Jacking

[monza]

hey,

whats the smart way to jack the front for general maintenance and parts swaps.

i cant find either a bottle or scissor that will reach the frame rails - maybe the axle - just.

So i assume i will have to stand the jack up on blocks.

Do i just get a bottle, some blocks and axle stands (again on blocks) ?

Or is there a better way ?

I have a steering linkage and sus change looming - and i am sick of always using the disaster prone hi-lift side jack - one of these days its gonna bite me, i just know it...

Monza.

 

[Broncobill78]

hey,whats the smart way to jack the front for general maintenance and parts swaps.

i cant find either a bottle or scissor that will reach the frame rails - maybe the axle - just.

So i assume i will have to stand the jack up on blocks.

Do i just get a bottle, some blocks and axle stands (again on blocks) ?

Or is there a better way ?

I have a steering linkage and sus change looming - and i am sick of always using the disaster prone hi-lift side jack - one of these days its gonna bite me, i just know it...

Monza.

You've got a number of options here. Up front I generally place a floor jack under the spring on either side & lift it high enough to set a jackstand under the axletube as far ourboard as I'm able to. You can also place the jackstands under the front crossmember (again, space them as far apart as you're able). In back I usually place the cup of the floorjack under the shock mount and again lift it high enough to place the jackstands under the axletube.

If you need extra height a cinderblock usually works just fine & I've also used 4x4's and old railroad ties as well just use some common sense and make sure wooden blocks don't have any large splits or have any cracks in your cinderblocks, check for anything that might fail with a load on it. Using one large block is prefrable to stacking several boards to gain the height but if you DO stack boards take a moment to drive a few nails (or screws) into each one as you make your stack so you eliminate any chance of one slipping out or shifting as you jack other parts of the truck up.

They're not all that expensive & you might want to consider investing in some of the tall jackstands specifically designed to be used with trucks instead of cars. Same goes for the floorjack, you can get one made for trucks that will have a taller maximum lift. Bottle jacks will work but you have to take a little more care in how you place them since the surface area of the little cap on top is considerably less than what you have with a floor jack and the same goes for the scissor jacks (even more so with the ones that have a slot designed to fit onto that little ridge so many unibodies have) . You can certainly make do with a bottle or scissor but a floorjack is really the tool for the job since it's cup gives you a lot more options for placing it and it swivels and tilts a bit giving you some margin of error for when things shift as you lift. I've seen more than a few trucks slip off a bottlejack.

I used to run a very stout front bumper made from thickwall irrigation pipe and it was an ideal place to use the highlift jack (just stuck it into the open end of the pipe on either side) and in back I would usually use the reciever hitch as my jacking point. I also used a small length of chain that I could wrap anywhere I wanted on the bumper and grab it with the hook-jaw on the highlift instead of the straight-jaw but I usually make sure it's right up against the frame so there's less of a chance it will slip.

 

[monza]

Great answer man - thx.

the tallest floorjacks i seem to find are in the 18 - 20" range

are there any higher lift than that or will that do the trick ?

thx again,

Monza.

 

[Broncobill78]

Great answer man - thx.
the tallest floorjacks i seem to find are in the 18 - 20" range

are there any higher lift than that or will that do the trick ?

thx again,

Monza.

Well sure, just remember that tools are like trucks and you get what you pay for. I don't have a link but I used to have a high-lift floor jack that I picked up at AutoZone as well as a set of high lift jackstands also designed for trucks. Not having a link for those handy this is what I could dig up on short notice:

http://www.hyjacks.com/hifloor.htm

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_0...=Lift+Equipment

http://www.tooltopia.com/index.asp?PageAct...mp;ProdID=31007

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/ome25037.html

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...03997_200303997

http://www.ohiopowertool.com/item-detail.c...mp;ID=NOR71300A

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...05493_200305493

http://www.nextag.com/TORIN-3-Ton-SUV-5668...B56ABAE31A61523

 

[monza]

...this is what I could dig up on short notice:
http://www.hyjacks.com/hifloor.htm

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_0...=Lift+Equipment

http://www.tooltopia.com/index.asp?PageAct...mp;ProdID=31007

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/ome25037.html

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...03997_200303997

http://www.ohiopowertool.com/item-detail.c...mp;ID=NOR71300A

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...05493_200305493

http://www.nextag.com/TORIN-3-Ton-SUV-5668...B56ABAE31A61523

Dave,

just getting back to this...

thx much for all the links.

i spotted a hi lift (21") floor jack at AZ yesterday for $60 - seems like a winner to me.

i have suddenly developed the dreaded death wobble - close inspection shows me that the trac bar is missing a bushing at the bracket !!!

looks like i'll be playing with that new jack very soon...

again thx for the time and the links,

Monza.

 

[rodsteal]

You've got a number of options here. Up front I generally place a floor jack under the spring on either side & lift it high enough to set a jackstand under the axletube as far ourboard as I'm able to. You can also place the jackstands under the front crossmember (again, space them as far apart as you're able). In back I usually place the cup of the floorjack under the shock mount and again lift it high enough to place the jackstands under the axletube.
If you need extra height a cinderblock usually works just fine

I have to interject here. Please do not use a cinderblock under your truck for any type of jacking or cribbing. I had a friend who used them under the rear end of an F150 under jack stands and they didn't hold the weight and crumbled under load. Thank God he was not under it at the time, it would have killed him. Block is not strong enough or designed to handle any weight load. If you dont believe me, take one with you the next time you go shooting. A hand gun can take them apart.

Listen, when you are dealing with jacking a car, spend good or decent money on stuff that wont bite you in the a$$. I have a HighLift and wont even use it except as a pulley, and even then I have to be really desparate. You can get tall jack stand. If they wont reach, use some type of large timber with a wide enough base to handle the width of the stand. If you really need the height for a suspention upgrade you can use a good engine hoist for shop crane, as long as it is at least 4 ton or more. Wrap two axle straps to the front frame and attach them to the hoist. Most axle straps have a 10k lbs working load, you should be fine with two. Or borrow a fork lift.

 

[monza]

... Listen, when you are dealing with jacking a car, spend good or decent money on stuff that wont bite you in the a$$. Or borrow a fork lift.

Holy Shit Bro,

from a $60 jack to a forklift !

thats a big frign leap /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

did Bronco's used to come with a forklift - i should contact the previous owner to see if he still has mine )

sorry bro

i'm just yankin yer chain.

i get it - dont use crap to prop the rig up...

and i will avoid cinder blocks - just to be sure.

but it would be soooo fkn funny if new Bronco's came with a forklift truck

man u put a smile on my face.

thx,

>-

Monza.

 

[Broncobill78]

I have to interject here. Please do not use a cinderblock under your truck for any type of jacking or cribbing. I had a friend who used them under the rear end of an F150 under jack stands and they didn't hold the weight and crumbled under load. Thank God he was not under it at the time, it would have killed him. Block is not strong enough or designed to handle any weight load. If you dont believe me, take one with you the next time you go shooting. A hand gun can take them apart.
Listen, when you are dealing with jacking a car, spend good or decent money on stuff that wont bite you in the a$$. I have a HighLift and wont even use it except as a pulley, and even then I have to be really desparate. You can get tall jack stand. If they wont reach, use some type of large timber with a wide enough base to handle the width of the stand. If you really need the height for a suspention upgrade you can use a good engine hoist for shop crane, as long as it is at least 4 ton or more. Wrap two axle straps to the front frame and attach them to the hoist. Most axle straps have a 10k lbs working load, you should be fine with two. Or borrow a fork lift.

Well, I must respectfully disagree. You chose to quote only a *portion* of what I wrote. An intact cinderblock will in fact carry the load. What you failed to quote was the part where I stated you had to check it to be sure there were no cracks that would compromise the integrety of the block. A cracked or damaged cinderblock can & certainly WILL fail underload as your friend found out but a cinderblock with it's integretry intact will carry the load just fine. You have to use some common sense in how you place the block and what type of block you use. The blocks have to be in good shape and so do the jackstands you use.

If you take a close look at the photo I posted you can see the front blocks that I used actually had a large notch cast into one side of the block. HOWEVER, I used blocks that were purchased brand-new AND I used jackstands that had 3 legs & all 3 legs were welded to a triangular "foot" which is clearly visable in the photo. That foot distributed the load over several square inches, much better than a standard jackstand with no foot. You can see that both front blocks have the slot oriented on one of the sides but since they were new, had never been tossed around or cracked and were in excellent condition there was no problem. These blocks were used for probably 10 yrs but I was always careful to not abuse them or throw them around. They were used for this purpose & this purpose only.

I asked my wife about this years ago. She's a civil engineer with a Masters degree (and $140K in freaking loans to prove it) and she laughed & laughed & laughed. Do you have any idea what the average compressive load capacity of a concrete block is ? A 16"x8" hollow concrete block will carry a load of 150,000 to 200,000lbs. A load capacity of 1,500 pounds per Square INCH is at the low end of the scale. The weight of a 6000lb truck spread over 4 of these is nothing. Take a look at the numbers yourself.

http://chestofbooks.com/reference/Henley-s...2-Strength.html

But hey, I'm not advocating that ANYONE do ANYTHING they're not comfortable with. I'm sure plenty of cinder blocks have failed under load but I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of those blocks were cracked, chipped or otherwise flawed because a concrete block with it's integrety intact simply doesn't fail under that kind of load. Ask anyone who can do the math. It just doesn't happen. Concrete is strongest when it's under compression, that's the nature of the material & that's why it's such a popular building material, the safety factor is beyond crazy. She spent *years* testing concrete at building sites before moving into management & I'm pretty sure she knows what she's talking about, but again, nobody should do anything they aren't comfortable doing. I'm simply suggesting that having ALL the information available will lead to a more informed decision. A compromised block may well fail, but an intact concrete block will most certainly carry the negligable load of a light-duty truck.

 

[rodsteal]

Well, like you said, I would not suggest to anyone doing something they are not comfortable with, and since I have first hand experience with a truck collapsing a cinderblock, I would say that is pretty damn uncomfortable, regardless of what you wife says. If you want to get into structural engineering specs, we can argue all night. I'm an engineer also and I actually build parking structures out of concrete for a living, but hey, what ever.

I don

 

[rodsteal]

Holy Shit Bro,from a $60 jack to a forklift !

thats a big frign leap /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

did Bronco's used to come with a forklift - i should contact the previous owner to see if he still has mine )

sorry bro

i'm just yankin yer chain.

i get it - dont use crap to prop the rig up...

and i will avoid cinder blocks - just to be sure.

but it would be soooo fkn funny if new Bronco's came with a forklift truck

man u put a smile on my face.

thx,

>-

Monza.

I was suggesting a fork lift if you were going to do a suspension lift or were going to have your truck in the air a bunch or at varying heights, but you know that. My neighbor across the street has one and I used it when I did the bushing and suspension. I also have one at my shop. They come in handy. It would be great to have one in the trail when you throw an axle or blow a tire.

I used to carry my HighLift but I could never get it to lift where it wouldn't tip one way or the other. Now I just use a bottle jack and a cinderblock :lol:

 

[monza]

Hey,

what about us starting up: CINDERBLOCKZONE.COM ???

Sorry,

i appreciate both of your contributions - and u have both helped me out before - at the end of the day the real info for me was how you get yr truck up in the air.

I assume that there is quite a difference between stands under the axle and under the frame,

under the axle keeps everything under compression - and under the frame unloads everything - right ?

so if i am replacing my steering linkage - should i prop under frame - or axle ??

thx.

Monza.

 

[rodsteal]

Well, under the frame will unload the weight of the truck and dis-ailing the linkage from were it is at regular ride height. But since it is the steering and not the tie rod, you can turn the steering wheel enough to loosen the linkage and the get the linkage off. Be careful not to damage the threads or the ball joints with a pickle fork. To be honest, I don

 

[S_bolt19]

so if i am replacing my steering linkage - should i prop under frame - or axle ??

In simple, no you do not need to jack your truck up to get the steering linkage off. If for any reason there is bind in them, they need to be replaced anyway. Changing out tie rods & trac-bars, it is not necessary to lift your tires off the ground. In all probability, it is easier to get things to go back to where they were in the first place because the tires won't move and if you mark the steering box shaft, it will go back the same.

It is pretty simple.

 

[monza]

HALLELULJA !!!

thx guys,

i'm off to cure the death wobble.

>-

Monza.

 

[Broncobill78]

I guess it also depends on what you've got & how badly you want to get home. While I certainly wouldn't recommend publicly that anyone else do the same I *have* been desperate enuf to jam the hi-lift into a steel wagon wheel & crank myself out of a hole. Admittedly it involved jacking up to the limit of the jack & then pushing the truck *off* the jack but I DID in fact get home before dawn (even though nobody believed my story) and I DID have big nasty tooth marks in the rims. I wouldn't be keen to try it with aluminum rims & I know that nobody here has chrome rims (since chrome is for pimps) but still. I have no doubt it exceeded the safety factor of every part involved but it's hard to argue with success. Those rims held air & took a balance until I junked them.

I just *hafta* grin at the parking structure comment since she designed & oversaw the construction of one on Madison Ave. in Memphis several yrs ago & to the best of my knowledge it's still standing, even w/the new siesmic regs. But if I've learned anything it's that Engineers are a quirky lot, no disrespect intended, differential equations are WAY beyond me. I have nothing but respect, but at the same time personal experience makes for some widely varied opinions. We see what we see & we know what we know, it's it' sure is hard for one man to justify or explain the personal experience of someone else compared with his own. While I've actually seen 10whl dumps perched on concrete blocks for 8 or 10 wks I have no doubt that some have failed under the weight of a Yugo. Fate is a funny thing. Insurance actuarials make a career out of stuff like this <grin>