How do you guys put your car on jack stand safely? I have two problems.

1) As you all know the off road capability of our car, the 2 ton hydraulic jacks I have just not tall enough to lift the car for me to do tire rotation.

I have two of these.


2) The jack point / jacking area under the car is too small to fit both the jack and jack stand. you know the regular procedure: jack up the car from the jack point first, and then put the jack stand to the jack point.

 

you jack car up from the side... and then you put the jack stand on frame of car.... or jack car of from front or back frame and place jackstand on reinforced points...

 

If you have a big enough jack, you can lift the car from the CENTER-FRONT or CENTER-REAR.
Then just lower the front or back down onto the stands.
That’s what I do.

I’ll link some pics for you tonight if you want.

 

I'd like to see the rear jack point.

 

thanks. pictures would greatly helped..

 

I'd like to see how you get a jack under the center front. My car is on comptechs and it's too low to get my jack under the front.

 

Here YA go................

 

question: how do u jack your car up?

answer: run it into a brick wall...

 

Put a couple of 2 x 4's on the ground and drive up on them. Instant ground clearance.

 

This is what I do and it works for me.

 

Sorry, if this sounds dumb, but where exactly is the center front and rear jack points?

 

In the rear, I do it on the tow hook.

In the front, you will see a spot of metal in the middle of the car, about 2-3 feet in from the front of the car.

 

Exactly…..
FYI…….DO NOT use the FRONT tow hooks on the sides to jack the car up.
They are not strong enough to support the weight of the engine.
There’s too much weight there and you may have problems or bend the hook over.

 

nice, now I need to get a SUV jack.. 2 ton jack is not tall enought to lift the car...

 

Okay, in the front... is this spot of metal flat? What's it shape? I can't find anything under my car that's forward of the A-pipe that is metal (other than engine).

 

can we get a picture of center front jack point?

 

Eh, it's freaking raining outside, but I'll try and see if I can grab a picture of it real quick when it stops raining. I can't do it in the garage since it's full of all the stuff I've been working on.

But the stop is only like 6-8 inches wide -- on both sides, it's covered with a black plastic sheet. What color is your car, NiteQwill? Because on mine, it's really easy to spot, since my car's silver.

 

If I remember I’ll take a picture tomorrow.
I plan to jack the car up and have a closer look at my Comptech springs because of the latest RUST issue that people are having.

 

I lied -- the front jacking point is NOT body color. Rather, it is black. But it still covered with a black plastic piece on either side. I'll take a picture if I get a chance.

 

 

I’ll give this thread a BUMP and attach two pictures from when I was checking my springs yesterday.
Hope this helps.




FRONT




REAR

 

guess what I got for myself on my wife's birthday?



here is the comparison #1


comparison #2


problem


problem


this SUV jack can barely lift my CLS off the ground... I think I should get a 18 wheeler jack next time..

 

I was going to get one of those, but it was too big to carry around. I'm always on the move with my tools, so I needed something more portable. One of my friends has the same one as yours, though. It's bad-ass!!

 

When jacking from the REAR you need a really high lift jack because the attachment point is so high.

Mine does 22” lift and it wasn’t mega-expensive.
59-Bucks at Sam’s Club.

I think you need at least 20-21” of lift because mine is nearly fully extended when the tires finally leave the ground.
Otherwise you need to set the jack on something first, but that’s compromising safety and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Shawn S



This is from before my garage floor was poured and I still had my “girly man” jack.

 

Ah... I have a red jack like the one in above picture ... it does barely lift my CLS from the side... However, when lowering my CLS it goes down like free fall with a big bang which I hate...

 

ya gotta turn the knob ever-so - s l o w l y . . .

 

I'm excavating an old thread, but I want to thank you all, esp. Shawn S. for this discussion and photos. You had the exact information I was looking for! I love this place.

 

So to rotate the tires front to back, I'd need to lift the back, stick jack stands under the rear sides, then go around and lift the front. Is that safe? Any issues with the weight wanting to shift around on the jack stands as the angle of the car changes? The last thing I need is a stand tipping over and the the car falling on it. Also, what capacity jack and stands would you recommend?

 

Can you use the Jack that comes with the car? How far up does it go? I know the jack in the trunk is slower than the ones you have but is it worth having a 3 ton jack.

 

Use a good rolling floor jack for doing tire rotations and such. Its worth the money for one, plus it saves tons of time.

You can only use the jack that comes with the car on the 4 jack points near the wheels. The way they are designed, its not safe to use it anywhere else really.

 

Thanks for the advice. I thought a jack is a jack no matter what place you lift from. It would be hard to jack the front with the factory jack,

 

Does anyone have an opinion on how many safety stands to use? I bought a pair of 3 ton for the front for my brake job but if i use the stands for oil changes do i need 2 pairs to level the car?
For oil changes it would be a hassle to put the front up then open the plug an filter then drop the car to make sure it drains out the oil. Then lift it up again to put a filter and oil drain plug back in.

 

Hey Shawn-

I just bought a girly man jack too, but I raise it so infrequently, that I really can't justify buying an Ahnold-type Terminator jack.
You said Otherwise you need to set the jack on something first, but that’s compromising safety and I wouldn’t recommend it. Isn't that what you're doing in the photo? It looks awfully shaky. Did the jack shift around on those boards? I have to jack up on gravel too, and it was a frightening experience watching the jack shift as weight was applied

You think the two ton jacks are girly man? How about the one that came with the car! I ended up using both today to rotate my tires--with my brand new jack stands sitting beside the car, doing nothing. I read somewhere else where this dude raised up one wheel high enough to get the jack stand under the opposite end, then reversed the procedure. Of course, one would need a similarly tall enough jack to do that as well, but I wonder if I could fashion some sort of block to put under the girly-jack so I could raise the side of the car high enough to get the jack stand underneath.

Hell, by the time I figured all this stuff out, I could just go get a real jack! Pisses me off that I just wasted $20 on that dumb jack.

 

Lookie...




http://www.toolsusa.com/jacks/index....ogle&cat=Jacks

Search for "Floor Jack Cross Beam" Kick ass, huh?

 

That picture I posted on Page 1 is ancient. That’s from like 3-years ago.
Back then that was the only jack I had and the concrete floor of my garage wasn’t even poured yet.
I didn’t want to buy anything nice to put in there at the time.

It looks “shaky”, but actually it was quite sturdy. I did what I had to do at the time and I’d NEVER get under the car when it was jacked up like that.

Shawn S