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The 2 tires you have off the ground are on the same side of the vehicle--another no-no, according to the instructions on the jack stand box I read at Walmart/Sears.

It's okay to have 2 tires off the ground if they're both on the same /end/ of the vehicle (front end or rear end), but not okay to have 2 tires off the ground if they're on the same side of the vehicle (left side or right side :-)

I am not using 2 jackstands though, just one and I block the wheels on the other side. ;-)

We are 'not' talking about setting up for working on it here, just for tire swapping.

When working on them a front or rear raise is in order for sure 'if' I can't just get under just one corner up in the air. Like for brakes, one corner at a time only.

You will see just how 'stable' the suckers are(nt) when they are up on stands. Keep your eyes on the feet of the jackstands for lifting or sinking. They tip 'really' easy.

What do you have for a base? Flat concrete or a paved driveway on a misc. angle?

The paved driveway where I have lived for the last 17 years isn't solid enough to be stable for cheap jackstands. Even the wheels on the floor jack dig in. I have an old 2 1/2 ton cast jackstand that will stay up. At least it is flat and has a handy tree I use to pull engines or bodies off with a small winch up to a branch.

Mike

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I saw some jack stands, either at Sears or Walmart (or both places), that have metal pads on the feet to increase the footprint and lessen the chance of tilting and digging in. But I agree with you that the pavement has to be something solid like concrete, not asphalt which isn't firm enough.

Take the whole procedure step by step.

You have the rear wheel up in the air, it's on a jackstand.

Now you put the front end on the jack and jack it up.

At this point do you do...

(a) Crawl under the car to place the jackstand, then swap the tires, then crawl under the car and remove the jackstand. - or - (b) Swap the tires.

...then lower the car.

Seems a lot safer to do (b)

The car ramps available at Walmart are unique. The ramps are constructed in a way that allows one to fit inside another.

Each single ramp can support 3,000 pounds, so a pair would be good for

I've often got my race car in the air with NO wheels on it. First thing you do when it's on the stands is rock the sh&t out of it. Better it falls now then when you're under it.

And the first thing you should do with a factory jack is toss it in the trash and get a $19.99 hydraulic jack and stand set from walmart.

NEVER work under a car held up with just a jack, especially a factory one.

FWIW, I own one small cheapo hydraulic, one big hydraulic, and probably

My buddy has a lift in his garage - I'm jealous.

Ray

Noozer, you're not suppose to crawl under a car if it's only supported by a jack. Very dangerous thing to do.

I prefer not to lift up the car from the side, although I've done it. I prefer to lift either the front, the rear, or both.

Hachi uses ramps, I use a jack. I also have ramps but don't really like them so I rarely use them.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

I single point jack my '05 4x4 Tacoma at the Access / Front door gap every time I rotate tires.

Lug nuts are loosened and torqued on the ground, the parking brake is set, and the opposite wheels are securely chocked with a total of 4 chocks.

I have a set of ramps like that that I've had for about twenty years now. They came from a locally-owned auto parts store that is long gone.

I would not believe what the stickers say. Safety margins are your friend.

--scott

I would re-read the stickers. What's claimed above fails the engineering common sense check. Namely, load supporting structures in series ("one on top of the other") can only carry as much weight as the weakest link. A pair stacked one on top of the other should be safe for 3000 lbs. Three stacked one on top of the other is safe for 3000 lbs. Etc.

I like (c):

(c) reach under the car to place the jackstand so that if the jack falls even an inch the jackstand will stop the car from dropping further, then swap the tires, then reach under the car and grab the unencumbered jackstand

I prefer (d): Lay the tire under the car so it can't come down any more than that if the jack slips. Either the rear or the front tire is under while the other is being bolted on or off.

Mike

d is best. e is safer but takes longer.

use the spare in your swapping effort.

Remove a tire, put on the spare. let the car down. Raise the other end. Remove the tire. Put on the one you took off before. Then go back to the one with the spare and replace it.

If you don't have to, it's best not to lift an entire side of a car at once unless you're using a professional grade jack and jackstands.

One of the advantages of having a body-on-frame construction is that the frame rail provides obvious places to place a jack, something that is apparently not as obvious on monocoque construction.

Yesterday, I saw an AutoZone sales guy shopping at Harbor Freight, and an O'Reilly Automotive sales guy shopping at Walmart. Don't those guys get discounts at their own stores? Kinda funny.

O'Reilly has competitive pricing. It often beats AutoZone, and sometimes even undercuts Walmart, like on a pair of 8,000-pound Rhino car ramps for $33 while Walmart wants $35 for a pair of ramps that only support 6,000 pounds.

The best-made jack stands I've found are at AutoZone under the "DuraLast" brand, which is AutoZone's own brand. Saturday, I'll buy a pair of 2-ton DuraLast stands for $20. Jack stands are cheaper at Walmart but the better quality, in this case, goes to DuraLast. Walmart often has good quality, but this time AutoZone's own DuraLast brand wins.

I also like the DuraLast jack stands because they offer 2 inches of flat contact surface. The next best stands only have 1 inch of continuous, unbroken flat contact surface. If I put the DuraLasts underneath the double notches of the Camry's side rails, I think the wider 2 inches of contact surface will help spread out the weight of the car and may help prevent bending of the notch seams? I'll have to measure the width of the contact surface of the trunk jack, a.k.a. the scissors jack that came with the car. The scissors jack is designed to be used under the notch seams.

The Duralasts offer the smoothest flat surfaces, too. Very nicely made stands. And they feature extra-wide feet to help prevent sinking. A lot of stands still don't offer this feature.

You can buy a pair of 6-ton stands at Harbor Freight right now for only $20 on sale. That's 6 tons for $20, not merely 2 tons. Not sure when the sale ends, but that's quite a deal.

Happy shopping.

What he's describing is two stands that are designed to fit one inside the other, for lack of better description. If they worked as you are describing (one on top of the other), how would you drive on to them?

I wouldn't trust the double ramp design enough to max it out. If one was to buckle at a high rate of speed there would more momentum crashing down onto the other one, even if they are only a fraction of an inch apart from each other. Certainly one ramp has to provide

Toyota MDT in MO

"Comboverfish" wrote E

He's then allegedly got the "legs" of one ramp spreading wider than the legs of the one beneath it. It does not make sense.

No idea how you'd drive onto them. This is also why I doubt he read the stickers correctly.

Just saying: Picture a rope, rated at 100 lbs. connected in series to a steel cable, rated at 5000 lbs. How much weight can the rope and steel cable support in series before the setup fails?

That's a wonderful question but it has nothing to do with how the 2 ramps work. And I would recommend trying to drive a 3000 lb car up a cable even if it is rated at 5000 lbs. The difference between your example and the ramps is yours is designed to fail and the other is designed to work. A better analogy would be 2 dixie cups stacked together will support more weight than one alone.

-jim