I accidentally bought a pair of 6 ton US Jack - jack stands. They are: Low Height 16 1/4 " Maximum Height 25 1/4 " Base Diameter 11" x 11 "

I meant to buy a 3 ton pair that are: Low Height 11 " Max Height 17 3/4 " Base 10 " x 10 "

I don't know if I can return these now though.

I jacked my RX up tonight and, to get the jacks underneath (I have the jack stands set at the lowest position), I had to go pretty high it seemed. I'm a super novice home mechanic so I'm not sure if that could be potentially unsafe. Any advice?


(on a side note, I plan on buying a truck late winter/early spring so these jacks might be okay in the future but for now I'm wondering if they are okay)

 

I don't think it is dangerous if your jack can easily raise the RX that high. I prefer the lower jack stands as they are good enough and require less pumping to achieve the purpose.

As for returning the stands, I will not return something that I have used and works properly. But many people do and get away with it, so what do I know.

 

Higher ones are better!!! Once you get on your creeper, you'll appreciate that extra 3-4" of clearance. Gives you a lot more room to work.

 

The 2 issues with raising the vehicle higher is that the center of gravity moves higher [tipping is easier ... 1/2 degree change in the base may cause substantial lateral (trig)] and the vehicle starts packing lot of potential energy.

As long as you are on solid ground and flat, it should be OK.

For safety reasons, try to keep the wheels on and if you can take a small jack-stand with you and keep it at the chest level. That does not guarantee anything but little precautions can help ,,, like never work alone underneath the vehicles etc.

Salim

 

Okay, let me say it like this:

I will be jacking up my front end only for the tasks I have coming up. I have some good rubber wheel chocks to put behind the rear tires. So my front end is tilted upward when I tried jacking it up for the jack stands last night. That's why it seemed kinda bad to me. I don't know how much of a tilt is considered to be bad. Obviously there is always going to be a tilt when you put your front end up on jack stands.

I believe the ground clearance for an RX300 is approx 7.7 inches. These US Jack stands as I said are 16 1/4 at their lowest height. The wheels/tires when they naturally lower (as the car is raised) didn't seem like they were super high off the ground but my I didn't specifically focus on that aspect so maybe my memory is wrong. I'll jack it up again tonight and put the stands underneath and again and post a picture.

 

Sorry for the rookie noob question, I've never worked alone and these are aspects that I've honestly never had to think about.

 

If you want to be safe underneath, then ramps are the best choice [other than the problem of getting up the ramp and stopping just right]. I have used stack of 12x12 concrete pads under the wheels to gain access.

Safe use of jack stands is with the vehicle flat .. [tilted vehicle pushes the jack stand and they are meant to transfer the weight straight down]. One can get away with little tilt, but I always do my best to keep the vehicle flat as possible.

Another safety approach is to think what if the vehicle shifts/move/support_fails. Plan for that eventuality. Weekend warriors have been crushed and more often pinned under the vehicle. Having some around can be helpful in many situations. Throwing in a spare tire underneath next to you can make a difference between being crushed to death vs being pinned down.

When consumer parts with money for a job, remember you are not only paying for the service, you are also paying for all the risk the facility is undertaking. For many years, I would not compress the springs to work on the struts as I felt the risk is too high. I would gladly pay for that service. I finally built enough courage to do it, but I bought steel chain and constantly adjusted the length.

I highly encourage DIY, but never loose sight of the risk.

Stay safe.

Salim

 

I am a DIY on the fly type person, and there have been instances when I had to get a stuck bolt off in the exhaust system. I've never experienced a bolt stuck on so tight. The point is I needed to jack up my RX300 almost an extra foot to get better leverage with my breaker bar so it wouldn't hit the ground. I ended up having to grab on the the frame and use my legs to forcefully maneuver the bolt off. At no point did the car move or feel like it was rocking on jack stands. If you're just puling the oil drain plug etc. then your tall jack stands should be fine. Obviously, if you're doing something that you feel is unsafe, then take extra precautions such as using an extra jack by the area where you are working or you can put the spare tire underneath.

 

Thanks for the info guys.

I ended up buying some shorter jack stands for the job. I replaced my struts with some aftermarket units so ramps wouldn't work for this job.

I had the floor jack up and just barely tapping the area where I originally jacked up the car (centered) as an extra precaution against jack stand failure. Next time I will probably shove the wheels underneath as well.

 

Glad it worked out.

Time for alignment now. If you have old tires, you wait and watch for abnormal wear.


Salim