jack stand question...

I know some guys that use 12 ton stands on their Tacomas just for the height, those things are yuge. But, they are also heavy AF and take up a ton of space under the truck. Nothing like rolling your shoulder or head into a jack stand when you're on the ground

 

Wrong.

My owners manual says the center of the diff is a jack point for my truck.

 

i asked about rear differential jacking the truck by there....any chance of damaging cover or drain plug....

 

I use a little block of wood that takes the crunch instead of metal on metal

 

Ditto. On the 04 manual it says specifically to jack up the back of the truck by the bottom of the rear diff, been doing it for years with a floor jack.





and yes, before someone says it I know a jack position isn't the same as a support position. But the pumpkin is not going to get damaged by the weight. Obviously putting a support stand under the pumpkin would be a dumb idea but not because it can't handle the weight.

 

No it won't. I try and angle the cup of the floor jack so the drain plug is making as little contact as possible, but some contact is inevitable. It won't hurt it.

 

glad i read things on here ;0)
didnt know i can place jack stands..
where circled in red... am i reading things right?

 

Put the spare or other free wheel under the frame for extra safety.

 

Hmm, I rotate when I swap from summers to winters, so I lift the front by the jack point, swap both sides, then lift the back at the pumpkin and swap both back tires. Takes about 20 minutes including soda break- Jackstands and chocks included.

Happy Friday though.

 

happy friday...bored as hell @ work and raining like hell here....glads its friday, glad i have a raised tacoma, glad im leaving work soon to go smoke a cuban with honey whiskey chilled.....

 

If you lift on the differential housing (pumpkin is what old guys call it) it doesn't matter what kind of jack you use. Think about the stresses put on the axle and housing. It's a rookie mistake that can cause damage and can hurt you really bad. There are much better lifting points, it's just that they aren't as easy to get to and you need more jacking length to do it properly.

I've seen what happens when the front rotor ends up sitting on someone's chest. He died, but it took a long, long time.

 

3 ton stands will be fine. I'm going to rotate mine this weekend also with a pair of 6,000lb. Unijacks. The manual says front to back, back to front so I'm jacking up one side at a time.

 

Don’t get under it. No reason to for rotating tires. Use good quality bottle jacks. Chalk the other side. Leave the stick in gear. Hand brake set.

 

I used to work at the airport and I watched an aircraft mechanic lift a Boeing 727 with a little ass bottle jack to change a front tire. The center of gravity is probably over the rear set of wheels but it was still weird to see the front end of a big ass jet get jacked up with a little bottle jack .

 

While empty!

Even a small bottle jack will crush the OEM jack

 

I once tried jacking the truck up by the pumpkin with a Safe Jack cradle adapter once because of this drawing. Just as an experiment. It was unstable so I dropped it down immediately.

 

Any time I lift the rear, it's by the diff. I don't think I've lifted it any other way. I cheat the jack to the driver's side and bit and all is well. She's a lil unlevel but nothing crazy

 

Yeah, the best place in the rear is the axle tube just like the manual says. This photo is just for show. I use pieces of wood underneath for a good foundation. As you can see I have two six-ton jack stands if needed. These are from Canadian Tire and are not from China. Very solid, well made, and not expensive.

 

It can get wobbly if the jack isn't centered under it just right, I've had that happen too using a floor jack under the diff. Just lower it back down and center it again.
It's definitely only temporary, just long enough to place the jack stands. I would certainly never rely on the diff to hold the truck up just because of how easily it can sway side to side

 

I frequently use my back, underneath the truck to push up and level the truck to push a jack stand under the tube