Hi I just found out that my floor jack doesn't go high enough to jack my 49 3600 if I jack on the frame What height jack do you suggest mine has a 19" max height Thanks John
Bigger is always better- - - - -I'd consider a 3 ton capacity professional style floor jack from Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, or one of the other tool places to be a minimum, mostly for the stability offered by a wide footprint and big wheels. Those toy floor jacks with roller skate wheels are barely adequate for tire changing. They're flimsy, and prone to tip over if you use the full lifting height. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Jack it up, use smaller stands to hold that position. Or blocks under the tires. Get some cribbing (a big chunk of wood) and place it under the jacking area, then put the jack on it and repeat, until you have the height you need. And by cribbing, I mean something minimum like 6" x 12" x 4'.
Somewhere, I've got a picture or two of the time I had to get a boom truck 4'-5' up in the air as I had to remove all 4 A-frame outrigger cylinders. Using an air powered, 20 ton Blackhawk bottle jack and a bunch of cribbing.
If you still need a tall jack, OTC and other make a tall lifting jack, but your looking at $800-1200 for those. If you go to a bumper, frame type of lifting jack, that will put you in the $4000-5000 range. Cribbing will be much cheaper.
If you've got a place to hook it, a handyman or hi-lift jack would work, but those are really unstable, so cribbing like Mark suggests, along with chocking any wheels still on the ground are essential. With one of those, baby steps in lifting off the cribbing is the safest way to go.
A 4x6 block on top of your floor jack will give you some extra height. But be REAL CAREFUL with that setup.
Or lift at the axle, put cribbing in place on the frame, then let the axle back down. If you're trying to get the axles out or work on the springs, take the wheels off before letting the axle back down to give enough room for the suspension to extend all the way.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
I bought a jack from Northern Tools a few years back. It's called a Yellow Jacket. It lifts 23 inches and is rated for 3 tons. Unfortunately, the price has doubled.
When I'm working on my tractors, or other heavy stuff that sits high off the ground, I have an assortment of big wood blocks I acquired from a local sawmill. Some of them are over a foot square, and a couple of feet long. They're leftovers from when a squared-off log is cut to a standard length before being sawed into dimensional lumber. A stack of those things, overlapped properly, can support several tons of weight, even on a less than ideal surface like dirt or gravel. Just be sure the base layer is level by digging or filling in low spots before stacking up the blocks. The bigger the footprint, the less weight each part of a stack of cribbing has to support. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Ya know, a Hi-lift by itself can be incredibly dangerous. But....when I actually found out about the attachments made for Hi-lifts, on account of my rock crawling, they take most of the danger away, and I find myself using the jacks more often than not. Of course, with oily hands the occasional runaway can still happen when going down, so be prepared to just walk away and let that guy ratchet until its done. The strength and versatility of a Hi-lift can be utilized and the danger tamed with the right attachments. Of course, none of this matters if you don t have enough bumper to use a Hi-lift. I even have a bead breaker somewhere for one.
I just had to invest in a pair of 6 ton jacks for the same reason. My 3 ton wouldn’t reach the frame. I’m not a fan of wood blocking. To many accidents I got a pair of them at harbor freight for $79 on sale for the fourth.
Last edited by T-Doug; 07/05/20231:46 AM.
1954 Chevy 3100 One problem solved doesn’t seem to shorten the list Montgomery, AL In Project Journals
I too use jack stands and for added safety keep the floor jack engaged, if possible. Jack stands have been known to fail too.
As for using wood blocks, if done correctly that method should be as safe or even safer than jack stands. That method has often been used in underground mining to shore up many tons of rock. I’ve used it occasionally in working on my trucks. The way I was taught to use wood blocks was to use layers. Each layer is crossed at 90 degrees to each other and each layer has at least two pieces resting side by side. Ten or 12 inch lengths of 2x4 or 2x6 laid side by side and cris cross at 90 degrees to each previous layer is stable. The method is more time consuming to set up properly, but does work.
