Steep driveway tire change question.

[DAVE94LIGHTNING]

What's the safest procedure to swap all 4 wheels/tires on a steep driveway. I'm assuming using wheel chocks to keep the front wheels from rolling once the rear wheels are off the ground? I like to do both rears at once by lifting under the differential (non IRS car). and do the fronts one side at a time. Getting used to this new driveway and don't feel comfortable using jack stands due to the steep angle.

 

[The Cobbler]

I think I would jack the low end of the car with the other wheels securely chocked . blocks of wood instead of stands laid so they can't topple

 

[tarmy]

I would find a flat friend’s place or a parking lot…seriously. Unless you block 3 wheels and do one corner at a time there is too much risk for a simple task that can be done more safely. I got old with all my toes and fingers being thoughtful…when I was young I took risks that should have separated parts of my body from the rest…or caused me to stop breathing. I can only answer your questions by the above comments.

 

[Rc_Guy]

I would do it in the garage.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

What's the safest procedure to swap all 4 wheels/tires on a steep driveway. I'm assuming using wheel chocks to keep the front wheels from rolling once the rear wheels are off the ground? I like to do both rears at once by lifting under the differential (non IRS car). and do the fronts one side at a time. Getting used to this new driveway and don't feel comfortable using jack stands due to the steep angle.

What is the vehicle in question? I never got the nerve to lift my 7200lb truck on a steep driveway, mainly cause I'd take 3 wheels off at once to use the criss-cross method. I have borrowed Dad's flat driveway or done a swap parked on the street. I understand sometimes you're out of options. Good luck.

 

[rlitman]

I guess how steep is it? And can you park it in the direction of the slope, so it's only inclined front to back or vise versa? If so, (like my driveway), I'll use a pair of chocks on each axle, but what works for me on concrete may not work so well on a different surface or angle.

 

[finn]

I had a Ford expedition start to roll once when jacked up on an asphalt driveway with a slope.

I don’t do that anymore, no matter how well it’s blocked.

 

[wyb2]

Point the car across the slope, not up/down it. Chock the uphill wheels well and lift the downhill side.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Point the car across the slope, not up/down it. Chock the uphill wheels well and lift the downhill side.

That is kind of what I’m thinking. You would have more weight/pressure on the jack on the low side I would think.
i have some slop to my driveway. I just do it on the street in front of the driveway. Mind you I live on a fairly quiet crescent.

 

[Fav Onefour]

You're nuts to try unless this version of steep is over exaggerated. How steep is the angle?

Straight up is the safest lift. Risk is obviously up the the person.
I would not trust blocks against a pliable rubber tire to keep the stands straight.

 

[Youngandfree]

If the street is flat I'd do it there instead.

 

[bluedog225]

Don’t do this on a steep driveway. Seriously. Why.

 

[firebirdparts]

I don't do it in a steep driveway either. I just do it somewhere else.

If you had to, then experience will show what really works. You want your parking brake to really work in that situation. Traditionally they have not been beautifully engineered. It might work better going one direction than the other. Chocks might work. really good chocks will work really well. Jacking up two tires at once will have consequences that I guess a normal person would understand. I mean, I assume you know which end the car has a parking brake and which end is the drive end. The drive end won't hold it with one tire off the ground so you might as well jack up both.

If you have an adequate level of fear in this situation it'll serve you well.

 

[ATC]

Park another vehicle uphill from it and chain/strap the vehicle to it. Use all parking brakes and wheel chocks. I’ve had to do this a few times while fourwheeling when we had tire trouble. We used a tree instead of another vehicle in that situation though.

But obviously, seek another location if at all possible.

 

[Notgrownup]

I’m just picturing in my head a vehicle coming off the jack stands. No just no. Take it to a shop or a place where it’s flat.

 

[gizardlizard]

Great way to have a ****** Thanksgiving. Be smart. Find some place flat.

 

[PopcornSutton]

My driveway has a slope, but I wouldn't say it's steep. I never raise the entire axle, only one side. If rotating tires, I do the cross pattern, chock the ground tire of each axle, raise enough to clear the tires, then remove and reinstall. Let it down and reverse.

When I change oil, I made ramps to drive the front onto to level the car.

 

[johninct]

My cousin was washing his car on a steep driveway. Somehow the car ended up in neutural, rolled down then across the street and hit the neighbor's house.

 

[Stuart in MN]

There are plenty of YouTube videos of cars rolling away when they're jacked up on a steep driveway...I'd do the work out on the street or somewhere else that's flat.

 

[mrvm]

If the streets are not safe to rotate tires go to your local mall, auto parts store even WALMART for a flat surface and perform the 4 or 5 tire rotation. You may see a part of humanity thats usually missing after a few good samaritans stop by to offer assistance thinking you have a flat tire

One good part of your story: jack stands are never safe or dependable on a slope or uneven surface

 

[Fav Onefour]

If the streets are not safe to rotate tires go to your local mall, auto parts store even WALMART for a flat surface and perform the 4 or 5 tire rotation. You may see a part of humanity thats usually missing after a few good samaritans stop by to offer assistance thinking you have a flat tire

One good part of your story: jack stands are never safe or dependable on a slope or uneven surface

I'm going to add one more to the bold. Hot asphalt.

Buddy was in the garage and heard his neighbor yelling for help. When he got around the corner, he saw the legs sticking out from under the car. Two jackstands had sunk and tipped in the hot asphalt.

Buddy grabbed his own floor jack and lifted the car pretty quickly. The neighbor guy had already passed out by the time the car was lifted. He was not seriously hurt, just couldn't breath with the crossmember compressing on his chest. That neighbor still thanks my buddy on a pretty regular basis.

That happened on a flat driveway.

 

[CraigStu]

I know, different, but stuff happens. Neighbor w/ steep drive sloping toward his garage. Guys come w/ a skid steer on a trailer behind a pickup. Backed partway down the driveway. As the skid steer was moving off the trailer it was heavy enough to seesaw the trailer on it's axle which picked up the hitch end, which picked up the rear tires on the pickup (where the park brake is) and the whole mess went into his garage through his closed garage door. Follow mrvm's advice, take your stuff to a local level parking lot. Make two trips if needed, it is just not worth the risk.

 

[RegeSullivan]

For me.... any noticable slope isn't worth the risk. To easy to find a better spot or pay a tire shop. I was raised on a street with a moderately steep grade back in the day when flat tires were common. Never saw anyone hurt but helped more than a few neighbors get their cars up off the ground. Saw one roll into another car from jacking up the rear end with a floor jack. It rolled over the bricks he used to chock the front wheels.

 

[finn]

Point the car across the slope, not up/down it. Chock the uphill wheels well and lift the downhill side.

Jacks don’t do well on side hills, either.

 

[ATC]

I know, different, but stuff happens. Neighbor w/ steep drive sloping toward his garage. Guys come w/ a skid steer on a trailer behind a pickup. Backed partway down the driveway. As the skid steer was moving off the trailer it was heavy enough to seesaw the trailer on it's axle which picked up the hitch end, which picked up the rear tires on the pickup (where the park brake is) and the whole mess went into his garage through his closed garage door. Follow mrvm's advice, take your stuff to a local level parking lot. Make two trips if needed, it is just not worth the risk.

Most people panic in that situation and stop the machine when the vehicle starts to roll. If they would keep going (either on or off the trailer), the truck tires would hit the ground and stop again in a short distance. But no, they sit there and ride it out until it jack-knifes or crashes into something...

 

[bluedog225]

I don’t even trust jack stands on concrete. Gal I dated was a paramedic. she said lots of folks died when the vehicle fell off for a variety of reasons. Quiet deaths in terms of not much news about them. Just dead.

 

[wyb2]

Jacks don’t do well on side hills, either.

What do they do differently?

As many have pointed out, the crux of the issue is ‘how steep is steep?’ On a ski slope, there is probably no safe way to do this. But for any reasonable slope (total judgment call, I can’t quote a grade or angle), the friction in the system will far outweigh any side load caused by the angle. The 2 tires in contact with the ground should do a pretty good job preventing the vehicle from moving downhill.

Trying to think of problems - I mean the lateral deflection of 2 tires on a side slope will be more than 4 tires, but a standard floor jack placed perpendicular to the vehicle should roll to take this up no problem.

I would never use jack stands on any noticeable slope.

 

[dchawk81]

I would pay a shop before I'd jack up a vehicle on a "steep driveway."

 

[Stuart in MN]

There are plenty of YouTube videos of cars rolling away when they're jacked up on a steep driveway...I'd do the work out on the street or somewhere else that's flat.

I know, different, but stuff happens. Neighbor w/ steep drive sloping toward his garage. Guys come w/ a skid steer on a trailer behind a pickup. Backed partway down the driveway. As the skid steer was moving off the trailer it was heavy enough to seesaw the trailer on it's axle which picked up the hitch end, which picked up the rear tires on the pickup (where the park brake is) and the whole mess went into his garage through his closed garage door. Follow mrvm's advice, take your stuff to a local level parking lot. Make two trips if needed, it is just not worth the risk.

There are plenty of YouTube videos of that situation as well. Usually they're hilarious but also usually the aftermath is expensive.

 

[CoogarXR]

I know when I was about 17, I had a blow out on the interstate. Thankfully I was by an exit. I hobbled it into a gas station, to an out-of-the-way corner. There was a slight incline... And I mean very slight. But I used the junk OEM scissor jack, jacked it up. Took the tire off, and slid it under the car, just in case. Well, "just in case" happened just as I slid the tire under. The scissor jack tipped over and the car fell on the tire. Never messed with an incline since. I'd risk shredding a rim to drive to a flatter spot before I'd try anything on an incline again.

 

[finn]

What do they do differently?

As many have pointed out, the crux of the issue is ‘how steep is steep?’ On a ski slope, there is probably no safe way to do this. But for any reasonable slope (total judgment call, I can’t quote a grade or angle), the friction in the system will far outweigh any side load caused by the angle. The 2 tires in contact with the ground should do a pretty good job preventing the vehicle from moving downhill.

Trying to think of problems - I mean the lateral deflection of 2 tires on a side slope will be more than 4 tires, but a standard floor jack placed perpendicular to the vehicle should roll to take this up no problem.

I would never use jack stands on any noticeable slope.

Any jack changes the cg of the vehicle as it raises. Also, the jack lifts lore or less perpendicular to the surface it’s lifting from, so as it goes up, there’s an arc that applies a side force to the jack.

Both those factors combine to make it generally a not so good idea to jack on a slope.

Add in a less than solid surface…..

Bottom line is, although lifting on a slope is sometimes unavoidable, is best to avoid that situation.

I’ve had enough close calls or been in enough sketchy situations that I go to great lengths to avoid them now.

The closest calls have been on a paved, sloped driveway, and with the HiLift ********-road.

 

[drmarkr]

Park another vehicle uphill from it and chain/strap the vehicle to it. Use all parking brakes and wheel chocks. I’ve had to do this a few times while fourwheeling when we had tire trouble. We used a tree instead of another vehicle in that situation though.

But obviously, seek another location if at all possible.

Putting that one in my cap for off-roading....

 

[Fav Onefour]

Any jack changes the cg of the vehicle as it raises. Also, the jack lifts lore or less perpendicular to the surface it’s lifting from, so as it goes up, there’s an arc that applies a side force to the jack.

Both those factors combine to make it generally a not so good idea to jack on a slope.

Add in a less than solid surface…..

Bottom line is, although lifting on a slope is sometimes unavoidable, is best to avoid that situation.

I’ve had enough close calls or been in enough sketchy situations that I go to great lengths to avoid them now.

The closest calls have been on a paved, sloped driveway, and with the HiLift ********-road.

Those things are fun. Thank God they come with long handles. They work great at tipping over.
As a scrawny little kid on the farm, I learned how to use those jacks for moving things up and over. If you managed the height and arc correctly, you could drop a heavy tongue stand right on top of new blocks.

Thinking about those hilift jacks is a good way to visualize the inherent danger of lifting on a slope. If you are going up two inches, you might be fine. Lifting two feet is another game.

 

[finn]

Those things are fun. Thank God they come with long handles. They work great at tipping over.
As a scrawny little kid on the farm, I learned how to use those jacks for moving things up and over. If you managed the height and arc correctly, you could drop a heavy tongue stand right on top of new blocks.

Thinking about those hilift jacks is a good way to visualize the inherent danger of lifting on a slope. If you are going up two inches, you might be fine. Lifting two feet is another game.

It really gets exciting when, while lowering the jack, and just as the vehicle weight is off the jack, the carriage releases and crashes into your toe.

That’s even better than when the handle slams upward and catches you in the chin.

 

[wyb2]

Any jack changes the cg of the vehicle as it raises. Also, the jack lifts lore or less perpendicular to the surface it’s lifting from, so as it goes up, there’s an arc that applies a side force to the jack.

Both those factors combine to make it generally a not so good idea to jack on a slope.

Add in a less than solid surface…..

Bottom line is, although lifting on a slope is sometimes unavoidable, is best to avoid that situation.

I’ve had enough close calls or been in enough sketchy situations that I go to great lengths to avoid them now.

The closest calls have been on a paved, sloped driveway, and with the HiLift ********-road.

All of the CG/side load/arc stuff is just as true on level ground as it is on a slope. And most of it is accounted for with a floor jack that rolls as you lift, assuming you know how to place/orient the jack correctly.

The devil is in the details here and the OP hasn’t been back to provide them.

I’m thinking about how I change tires, and projecting the same general situation and equipment onto a reasonable (one of those little details) slope. I use a floor jack. I change tires on solid ground. I lift the vehicle just enough to get the wheel on/off.

I’m sure there are a million and one ways to screw it up. But there is likely a way to do it safely. Then again maybe not, it really depends on those details.

 

[TurnipTruck]

There is a very large car show every Fall up here in Anchorage as a memorial to a local autocrosser Jay Ofsthun who did what you are proposing.

 

[dchawk81]

There is a very large car show every Fall up here in Anchorage as a memorial to a local autocrosser Jay Ofsthun who did what you are proposing.

Apparently the internet knows about the car show named after him but doesn't know who he is.

 

[Fav Onefour]

It really gets exciting when, while lowering the jack, and just as the vehicle weight is off the jack, the carriage releases and crashes into your toe.

That’s even better than when the handle slams upward and catches you in the chin.

I'm glad I can laugh about it now. I rattled my skull a few times. Thank God we had wood handles back then. The steel pipes aren't as forgiving.

Sometimes you don't know how close it is to releasing. I learned to do the one legged karate kid dance, kicking the catch loose while holding the handle.

 

[racecougar]

Hopefully the OP took these responses to heed. Looks like he hasn't been back since Friday.

 

[ATC]

Hopefully the OP took these responses to heed. Looks like he hasn't been back since Friday.

OP is preoccupied