Fastest Jacking for tire rotation

Can you post a picture of what your jack widget looks like?

 

I do this on both sides of the car with the jack a little bit staggered on each side and have all four wheels off the ground at the same time The car will teeter totter but it won't touch the ground unless ya sit on the hood or something. I just have a heavy piece of rubber that's double thickness of the jack pad with a slice down the middle of it I put that on the rocker panel where the cutout usually is some people it might be covered with plastic and trim but once weight gets on it a little bit it grabs on there enough to be safe without damaging anything and I do this really regular because I rotate my tires here and all of that.

 

My pref is to jack up the front (at front jack point), and put in front safety stands, then repeat at back. I don't use the scissor jack locations for any of the jack stands (if interested I can post a pic). Done this twice a year for 12~13 years now.

My slab is "slightly" non-planar, which means I need to put 1/4" wood shims under the left/rear jack stand, to get a 4-point support.

 

I do the exact same thing..........including the wood!!

 

I'm not sure I want to jack the car at an unreinforced soft point between the front and rear doors. In the extreme case, that might bend the door frames and hinder the closing of the doors.

I would only jack the car up at the Toyota prescribed and approved points shown in their official diagram below.



Getting both wheels and tires off the ground on one side can be accomplished by jacking the recommended pinch weld position behind the front tire with an appropriate pinch weld adapter like this one.



The chassis of the car is stiff enough that raising one corner at the approved reinforced pinch weld position will also raise the rear wheel above the pavement.

I would not, however, get under any part of the car so raised.

I'd loosen all the lug nuts before jacking, jack the car up, carefully take off the wheel on one corner and swap it with the other and run down the lug nuts and do the same for the other wheel. Then. I carefully lower the jack and tighten the lug nuts fully with the wheels on the pavement.

Recently, I have made a new version of a pinch weld block using UHMW PE (Spectra), the preferred material for constantly used fixtures on industrial assembly lines because of their long life durability. Here is a photo of one in use.

 

I agree, that jacking from the front pinch weld point adequately raises first the front wheel, then further jacking lifts the rear wheel.

I've always rotated the tires, front to back, on the same side this way.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Jackstand placement:

 

While I agree that keeping DIY mechanics focused on Toyota's designed jack points make sense... As someone who worked my younger years in auto shops, when you put a car on a lift, the lift points are based on the design of the lift not the design of the car and rarely if ever would the lift points in the Toyota manual be used to put the car up in the air. There's way better ways to get a car up in the air than the points Toyota designates.

 

The two safest ways to lift a car for the avid do it yourselfer has to be the Bend Pack QuickJack and the Rennstand. Unfortunately, they have became more expensive than most want to spend. Fortunately, I was an early adopter to both and gto them for half of what they sell for today.

 

On Craigslist once someone was selling whole car ramps for couple hundred bucks and almost wanted to buy them because new they cost $1500. Can't remember what they were called but they were red and you could drive the whole car up onto the structure and then swivel the parts not holding the car up out of the way and removed to make access under the car easier. It was a brilliant design that was tempting for the low price. I wish I could remember what it was called?

 

I lifted a rear corner, the lighter corner, less than 1/4 the car's total weight I'd speculated, one time with the scissor jack, because of a flat tire. It cups around the seam and actually bears on the sheet metal behind. That one time dimpled the sheet metal.

I'll stick to using the front and rear central jacking points, and my alternative jack stand positions. if you look at those alt jack stand points (per pic) you'll see they're much heavier gauge.

More info in "oil change info" link in my signature (on a phone turn it landscape to see signature).

 

That 2 ton low profile jack weighs close to 50 pounds and is hard to carry around and best moved on level pavement on it's wheels.

I made this for an 18 pound $33 Walmart jack that is easily carried around like a suitcase with it's attacked handle.



It stays attached to the jack and can't be lost.

 

The assembly is a somewhat complex construction. An aluminum angle fastened with countersunk sheet metal screws into a UHMW PE (Spectra) block. A round POM acetal copolymer disk is placed as a riser to fill the cup of the jack's top receiver to the level of the top edge. The entire assembly is drilled and threaded to a custom 1/2-20 stud. The stud is drilled crosswise to take a hairpin clip to retain it to the top of the jack. The jack will fit any unlowered Toyota-Lexus vehicle that has at least 5 inches under the pinch weld.

For someone who lives in a third floor condo or an apartment, the 18 pound jack would be easily transported and carried up and down the stairs using the top handle.

 

Pulease... I use an electric jack to jack the car up on front pitch weld and put a jack stand next to the jack puck. Then move the jack stand to the back pitch weld and jack it up
But keep the jack stand there so the car is lifted on same side. Then rotate front and back tires. But loosen the lug bits before doing the lift process.

 

Did you paint your exhaust orange? I've never seen surface rust on a prius exhaust like that especially not in a rust free area like SC