Raising car on 4 axle stands

[gmopar59]

Hi all, something I don't think I have ever done. Want to lift her on all 4 corners. Would I lift front first and then rear or vise versa or one side first and then the other? Need to work under her for a while but getting quite old. Got 4 - 3 tonne stands. Thanks for your advice.

[Pete]

I always lift the rear first, place the Axle stands under the Axle tubes.

Then use the jack to lift the Front, that way the car will pivot on the Axle stands at the rear, if you do it the other way, the car in my opinion the car tends to "walk off" the stands.

This is the safest way I have found but extreme care must still be taken. Make sure the Stands remain firmly and flat on the ground.

Be aware that as you jack the front, the rear will drop as the rear will drop as the springs compress, so you need to compensate accordingly.

The alternative is to initially put the stands under the Torque box area at the rear, but I have found that the stands can be liable to move a bit, hence the above method is the one I use - and I have the Valiant about 3 feet off the ground (most of the time).

I hope this is of some use.

Cheers. Pete

[gmopar59]

Thanks Pete. I will take care. Just getting to old for the old girl.

[mr m]

good advise pete
couple of points if i may add
make sure the ground at the front where the jack will be is clean and smooth as possible so the jack can wheel forward as you jack up front or the jack will start to pull the car forward off the rear stands, don't use anything soft to smooth the floor out if its rough or the jack will not roll and make sure one of the jack platform's lugs is tucked in behind the front crossmember so it can't slip off member as you jack up if the jack sticks and stops rolling and last of all clean up your jack wheels and lube em so they spin nicely as jacks tend to get neglected
good luck with your job

[Steve]

I fancy doing this.....


https://youtu.be/gJ7t_WxgMK8?si=auU8RO9iprA2ENWx

[adrianp]

good advise pete
couple of points if i may add
make sure the ground at the front where the jack will be is clean and smooth as possible so the jack can wheel forward as you jack up front or the jack will start to pull the car forward off the rear stands, don't use anything soft to smooth the floor out if its rough or the jack will not roll and make sure one of the jack platform's lugs is tucked in behind the front crossmember so it can't slip off member as you jack up if the jack sticks and stops rolling and last of all clean up your jack wheels and lube em so they spin nicely as jacks tend to get neglected
good luck with your job

This. I had the rears on stands already and then went to jack up the front, Half way through I checked the rear and sure enough they'd almost come off the rear stands. Front on mine has a lot of travel so needs a fair bit of height to get the stands under so the jack needs to be allowed to move a lot while jacking it up. Either way, always check back and front while you're doing it.

adrian.

[Steve]

I have a horror story about jacking that could easily have been my swansong

I wanted to put my car up to redo the underseal so decided I would jack the back up and put 6" concrete blocks under both back wheels, then the same with the front. Im usually very careful as Im miles from a hospital and thought I had planned everything for safety.

I jacked each side up at the rear and put axle stands under the frame just in front of the rear wheels but because my leaf springs are really saggy (I have airshocks to compensate ) the rear axle was still too low to get the blocks under the wheels. I placed blocks tight up behind the wheels with a view to pushing them under when I had the axle higher up in the wheel well.

I put a bottle jack under the diff and had to get under to pump it as the handle is short, safe in the knowledge that the car was on axle stands. The rear axle starts to compress upwards, taking up the slack in the leaf springs. I was nearly there so tried to push a block under the rear offside wheel. It was still a fraction low but the block was locked into the back edge of the tread. I went back under, few more pumps on the bottle jack and didnt notice that the springs had fully compressed and the jack was lifting the car off the axle stands!! It gets worse!!

As the bottle jack wasnt perfectly central, it and the stands started to tip to the left. I was on my own and remember shouting 'no, no,no..' really loudly. I really thought my time was up, seriously.

Luckily, and certainly not planned, everything just stopped and I scurried out. I can only think that as the diff isnt limited slip and was in 'park' as it moved, the tyre that was locked against the edge of the block effectively turned backwards and locked tighter onto the edge of the block., thus saving my life. If I hadnt tried to get the block under, theres no doubt in my mind that I wouldnt be here now.

For weeks after this I couldnt think about it without getting palpitations at the thought of what could have happened. I have learned from this but not how I like to learn

[Pete]

I should have stated that I only use a 3 Ton + Trolley jack to do this, I was guilty in assuming that everyone used one; I would not use anything else for the reasons Steve mentioned above.

[Steve]

VERY good advice, thanks Pete. My trolley jack isnt very good unfortunately and would have used that as a preference but only good from the side etc as it sometimes goes down very slowly on its own. I should bin it really. My bottle jack is a really good Landrover one but definately the wrong way to go on that nearly fateful day.

I definately learned some lessons that day, thats for sure. I now think, check, think again and double check everything before I start jacking etc