[Monkey Wrench]

I always lift cars from at or near their jacking points or secure frame members.

don't forget to securely chock your front wheels so It can't roll forward or back.

never trust a fart , you can loose your shorts if you do.
never trust your life on a jack.
being pinned under a car is a horrible way to go.

my father once jacked his car, used a factory jack , the car rollled he got pinned. mom used the jack and got him out, i think he broke a few ribs. he was too ashamed to even go to the hospital.

if you are alone and pinch your self under a car you can have a horrible fate.

lucky he put the tire under there to save his life. problem is the tire wasn't high enough..

so go find a solid block that you do trust your life to. or several of them.

if you look how trucks build dunnage made of 2x4s or 4x4 on the flat, two one way , two the other way ,nail together, repeat until you are high enough. make sure its not junky junk pine wood, Fir lasts longer, pine rots fast. cedar can split. firewood logs can work but make sure its solid and evenly cut, not sloped and crooked. not punky rotten wood.

teach your wife and kids how to use the hydraulic jack.

never go under a car unless you are absolutely sure it's safe.

a tire or wheel is not a suitable block.
what sometimes happens is that the car can lift ok until the other back wehhl comes up , then it can go sideways..


I was going down a highway and hit a pot hole. got stuck in pouring rain, had a jack a spare, but not enough blocking.

tried several times , it would keep falling off the blocks.. I had the e-brake on but it wouldn't hold well. I was stuck there.. forgot my phone, i was basically screwed. getting very tired after a few attempts at getting a wheel off the ground and it falling back off.. soaked through and out of patience.

solution, I found a pot hole and put my other back wheel in it ! and also found A hunk of logging chain, so wrapped that around the same 9 oposite) tire. that helped hold it from rolling off what blocking i had.

then with better wheel chalking . I managed to change the tire. precarious swapping the wheels , but I wasn't about to put my body under there.

if you use a factory jack , those are meant for changing tires. you can lift one wheel ,

if you jack it up a foot or so, what happens is you are then lifting the other back wheel and one front wheel then the car is sitting on the jack and one wheel , pretty stressed too.

if you instead jack in steps, then both front wheel are still on the ground and doing something. the suspension can move a little and allow this.

if you put a roling car jack unde the differential and jack it up you have no brakes, the front wheels dont have brakes nor does the jack , especially if it has rollers on it. I see car shops do this all the time, I dont do it personally.

maybe its reasonable if you have both front wheels chocked properly and it's actually level, any incline, watch out !

the floor is not a jacking point. its not suitable for the blocking for the same reason, the floor can break. it can push through.