9 replies to this topic

[s2ulk]

Hi all,

Our drive has a bit of an incline and I don’t have anywhere nearby which is level - even our road slopes!

I need to put the car on four jacks to take the wheels off for refurbing. Does anyone have a view on whether it would be better to have the car jacked up across the slope or down the slope as my very childish pictures show below.

Parking across the slope, the passenger side jacks would be a couple notches higher to level the car. Parking down the slope the two front jacks would be a bit higher than the rear.

Thanks

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[Ethel]

Could you knock up some timber levellers to go under the stands? Just nailing together some bits of pallet wood could do.

[s2ulk]

Could you knock up some timer levellers to go under the stands? Just nailing together some bits of pallet wood could do.

Would that be to put under the passenger side axle stands so that they could be the same height as the driver side axle stands?

A neighbour just suggested abandoning the axle stands completely and putting wooden sleepers under the subframe (left and right side) as that way there’s a much bigger footprint than the axle stand legs. Seems logical to me.

[stuart bowes]

If I understand that correctly, two sleepers one on each side of the car running from front to back, the issue there is the floorpan is lower than the subframes so it would end up sitting on the floor of the car not the subframes

 

and the floor isn't flat so even if the sleepers extend past the seams at each end as they should you'll end up pushing up various bits of the floorpan like the recessed footwells

 

if I was doing that I would ensure that each end had a block of wood raising it slightly and located under the end seams so as not to do any damage.  which depending on the angle of the slope might well be a safer bet than axle stands in fairness

 

better still if possible ask around and see if you can borrow or cheaply buy a set of wheels in literally any condition even with knackered flat tyres to fit in the mean time

Edited by stuart bowes, 26 June 2024 - 03:12 PM.

[s2ulk]

Thanks Stuart, I should have explained a bit better - neighbour suggested sleepers running lengthways which then have smaller blocks of wood on top positioned under the subframes so that the car is, as you say, not sat with the floors resting on the sleepers. His thinking is that you’re then getting a much bigger surface area in terms of contact between car and ground to reduce the risk of an axle stand failing due to the incline (which would be a big problem with all 4 wheels off).

[stuart bowes]

ah I see then yes that would probably work..  even better if those blocks are screwed down to the sleepers 

 

take some care to decide where to locate the blocks for the front subframes because there isn't a nice flat surface like there is on the rear

Edited by stuart bowes, 26 June 2024 - 03:38 PM.

[stuart bowes]

if you were closer to dagenham I'd say come and borrow my knackered old wheels, the tyres are all shot and don't hold air but it would do fine just for your purposes

 

im not using them at the moment anyway, still deciding if I should bother refurbing or get new

 

up to you, if you fancy driving all the way to dagenham and back twice lol

[Ethel]

I meant to get the axle stands  vertical. Presumably their height adjustment would allow you to do some levelling between stands.

[Lplus]

Hi all,

Our drive has a bit of an incline and I don’t have anywhere nearby which is level - even our road slopes!

I need to put the car on four jacks to take the wheels off for refurbing. Does anyone have a view on whether it would be better to have the car jacked up across the slope or down the slope as my very childish pictures show below.

Parking across the slope, the passenger side jacks would be a couple notches higher to level the car. Parking down the slope the two front jacks would be a bit higher than the rear.

Thanks

More important is to ensure the axle stands themselves are vertical, thin packing under the downslope two feet might do that.  As to up or across, If I had no other choice I'd go up/down, with the front up slope so the height of the more heavily loaded stands is less.

[s2ulk]

Thanks all. Took a while to get the jacks in position (and one didn’t quite reach so I’ve packed it with some floor tiles. I have strategically placed some doubled up sleepers with foam padding on top so that in the event of an axle failure, I have some insurance!

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