Purchasing The Correct Floor Jack

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

OG 91 LC

OG 91 LC

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Dec 19, 2010
Threads
100
Messages
1,203
Location
San Juan Cap.
What up fellas. Summertime is around the corner. Looking forward to doing some PM and continuing to baseline the LX.

I'm looking to lift the front end of the truck to work on brakes, bearings, and swapping power steering fluid to name a few items. I'm going with 12 ton double locking jack stands.

image.webp


I'm a bit perplexed about purchasing a floor jack. I'm looking at a 4 ton floor Jack. Max lift height seem to max at about 20+ inches.

At the moment I'm running 285/75/16 BF Goodies.

I've done Google/FAQ search and I get the feeling that a floor jack will need to go higher than 20".

Lastly, what is the best placement under the truck for the floor jack to achieve max height? I found this info.

image.webp


Lifting from the skid plate?

What do you say fellas? Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
I was looking at product discription. What's the max height?

Have you used it to lift the front? Placement?
 
Purchase the floor jack based on the weight rating. If you need to lift your truck higher, use a 4x4 or other piece of wood between the jack and lift point.
 
OG 91 LC said:
I was looking at product discription. What's the max height?

Have you used it to lift the front? Placement?
Click to expand...
Yah, it works great with my truck (lifted 1.5") - it's max lift height is 20.5", which is more than enough to get both front wheels (33" here) off the ground when lifting from the front / center jack position.
 
I like to jack from the front differential sub-frame (or diff drop if you have one)
 
reznunt said:
Purchase the floor jack based on the weight rating. If you need to lift your truck higher, use a 4x4 or other piece of wood between the jack and lift point.
Click to expand...
I disagree. If you don't already have a floor jack for your 100 series, buy one that fits your lifting and weight needs to begin with. That's much better than relying on ad hoc "spacers" that can break, slip, tip, or transfer lifting force to places it shouldn't be.
 
Definitely check out HF. I have jack stands and a couple jacks form them. My largest HF jack can lift the LC up and get a wheel off the ground without an issue.

And regarding the suggestion to use a block of wood to get extra lift... that is horrible advice! You simply don't skimp when lifting a vehicle. No exceptions. Using anything as a spacer between jack and jacking point is asking for trouble.
 
n55luvr said:
Definitely check out HF. I have jack stands and a couple jacks form them. My largest HF jack can lift the LC up and get a wheel off the ground without an issue.

And regarding the suggestion to use a block of wood to get extra lift... that is horrible advice! You simply don't skimp when lifting a vehicle. No exceptions. Using anything as a spacer between jack and jacking point is asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

why?
 
HF 3.5 ton lift has enough height to lift the front end to set the 12t floor jacks and still keep the wheels off the ground on my 33" tires.

The lift point up front is a round depression the size of the lifting puck built into the skid plate (that's the louvered steel one which covers the front lower engine area), theres reinforcement underneath it. You can reference the placement guide in your owners manual for lift points and Jack stand points.

You can use a hockey puck for a couple of extra inches lift if needed. That fits neatly into the lift puck and doesn't easily move around.
 
n55luvr said:
Definitely check out HF. I have jack stands and a couple jacks form them. My largest HF jack can lift the LC up and get a wheel off the ground without an issue.

And regarding the suggestion to use a block of wood to get extra lift... that is horrible advice! You simply don't skimp when lifting a vehicle. No exceptions. Using anything as a spacer between jack and jacking point is asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

LOL. "Don't skimp when lifting a vehicle" coming from the guy with HF jack stands and jacks. My general rule of thumb is don't buy anything from HF that could kill you if it breaks. And jacks/jack stands definitely fall into that category.

Here's somebody that learned that the hard way: The bitch tried to kill me
 
I second on doubling up on jack stand weight capacity. I've heard of at least four heart breaking stories it is just not worth skipping out on quality or over capacity. One that hits home for those who are parents is a daughter finding her dad dead under his BMW after the jack stand failed. Nothing but 12 tons for me, you can get them on sale sometimes a couple of them for a benjamin.
 
Post again if you find one that can lift higher without spacers. Done well I think spacers can be safe "enough", but I would much rather not have that point of possible failure or error.
 
duggy said:
why?
Click to expand...

I have personally done this when I was much younger and dumber and had the 4x4 split and the truck drop down onto the jack with absolutely no warning. To each their own but I think it's crazy to trust a block of wood when there are so many other options out there that are actually meant for supporting a truck.
 
n55luvr said:
I have personally done this when I was much younger and dumber and had the 4x4 split and the truck drop down onto the jack with absolutely no warning. To each their own but I think it's crazy to trust a block of wood when there are so many other options out there that are actually meant for supporting a truck.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you were really young and dumb and using the 4x4 vertically instead of horizontally. Some common sense plays a good role into this. I've done some pretty stupid stuff when I was younger also so I can understand that these are lessons learned, but disagree that using blocks of wood (correctly) is not a smart way to gain some elevation out of your floor jack.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom