How do you jack your car up?

[jd_cobra]

I was having a convo with some friends while standing around and a random topic that came up was how to put the car on 4 jack stands.

One thing I learned was we mostly all do it differently. Idk if it’s the correct way, but I do the left/right first, followed by the other side.

Actually looking at eventually getting lift at some point.

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[LOL WUT]

Step 1 install jacking rails. Step 2 lift one side of car and place on jacks. Step 3 lift other side and place on jacks.

 

[quikcolin]

Step 1 install jacking rails. Step 2 lift one side of car and place on jacks. Step 3 lift other side and place on jacks.

This

 

[ChrisJ]

Step 1 install jacking rails. Step 2 lift one side of car and place on jacks. Step 3 lift other side and place on jacks.

Agreed, jacking rails are defiantly worth it, easy to get it up on jack stands.

 

[jd_cobra]

Step 1 install jacking rails. Step 2 lift one side of car and place on jacks. Step 3 lift other side and place on jacks.

Thank you for reminding me! I knew I forgot something in the cart.

 

[16Fastback]

This

 

[ORRadtech]

Step 1 install jacking rails. Step 2 lift one side of car and place on jacks. Step 3 lift other side and place on jacks.

Exactly this.

But, you will need a low profile jack.

I've always had taller vehicles, pick up trucks, SUVs and standard sedans and my "regular" floor jack is about an inch too tall to fit under the Mustang.
One day I noticed that the jack in my Edge is exactly the same jack that came with the Mustang. I bought a spare off ebay for around $20 and I use that with a 3/8" impact to lift the car. I only use it in the garage on level concrete so safety isn't an issue. I can have the car in the air, on jackstands and the wheels off in the time it would take me to dig out my floor jack.
It's extremely inexpensive, requires zero set up and storage is super easy.

 

[EFI]

Step 1 install jacking rails. Step 2 lift one side of car and place on jacks. Step 3 lift other side and place on jacks.

You can do all that without rails.

I jack it up from the front jack point and the entire side of the car goes up. Place 2 jacks and then move onto the other side to do the same thing. Up on 4 stands in less than 5 minutes.

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

This is what I did last time. It's cumbersome and a bit embarassing, so I do not recommend it and I would like to find an easier way. Interesting to see what others do.


1) jack up the front right (or left) enough to put my flimsy jack stands under at one of the lowest settings. This height is too low to put my proper jack stands under (their lowest setting is close to the highest setting of my older flimsy jack stands). The rear left will lift a bit too, enough to put another flimsy jack stands under the car at the rear.

2) jack up the front left just enough to a proper jack stand under on the front. Since this also lifts the rear quite a bit, put a jack stand under the rear too.

3) regret that I sold my medium-quality floor jack when I bought my new 630 mm / 24 inch floor jack (with matching jack stands). Had I kept it I would not have to move my proper floor jack around so much.

4) go back to the left side, and jack that whole side up enough to put my proper jack stands under at one of the lowest settings.

5) back to the right side and jack the car up enough to put the jack stands on the highest setting.

6) back to the right side and jack the car up enough to put the jack stands on the highest setting.

What I do not do is to jack the car up completely on one side, and then switch to the other side. I have no technical documentation saying that is bad, but I'm thinking it is not good for the wheels and axles to carry a lot of weight leaned over to one side like what will happen if I jack the car high up on one side first, then switch to the other side.

The reason I go back and forth so much is I had a scary experience once where I jacked the car up too much in one go, and when I returned to the other side, the jack stands on the other side were balancing on two points each, rather than four as the car was leaning over so much. This was with the flimsy jack stands, even though they do not go very high (around 480mm / 20 inches I think).


I'd love if there was a good jacking point in the middle of the front and the middle of the rear, or if somebody made some jacking rails that did that. I'd love an quickjack even more, but cost is high and my good quality jack stands and floor jack allow me the same height as the standard quickjack (or even a bit more).

 

[NightmareMoon]

1) Jack up the center of one side on a jack with a pad. no rails, works fine.

2) Place two jack stands at correct spots.

Repeat other side. Done. What’s all the fuss about?

 

[2morrow]

Another for Jacking Rails.

 

[Rapid Red]

Exactly this.

But, you will need a low profile jack.

I've always had taller vehicles, pick up trucks, SUVs and standard sedans and my "regular" floor jack is about an inch too tall to fit under the Mustang.
One day I noticed that the jack in my Edge is exactly the same jack that came with the Mustang. I bought a spare off ebay for around $20 and I use that with a 3/8" impact to lift the car. I only use it in the garage on level concrete so safety isn't an issue. I can have the car in the air, on jackstands and the wheels off in the time it would take me to dig out my floor jack.
It's extremely inexpensive, requires zero set up and storage is super easy.

I'm thinking you need to clean up the garge some LMAO

 

[Justpassingas]

I just received my jacking rails last week....Any recommendations on where to buy a good set of jack stands?

 

[ORRadtech]

I'm thinking you need to clean up the garge some LMAO

There might be a tiny bit of truth there.

Really it's actually pretty clean, just Very full...

 

[Nickyweg]

So can I safely Jack anywhere along the pinch weld or just on those four spots?

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