Jacking tips

[baddog8it]

I've always done my own maintenance on my vehicles, so I had the usual floor jack and jack stands. Today's project included my first attempt at jacking up THE BEAST. I was able to lift it high enough to do the work I need, but it failed to get daylight between the tire and the ground. In the future, if/when I need to remove a tire, I'll be out of luck. The range of my current equipment is just not enough to get a tire off the ground.

For jack stands, that's a no brainer. I just need taller ones.

Any suggestions for a new jack? I see a lot of the "hi lift" jacks, but not really sure how or where to engage them on an old truck. Should I just stick with the hydraulic floor jack, just something with more range than my current one?

A new floor jack doesn't solve the problem of when I'm out on the road. THE BEAST still has the stock jack under the hood. I haven't played with it yet, but I can't imagine from it's looks that it can can get much elevation.

[Gary Lewis]

On the rear I jack under the axle housings, as close to the wheel as I can get. On the front I jack on the swing arm/axle, again as close as I can get to the wheel with the jack. Granted it isn't exactly parallel with the ground, but I've never had a jack slip there. However, I always use jack stands before I get under the truck.

Jacking that way doesn't require jack with a lot of lift as 1" of jacking gets you almost 1" of wheel lift. And you can use the factory jack in the same way.

[85lebaront2]

The stock screw jack will surprise you, it has 3 sections if I remember correctly and will get it pretty high. Carry a 12X12 plate probably 1/4" thick steel if you are on Asphalt or soft ground so it will not (a) sink or (b) tilt and drop the truck. It isn't real fast, but mine still works after 32 years.

[Dyn Blin]

On the rear I jack under the axle housings, as close to the wheel as I can get. On the front I jack on the swing arm/axle, again as close as I can get to the wheel with the jack. Granted it isn't exactly parallel with the ground, but I've never had a jack slip there. However, I always use jack stands before I get under the truck.

Jacking that way doesn't require jack with a lot of lift as 1" of jacking gets you almost 1" of wheel lift. And you can use the factory jack in the same way.

Not specific to the Bullnose, but works well given one may be more likely to find themself with a flat on muddy or soft ground--

I cut and keep a circular marine plywood board stacked on/under my spare tire (on all our cars) to use as a platform for the jack. I've thought about cutting another "round" to stack for kneeling on for a tire change.

 

[grumpin]

I have driven on a 2x6 to give me just a little more.

You could also screw two 2x6's on top of each other and cut them at an angle to drive on.

We used to do that to change Learjet wheels and tires. Pull one on the 2x6's and the other would be off the ground, dual wheels of course. Then they took it out of the service manuals. Mechanics would crack axles doing it with too much weight on the aircraft, i.e. too much fuel.

I've also put my bottle jacks on 2x6's if it would fit.

[Gary Lewis]

Not specific to the Bullnose, but works well given one may be more likely to find themself with a flat on muddy or soft ground--

I cut and keep a circular marine plywood board stacked on/under my spare tire (on all our cars) to use as a platform for the jack. I've thought about cutting another "round" to stack for kneeling on for a tire change.

Dyn - I really like that idea. I'm going to see if I have some of the 1" composite flooring left and cut a piece or two of it to fit.

[Dyn Blin]

Dyn - I really like that idea. I'm going to see if I have some of the 1" composite flooring left and cut a piece or two of it to fit.

If your luck is like mine, you'll be dressed in Sunday Best when it happens.

I wrap our spares in that stretch plastic wrap for pallets on our vehicles that carry them exposed under the rear. It's easy to cut and remove when needed, and lets me come out of the event a little cleaner.

[Gary Lewis]

If your luck is like mine, you'll be dressed in Sunday Best when it happens.

I wrap our spares in that stretch plastic wrap for pallets on our vehicles that carry them exposed under the rear. It's easy to cut and remove when needed, and lets me come out of the event a little cleaner.

That's yet another great idea. I have plenty of the plastic wrap, so can do that as well.

As for luck, yes that's the way it usually happens. I'm reminded of the trip in 1969 or '70 when we took the VW van to Arkansas. Sunday morning, with a white shirt on for church, we had a flat. I wasn't very clean when the spare was on.

[Dyn Blin]

Good morning BadDog. Upon re-reading your questions, I see we suffered from "thread creep" after the 2x6's suggestion by Grumpin..

I have friend that has a ridiculously lifted early 90's 4Runner, and given the clearance, we rarely have to jack up the monster to work under. However, his "monster" trail jack is secured to the tailgate, and almost as much of pain to remove to use as it is to change one of his tires. Changing wheels, tires, brakes, bearings were always a pain using that to get it high enough for jack stands to do the rest.

To "lift" his floor jack (a cheap but workhorse Harbor Freight special) we extended it to full height and measured how much more we'd need to lift the tire an inch off the ground. We picked up some ABS pipe from the hardware store (I can't recall the diameter, but brought along a hockey puck to measure the ID of the pipe, as those seem to match the saddle/lifting plates perfectly on floor jacks). We cut it to size (about 5 " if I recall correctly) set it vertically and filled it with Quickcrete 1101, leaving enough space below the lip of the top so the hockey puck would sit in the top of tube's head space stably after cure & extend about 1/3 an inch proud of the tube.

We set this vertically on the saddle/lifting plate of the floor jack, and it's worked well for years. It's very stable on a flat surface, but I religiously use floor jacks, never trusting the stability of any jack on it's own.

In thinking about it, if you wanted to build it to work with an axle, you could find a PVC pipe of at least equal diameter to the axle, cut a section in half length-wise, and set it horizontally at the top of the vertical ABS pipe, letting it sit in 2 notches cut on opposite sides of the top lip. Fill it to the top with 'crete and then the axle can sit in the the embedded PVC "cradle".

[baddog8it]

Good morning BadDog. Upon re-reading your questions, I see we suffered from "thread creep" after the 2x6's suggestion by Grumpin..

I have friend that has a ridiculously lifted early 90's 4Runner, and given the clearance, we rarely have to jack up the monster to work under. However, his "monster" trail jack is secured to the tailgate, and almost as much of pain to remove to use as it is to change one of his tires. Changing wheels, tires, brakes, bearings were always a pain using that to get it high enough for jack stands to do the rest.

To "lift" his floor jack (a cheap but workhorse Harbor Freight special) we extended it to full height and measured how much more we'd need to lift the tire an inch off the ground. We picked up some ABS pipe from the hardware store (I can't recall the diameter, but brought along a hockey puck to measure the ID of the pipe, as those seem to match the saddle/lifting plates perfectly on floor jacks). We cut it to size (about 5 " if I recall correctly) set it vertically and filled it with Quickcrete 1101, leaving enough space below the lip of the top so the hockey puck would sit in the top of tube's head space stably after cure & extend about 1/3 an inch proud of the tube.

We set this vertically on the saddle/lifting plate of the floor jack, and it's worked well for years. It's very stable on a flat surface, but I religiously use floor jacks, never trusting the stability of any jack on it's own.

In thinking about it, if you wanted to build it to work with an axle, you could find a PVC pipe of at least equal diameter to the axle, cut a section in half length-wise, and set it horizontally at the top of the vertical ABS pipe, letting it sit in 2 notches cut on opposite sides of the top lip. Fill it to the top with 'crete and then the axle can sit in the the embedded PVC "cradle".

Thanks all for the input.

I'm going to make it a point to pull out the OEM jack and play with it a bit.

The hockey puck is a great idea.

I really like the idea of stabilization plates that fit with the spare - that's brilliant!