1995 850 wagon tire jack

Few cars are equipped with jacks that will stand well in such soil. The days of the jack with the large base that works in anything but quicksand are all but gone. Smaller jacks save space as well as being lighter. Besides, flats are so much more rare now than back in the.. let's just say back then.

A 12"x12" piece of diamond plate aluminum would serve well.

Back in about 1965 or '66 Dad and I were out somewhere in Palmdale- back when there wasn't a freeway out there. In the old '57 or 58(?) Ford ranch wagon- the one with the REAL wood siding applied over the metal. Got a flat at about 10:00 at night in the desert. He pulled as far off the road as he could, but it was all sand. Believe it or not, about ten fewwt from teh car was a discarded real estate sign- masonite I believe. I was enough to sturdy the jack. Still remember watching the car sway a bit everytime a semi passed by.

Instead of a better jack, get your daughter a cell phone and membership in the auto club- you'll both sleep better. __ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvo '93 960 Estate

I've always carried a piece of plywood about 6" x 8" in my cars just for this purpose. It's something my father impressed upon me, maybe because he learned this lesson the hard way. The old "post" type Volvo jacks I grew up with were very poor in this design aspect as well.

Good advice about the wood. As far as bad jacks, what about the 'post hole diggers' included with all the old VWs? An acquaintance races and has worked on Porches. He talks about how the older ones would body rot, and you would put the jack in the jacking port, jack the car up, and the jack's tongue would rise through the body of the car with the can remaining on the ground! __ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvo '93 960 Estate

The ones on older Volvos were similar. The post then lifted a lever that hooked on that pin under the rockerpanel where the new style just lifts. Thus the lever was actually pushing down on the pin, and the weight of the car sat on the rocker panel. Imagine what happened when that area got a bit rusty! My '74 was like this at the front, but I realized before I ever got a flat and carried a hydraulic jack to use on suspension bits to lift it. However, I was not smart enough to try lifting the car with an actual flat tire, so when I got one, I was surprised to see everything was too low now to get the jack under!