking bracket and trestle.
This container corner jack with trestle can be used to permanently lift a container up to 200mm for the purposes of, for example, promoting water run-off under the container, not damaging vegetation underneath the container and possibly if the ground conditions would promote corrosion or other damage to the steel in the base of the container.
This jack can be used on any type and size of steel container as well as prefab and flat-pack containers that use standard ISO 1161 corner castings on the bottom frames.
A single unit could be used, however, a minimum of 2 is recommended to prevent a single unit from supporting half the load of the container, as it will tend to share the load with the opposite corner, which could twist the container or damage the jack. When using two units on the same side, a single hydraulic jack can be used to slowly ratchet the side of the container to the required level. The hydraulic jack would be used in combination with the bottom lock nut, which should be tightened before the hydraulic jack is removed.
This type of jack offers a safer support option to using standard trestles available in the market which fit underneath the container corner castings, which would require the container to be lifted before they can be installed. These types of bottom-mounted container trestles are best suited for prefab/ flat pack containers used for offices
The design makes use of industry-standard scaffolding components and techniques, which allows for a loading of 4 tons per trestle. The use of a 4-ton hydraulic jack (sold separately) would ensure that the load Limit of the jack is not exceeded. For safety reasons, the unit has been designed to only accommodate a 4-ton jack or smaller.
An 8-ton variant is in development and will be released in due course.
