I’m looking to get a trolley jack and jack stands for my ND to start doing some basic maintenance (rotating tyres, painting brake callipers etc).
For the trolley jack - there are a lot of recommendations here for 1.25t / low profile ones (mainly from Clarkes) BUT I’d like a trolley jack that is also compatible with my family car (currently a BMW X1) so that I don’t need two - so, does anyone have a trolley Jack they use with their ND (mine is not lowered) and a “regular”/heavier car? Maybe the 1.25t/low profile one would be fine for other cars?
On the jack/axel stands - am I right in thinking that the point to place them is indicated by the pinch sills but inside of them (I.e. do not lift on the sills directly)? I understand it is recommended to use a puck with a slit cut in it but the slit should be deep (deeper than the sills) and offset so that the majority of the weight is on the inside of the puck. Has anyone bought some recently that they’d recommend?
Are the slits on the pads not meant to be slightly offset so that most of the weight is on the inside of the car (from the pinch welds)? Are the slots deeper than the pinch weld so that the weld doesn’t rest on the bottom of the slot?
It’s a while since I researched this myself and used them.
I’ve just had a look in the garage…
The slit/slot is a little bit less than the pinch welded edge height. So that edge does take the weight, but is a bit cushioned, protected from denting, folding, scratching, and the load is spread along a good length of it.
The tops for the jack stands were too narrow for mine, so i cut the flange off on one side and secured with zip ties, as you can see.
There’s no lateral load on them. In fact, I’ve only used them as a safeguard, positioned right next to the jack, as you can see in the picture, while working.
Thanks for checking! It’s confusing as to what is the right way/position to jack/stand on the sides. I might get an item similar to the pucks you have and deepen the slot to the height of the punch weld. That way the weight would be spread along the length of the split weld AND the inside of it. Best of both worlds maybe?
I’d be wary of putting the load onto anything other than the pinch weld.
Although my memory (unlike my car) was a bit rusty, I know I looked into it all very carefully at the time.
The pinch welds are perfectly happy to take the load, but I recall I wanted to prevent any unintended folding force on them, by spreading the load along a good distance.
Halfords do a low profile 3 tonne trolley Jack and 3 tonne axle stands from their Advanced range (I use the Jack quite happily on mk4 MX5 and a Volvo XC90). I don’t know if they still do, but they used to give a discount to owners club members. I bought Jack pads and axle pads to match on EBay.
