Where to place jack and jack stands under truck?

These are the rules I live by:

if you jack a car up and the body starts crunching, if its yours, set it down and find a better location, hammer down the bent floor panel. if its not your car, who cares?

when jacking a rear while drive up from the front, always make sure you're on an incline and select neutral and chalk the front tires, proceed to lift the front of the truck, lifting the back, chalk the rear tires then lift.

 

Irresponsible attitude, if you don't know where to lift a vehicle don't do it, it's dangerous if you do it wrong, not to mention unnecessary damage to the vehicle.

NEVER JACK OR LIFT A VEHICLE IN AN INCLINE, IT'S PLAIN STUPID AND DANGEROUS TO DO SO. MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED DOING SO.

Always use the frame to lift the vehicle from the sides, the pumpkin in the back or SASed fronts. For IFS 05+ Tacos, there is a dome welded to the front cross-member in front of the oil plug, that is the equivalent to the pumpkin in the back.

Be safe, not stupid while lifting a vehicle if you don't have a big enough jack then go and buy one that fill the need and you can never have too many stands and wheel chocks in your garage.

Using the right equipment for the job makes the job safer, easier and faster.

I got an aluminum jack for $150.00 at costco, high jack stands for $27.00/set of 2 at kmart and chocks for $6.00/set of 2 at wallymart

Not a big investment IMO, how much would it cost to fix your arm or leg if crunched by your truck? Not to mention the funeral costs..............

 

Don't worry...I'm listening


I've never jacked up a vehicle to rotate tires. I knew I was not doing it the best or safest way but I was careful to not put myself in a situation that would cause injury. Truck components can be fixed - amputated body parts cannot (most of the time).

Anyway, that is the reason for this post. I'm sure most of you know enough about vehicles or had someone at some point in your life show you how to do it. Others, like myself, have the balls to try and figure it out on our own. If we screw up, we deal with it. Eventually, I'll be on here telling some mechanically disabled kid how to jack up his truck. Remember....we all started somewhere.

I appreciate anyone's and everyone's advice (and pictures).

 

Janster, this makes the most sense to me. Jack up the rear using the pumpkin and put jackstands in the same location I did in those pictures. That is easy enough.

But where do you jack the individual sides from up front? If I wanted to lift both tires at the same time, I would use the crossmember like mjp did:



But how do you lift the individual sides? I suppose the frame, right?

 

Sir, I've been lifting vehicles like I stated my whole life and its always worked perfectly! how can you say I'm not doing it right?

 

Yeah...I thought you were joking too. I'm obviously not here to tell anyone the right way to do it but I thought you were being a sarcastic troll.

I also don't ever want you jacking up my truck! Crunching is bad

 

Lol, you sure you want to switch your answer from trolling to not trolling?




is that the smart thing to do?

 

Um, they Toyota FSM manual clearly states the jacking points are on the front cross-member and the rear diff. The jack stand points are along the frame in certain locations and on the rear axle covering.

Dmonkey- Jacking on an incline is extremely dangerous as it throws the center of gravity off. That said I've done it, but I've taken extra precautions with wheel chocks and the lifting point is at the high point of the incline only... even then I'm still weary about it. However, the Tacoma I can have the back on the lower part of my driveway a bit as there is a pretty mean front rake with the TSB AAL. Jacking up until the body panels crush in... Jesus you will never touch any of my vehicles.

 

Look at this pdf. This is out of the Toyota Service manual. Scroll down, there's a diagram that'll show you exactly where to jack from on each side.

 

I just hope and pray you never have any incidents that'll hurt you or someone else.

 

I usually just hold the vehicle up with one hand and change the tire with the other hand. Hard to do when drunk but still manageable.

 

jacking up a truck is simple. try a modern car. ones designed specifically for the stock jack. tabs in the body panel. most times, the jacking point is the exact same location that the jack stands need to be in. sucks.

truck = cake. rear diff, tit shaped thing on front cross member. if i only need one corner. frame near targeted corner.

 

x2

Simple.

 

Why not just buy a two post hydraulic lift? might cost a small amount more but...seems like an easier solution

 

I find it interesting that it's odd to you. Not all of us grew up in settings where we were taught or could learn this kind of stuff. My father has never changed his own oil and couldn't even begin to tell you where an oil pan is. Instead, he taught me how to run my own company and pay to have services like that done for me.
But I'm a do'er and figured it out on my own. I now change the oil for both of my vehicles.

And I do recognize that the frame is the best place to jack up a vehicle. Unfortunately, my jack does not extend enough to fully droop the suspension - I tried that first. Thus my quest began to find a better spot to lift from. I asked a neighbor and he simply said "just jack up the suspension". I suppose a block of wood in there would've done the job but I didn't think adding spacers that can break was a good idea.

I suppose I need new jack stands too - or maybe cinder blocks to raise them up enough to support the truck AND droop the suspension.


I'm simply asking for the safest and most logical spot to lift from. Doesn't seem that dumb of a question to me. And I'm sure many others are quietly lurking for the same information.

 

I've got a Camry & Bonneville, and I've used my atv jack on both, as it distributes the load better than a regular floor jack. I will usually put a 2x4 on the body seam which distributes the load further. This allows me to jack the front up just to the rear of the notch in the body seam where the jack is supposed to go.

But my daughter has a Magnum with these plastic rocker covers, and the cutout in them is just big enough for the factory jack.. What a PITA to work on.

 

Dude! Do NOT use cinder blocks! They are brittle and will shatter.

Use short pieces of big lumber like a 4x6 or 6x6. You can nail pieces of 2x6 together to make up thicker pieces as well.

Of course steel is even better (far better) but wood will "give" and distribute sharp loads where a cinder block can just go "snap!"

 

drive out to a field, and hold the brakes and dig the back end down to the diff so the wheels spin freely, swap back tires.

drive forward over a rock so the front end is hanging in the air, swap front tires.

done and done, no tools needed