The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun Jack for a 1 Ton Flat Bed

Hello,
I don't have a good jack to keep in my 1Ton Flat Bed for roadside repairs.
What do you guys carry in your trucks, or recommenced that I carry in mine?
For tools, I have an ammo box full of wrenches, screwdrivers, etc.
Thanks,
Chris

I have a modern bottle jack. My rear axle has rear shock mounts (but no shocks?). I use that as a lifting point.

A bottle jack and some blocking is what I take on road trips.
Don't forget the lug wrench either

I'll have to do some measurement to make sure of max/min clearance heights but the GM/Ford/Dodge trucks for the last few models (at least back to the 1998 change to the GMT800s in the GM world) have a nice kit usually under the seat that has the jack and wheel chocks. There is a 10/20/30 series jack by the maker. The 30 series (for the 1 ton full size trucks) has some different gearing and heights. The head has a bit of a flattened U shape that fits nicely on the tube axle. The 88-98 GMT400 trucks have a scissors jack. The 30 series has a gear reducer on the input so it isn't the input torque is pretty low compared to a bottle jack.

There are tool kits that hold tubular extensions and a drive end usually under the back seats of the X cabs. Ford has some with an under hood crank (at least in '97). These work nice to crank the jacks from out from under the truck.

For the tool. The '88 up GM trucks (and I think both of the others) use a straight 21 or 22 mm wrench with a ratched driver that will also drive the tubular extension. Verify the wrench size before you run off, though! The OE tolerances are pretty tight on these tools so you might want to check on ALL of your lug nuts (long story but just suffice to say it is really crappy when you can get all but one off and you have to call a tow truck for 1 NUT!).

There is so much room under the seats in these trucks that you should be able to locate and mount this whole kit without any difficulty. I'd also recommend a tool kit with a spare set of points and condensor that have already been proven to work (my last "new" condensor wasn't any good).