Tall floor jacks as an (inconvenient) vehicle lift

[kehyer]

Hi Guys,

These caught my eye recently: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093NBRHA/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Anyone come up with a way to jack up a vehicle in stages?
1. Floor jack (+12'' typical), rest vehicle on lowest position of those high jacks
2. Put some kind of base under floor jack, +12'', rest vehicle on high jacks.

Repeat that process till you are high? I'm trying to conceive of some kind of base(s) for underneath the floor jack that would be safe.

Might make an inconvenient way to get a vehicle high.

-kehyler

 

[firebirdparts]

I think it's pretty common to build wheel cribs and get a car up pretty high on cribs. I don't do it.

 

[Farmall450]

I don't know about common, but be safe.

 

[kehyer]

I guess one could make cribs for the floor jack, until the jack-stands could be placed. Add a crib layer for however high you need to go?

 

[kehyer]

Was thinking about this, if there was a continuous load path down for the cribs, with the tire held over the that straight path down, I imagine it would be pretty strong...

 

[RWorth]

Hi Guys,

These caught my eye recently: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093NBRHA/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Anyone come up with a way to jack up a vehicle in stages?
1. Floor jack (+12'' typical), rest vehicle on lowest position of those high jacks
2. Put some kind of base under floor jack, +12'', rest vehicle on high jacks.

Repeat that process till you are high? I'm trying to conceive of some kind of base(s) for underneath the floor jack that would be safe.

Might make an inconvenient way to get a vehicle high.

-kehyler

Do you not have room for a lift? or is it a cost thing?

 

[kehyer]

Cost & portability to next house. I don't need vehicles high often, so it seems a potential intermediate option.

 

[wssix99]

Just search YouTube and you will get hundreds of ideas for this. (good and bad) To avoid a flame thread, I'll avoid links and commentary here.

 

[Jay870]

I think it's pretty common to build wheel cribs and get a car up pretty high on cribs. I don't do it.

I use cribs like this. They are very strong and stable and I really have no concerns being under the vehicle on cribs.

It is getting the vehicle on to the cribs that can be sketchy.

 

[kehyer]

^I was wondering about getting the vehicle up. How do you do that?

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

The guys that built 4th Gen F-body's / 95-02 Camaro, Firebird, TransAm got pretty creative/ good at this to take the motor out from the bottom. Might help you in your search for ideas.

 

[RWorth]

seems like a lot of work to me, unless the car is going to stay up there for a month or so. 2 post lifts show up quite often for sale from 500-2000, maybe I'm just old and lazy, but I love my lifts. I had a 2 post at home for probably 20 years, and I just bought a 4 post to basically add a stall to my garage. 2 posts are pretty cheap new, the 4 post cost me about 4K.

 

[CraigStu]

A couple of cautions from ages of working on cars w/o a lift. 1- You can lift a car a bit at a time front then back or left then right. But be very careful how much angle the car gets to especially L to R. I have had cars slide a couple of times on a jack stand because I went to the other side and wanted to get this thing up. Lifted the second side too high, the angle was too great, the smooth bottom of the frame slid along the top of the stand, until it knocked the stand over. Very fortunate that the damage was minimal. 2- The higher your floor jack goes the more the pad moves sideways as it goes up. Be real sure the wheels are greased, and the floor it is rolling on is smooth and flat and clear. I was lucky once when I happened to look over to the stands on the other side of the car. I saw one of the stands w/ only 2 of it's 4 feet on the floor. The jack hadn't been rolling well due to small debris that stopped the wheels so it pulled the car sideways. 3- I have raised a car to the tallest setting of standard stands plus a piece of 2x6 lumber but that is as far as I will go. I have had had a hand caught when a suspension arm moved as I removed a bolt. Didn't hurt the hand much at all but it wasn't moving. Laying on a creeper, looking for a prybar within the reach of my other hand (or maybe foot?) and realizing It would be 9 hours before anyone found me the next morning, made me realize I sure don't want a car pinning my arm or leg or worse because I thought the stands would be good enough..

 

[mike93lx]

The low height on those stands is 28"...how high is the vehicle that you are lifting? A floor jack on its own will never get most cars or pickups that high.

I think the cribbing suggestion is much better, then you can transfer it to tall stands.

Feels like a great application for max jacks

 

[Jay870]

^I was wondering about getting the vehicle up. How do you do that?

Jack as high as it goes and get it on jack stands. Put the jack on a platform and go again until the tires clear the cribs. Rinse and repeat on the other end/axle.

The platform in my case is basically a box made of 4×6 lumber, cross-braced with 4x6s and decked with 2x8. It weighs 100lbs+, and like the cribs I have no concerns with its load bearing.

The sketchiness is with the jacking and the placement of everything, and remembering that a floor jack does not lift straight up.

I had a near miss the last time I was getting the vehicle off of the cribs. As soon as I can find someone to do the concrete work I will have a 2 post lift.

 

[Skellyii]

A Max Jack is great for the height you're looking for, assuming that your concrete is sufficient to support it. Maybe something like a Quik Jack or EZ Car Lift? I've used all three, and they're reasonably safe and portable.

 

[kehyer]

Ok all the "all the there are no guarantees of safe design qualifications".

Any comments on this stackable/modular height design? 15.75''x21'', made from 2x4s and 2x6s, using 3 cut lengths, has a continuous path down in the center of 7''x7'' to place the tire over. Translation in XY and also rotation about z would seem to be restricted by multiple boards. Small dots are proposed locations for nails.

 

[hobie18]

Changing the oil for a mini fleet of cars, I need a little bit of boost. But run into my rule of not working under a raised car.

 

[mike93lx]

Ok all the "all the there are no guarantees of safe design qualifications".

Any comments on this stackable/modular height design? 5.75''x21'', made from 2x4s and 2x6s, using 3 cut lengths, has a continuous path down in the center of 7''x7'' to place the tire over. Translation in XY and also rotation about z would seem to be restricted by multiple boards. Small dots are proposed locations for nails.

Those look heavy as ****.

How long will the car be up for? How often are you doing this?

 

[kehyer]

^heavy as a group agreed. I wouldn't imagine too bad as individuals layers, though.

 

[hobie18]

Wag. Actually a bit. 20 pounds each

 

[Fixr]

seems like a lot of work to me, unless the car is going to stay up there for a month or so. 2 post lifts show up quite often for sale from 500-2000, maybe I'm just old and lazy, but I love my lifts. I had a 2 post at home for probably 20 years, and I just bought a 4 post to basically add a stall to my garage. 2 posts are pretty cheap new, the 4 post cost me about 4K.

A lift is great if you have the space for it. A lot of us don't.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Care to share what type of vehicle you're lifting and why you want it up that high on stands ? Once you get it up that high, you may find it's too high to be working on it comfortably and you'll be reaching way up off a creeper.

 

[kwb]

Don't spend hours lifting the car just to make a 30 minute job so you can work like a gentleman. Sometimes you just gotta get down in dirt (on the floor)

I have lifted a lot of stuff and the back and forth, and intermediate cribbing is slow, often a bit sketchy, and time consuming. Edit - I will add doing this with a floor jack that needs to be able to roll as you lift makes it even sketchier at times.

I also completely understand not wanting a lift occupying space that you may not own or need to use for a lot of varied purposes.

Jenga stacks can be very stable.

 

[Dixie_Flatline]

I've been looking at the QuickJack portable units since I haven't enough height in the garage to install a proper lift. Thought it'd be better than jack stands, and ramps are great until you need to take a wheel off. If I ever build a detached garage I will be adding an inspection pit. Wonder if one of those tornado shelters would serve double duty, inspection pit and safe hidey hole from storms?

 

[zkdiesel]

What type of job are you doing. Most can be accomplished on ground with about the effort you’ll have to raise car. And I’m king of lifting anything on a 2 post

 

[RWorth]

A lift is great if you have the space for it. A lot of us don't.

A lot of people have put them outdoors, beside the garage.

 

[kehyer]

I'm mostly just trying to understand how people get vehicles into the air without having a lift.

 

[mike93lx]

I'm mostly just trying to understand how people get vehicles into the air without having a lift.

They rarely get lifted anywhere near as high as you are talking about doing. It's unnecessary for nearly all work

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm mostly just trying to understand how people get vehicles into the air without having a lift.

Jack and jackstands. The truck goes on a set of 6 ton stands which are taller than a 2-3 ton set. If the Mustang is getting some work work and going to be for pulling the Tremec out of it, it'll go on the taller stands. I don't use a creeper either, just apiece of office carpet under the car.

 

[Black300zx]

I'm mostly just trying to understand how people get vehicles into the air without having a lift.

My Z is high enough to slide the trans out from under it. My old HF low-profile jack has a lift of around 20" IIRC and the lift points are higher than the jackstand points. The car is also low enough that if I jack one end up all the way, I can't get the jack under the other end. My process is along the lines of:

1. Jack front end up high enough to get stands under at lowest setting.
2. Jack rear end up and high as jack will go and put stands under rear
3. Put a piece of 4x4 between the jack head and jack point to get an extra 4" of lift, jack the front end up as high as it can go and adjust front stands to match
4. Repeat step 3 for the rear end

I think on one occasion I did the above, but with two 4x4 chunks jenga'd between the jack head and jack point without too much drama. The run-of-the-mill HF Daytona long reach jacks lift over 24", so a few spacer blocks could get a frame to the lowest height of those sunex jackstands (28"). You could probable carefully jenga a couple more pieces of wood on top of the jack head to get up into the low 30s. If you go to the Sunex product page (Sunex 1410) you can see some user-submitted reviews with photos of MaxJax style lifts being used to get them up onto these stands at high settings.

I think you're primarily getting hung up by the 12" lift assumption in your first post. Most decent jacks lift much higher than that. That being said, those stands probably aren't geared towards home garage DIY use, they're probably geared towards supporting heavy equipment that has been lifted using portable style lifts.

 

[kbuhagiar]

Before I had a 4-post lift, I relied on the following two methods for working under a car:

Kwik-Lift (which unfortunately is no longer in business) - I built two different project cars with my Kwik-Lift, but sold it after I got my 4-post lift.

Review: Kwiklift

Review: Kwiklift

grassrootsmotorsports.com

Race Ramps - I have an assortment of 8-, 10- & 12-inch RR wheel cribs that I still occasionally use to this day. They're not cheap but lightweight and easy to move and store.

https://www.raceramps.com/

 

[zkdiesel]

I'm mostly just trying to understand how people get vehicles into the air without having a lift.

You stick things with hydraulics under them and pull back the stick. I could go higher but it’s cold and snowy today

 

[rsanter]

Go buy a big long reach floor jack
They will lift a car quite a ways

 

[CraigStu]

l lift to 24" and it's just $239.

3 Ton Long-Reach Low-Profile Professional Floor Jack with RAPID PUMP, Blue

Amazing deals on this 3T Long-Reach Lp Pro Floor Jack, Blue at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[mikedodge]

I don't see the point of raising the car that high when it becomes a pain in the **** to jack it up that high and then a reach to do anything under it.

 

[Chipm]

Quickjack is the answer here. Budget is higher, but convenience will be worth it if you plan to lift it using the jacks more than a handful of times.

 

[racecougar]

I'm mostly just trying to understand how people get vehicles into the air without having a lift.

Use your skidsteer.




Or open up a can of spinach.





All semi-kidding aside, folks have already explained it. Get the car as high as your jack allows, place your stands, add a block atop the jack and raise again. Do things in small increments, don't get greedy or in a hurry.

 

[Dixie_Flatline]

You could find one of these. Mine was "borrowed", worked great and came from an old tire shop that was closing down.

 

[ATC]

Before I had a 4-post lift, I relied on the following two methods for working under a car:

Kwik-Lift (which unfortunately is no longer in business) - I built two different project cars with my Kwik-Lift, but sold it after I got my 4-post lift.

Review: Kwiklift

Review: Kwiklift

grassrootsmotorsports.com

I was going to suggest the Kwik-Lift as well. I have one and it's been great. I only use half of it for oil changes in the car though...