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Old 12-10-2006, 10:40 AM
  
BTYPLSR
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Join Date: May 2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by brentil View Post
Is your jack a low profile jack? Because I could never figure out how to get my normal sized jack underneath the front of the car...

When I first rotated my tires, I drove the car up on Rhino ramps, then used the floor jack, then jack stands. What a pain. My jack Craftsman jack is 5 1/2" like many of yours.

I was reading this thread and went to the store to buy a new low profile jack. Harborfreight.com has a cheap 5" jack for $19.99 and also has a 3 1/2" aluminum jack for $80. I was looking at these and was thinking "man, I really don't want to buy another floor jack. I already have a perfectly good jack..."

Then the thought occured to me. On my Craftsman jack, the round lifting part detaches, and leaves an approximately 2"x2" flat lifting area. This created a low profile jack. I tried it out and it just barely fits under the car. I'm talking maybe 1/16" of an inch, but it fit. I start jacking it up slowly and the jack arm would contact the body panel if I continued. I need to put that round lifting part back on, but it won't fit. Then I thought back to this forum. Somebody kept saying use a puck. Then I thought a hard hockey puck would work. It matches the front lifting point closely and there only a $1. The only problem is there's not enough room to shove a hard puck between the frame and the jack. I tried one of the soft rubber pucks and I was able to squeeze it in, but I had to rotate the jack to get it off the body panel. Soft puck plus the jack works, but the distance between the jack arm and the body is still pretty close.

I pull into the garage and notice the 12"x12" 3/8" thick piece of wood I have for winter storage sitting on the floor. If I stack two of those, then drive on top, plus use the jack with the hard puck idea, this just might work. Well it does, quite well. In fact, driving up on the boards lifts the car enough that I can use the orginal jack with or without the lifting part with plenty of clearance. Thanks to this forum and a little stretch of the imagination, I don't have to buy and store another jack. I tried this on the front only. I'll try the rear today.

Last edited by BTYPLSR : 12-10-2006 at 10:42 AM.
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