Different ways of lifting the gen5

That can work, have done it myself. But those are substantially less stable than hydraulic floor jacks, and they make you work harder.

You should be aware that those are considered to be for emergency tire changes only- they aren't really expected to be used than a handful of times. If you've got a very stable level floor or driveway you can stretch it a bit. Forget it if there's a slope or crown to the surface, that just multiplies the risk of tip-over.

If it were me, I'd be using that as notice that I just don't have good enough of a garage situation to do my own oil changes at home.

 

You're right to note that the seals have limits to their conditions, and the entire jack has a finite lifetime (though the really nice pro ones are cost-effective to overhaul, the home grade ones are usually toss-outs)

I stored one of mine below freezing without any trouble, used it in freezing temps as well. Can't say I have direct experience with one stored below 0F for any length of time.

 

I got a 3 ton Sonoma jack on Boxing Day sale, 2005, still doing great. For $69 CDN lol.

The handle stays low when you need to roll it way under, and starts the cradle moving up with just a few inches of travel. I'm not sure how it'd stand up to shop use, but it's behaving like new for me. I'm only doing tire rotations/swaps twice yearly (currently for our Prius and 2 other vehicles), and 2~3 oil changes per year, on a couple of those vehicles.

It's heavy, stays in the garage year round.

In the States the Harbor Freight's 3 Ton Pittsburgh jack has good reviews. Has a very good max lift I believe.

 

For oil changes on low cars, I just use a couple of scrap 2x6 pieces. Place them before the front wheels, and drive up. Some have assembled them wood into a couple layers when extra height needed.

A jack for other uses, I got this several years ago.
1.5 Ton Low-Profile Aluminum Racing Floor Jack with RAPID PUMP
Has held up being stored in a shed and unheated, detached garage. Only issue is that it doesn't go high enough for the Outback.

 

I use plastic ramps with ours. I store them indoors to prevent UV decay, and I wrote an expiration date on them when I bought them- almost there!

The good jacks are the large heavy professional ones. They're rebuildable and very reliable. But they're huge and they cost a lot.

I do own a small Chinese-made hydraulic floor jack, and have owned a few before. I just replace them about every 8-10 years. The one I have now is very similar to what Trollbait linked, probably just an earlier iteration of the same product. (Of note, I bought it for use with my old Outback- and it did benefit from a 4x4x4 cribbing cube on the saddle.)

 

If you've got a shed to store them, just go with the plastic ramp option for oil changes. Then maybe pay to have the tires rotated at a local tire shop instead of trying to jack the car up(call around for the best price).

I've got the Daytona 3t Long Reach floor jack from Harbor Freight(currently $240 not on sale), two sets of jack stands(4 in total), and a pair of plastic ramps. I do have a driveway and garage, so storage and easy access isn't a problem. I don't think I'd want to try and move the floor jack from a garden shed to a driveway/street if I had to go over grass to get there.

When doing tire rotations myself, I think I'm going to do it this way:
1. Use ramps to get the front end up.
2. Use the floor jack under the front center lift point to raise it further.
3. Pull the ramps and place a set of jack stands under the front corner lift points.
4. Roll floor jack to the rear and use it on the rear center lift point
5. Maybe put jack stands under the rear corner lift points for safety.
6. With all four corners up, rotate the tires.
7. Reverse steps 1-5 to lower the car.
(The reason for using the ramps is that it's very difficult to access the front center lift point even with a low profile, long reach floor jack.)

It might seem like a lot of work to get all four corners up at the same time, but what extra time you take to get the car up and down, you more than save during the actual tire rotation.

 

Tire rotations at home is dirty work. Waaay easier with real tools.

I found that several of the general mechanics near me simply did not want to rotate tires, to the point of lying to me about doing it when they hadn't.

So I started checking out the little tires-only places, and found one very nearby that will rotate my tires in 5 minutes for $20 as long as its cash. Well worth it.

 

That's true. Third gen was a walk-in-the-park, centre of front jacking point is 16~17" back of face of "bumper". IIRC, 2nd, 4th and 5th gen all have that point more-or-less in line with the front wheels, over 4 feet back!

I am raising a car like that, and we run the front up on low-rise jacks.

 

Those scissor jacks can be downright scary and unsafe, especially when used in the manner you propose, where you are using it to lift the opposite side of the car already on one jackstand. The reason is that the standard scissor jack doesn't resist twisting/torsional forces that lead to the jack collapsing to the side.

I have been giving a lot of thought to how to perform oil changes, differential drain/fills, and CVT transmission drain/fills on my son's cars in a space limited apartment garage.

The cars have really low ground clearance at only 5 inches and the front central jacking point is way back.

I plan to use very low clearance short ramps with a 2.5 inch height to just raise the front of the car enough to get the jack under the central jacking point. Then I will place 2 jackstands under the front pinch weld jack points with appropriate adapters.

Then for maintenance requiring the car to be level, I will jack up the rear from the central jack point and place jackstands under the rear pinch weld jack points.

The jack I have decided on is an extra heavy, overbuilt scissor jack that is made for offroading/overlanding enthusiasts. It is conservatively rated at 2 tons, but it has been tested for much higher loads without failing. It is purely mechanical, so no hydraulic oil to leak in their apartment, should a seal on a floor jack start to leak.

It should be much easier to transport up and down to the garage from their apartment using a crate and 2-wheeled luggage cart vs a heavier wheeled floor jack.

Here is the jack I plan to use:

GORTECH Heavy Duty Scissor Jack for Car, Heavy Duty 2T (4,400 lbs), Car Emergency Kit for Tire Change and Repairs, Auto, Car, SUV, RV, EV, 4x4, Truck, Trailer, Overlanding, Car Lift, Electric Jack https://a.co/d/dPVCK36

There's more images and a short video at this link:

Amazon.com: Gortech

You can also look them up on the internet.

Low profile ramps like these will be used to access the front jacking point.

Low Profile Car Ramps for Oil Changes 2.4'' High Portable Ramp Special for Lower Cars and Trailer Tire Change, for Car Lift Vehicle Maintenance for Garage, Upgrade with Anti-Slip Rubber Pads https://a.co/d/9oehjLZ

The jackstands will be Harbor Freight Pittsburgh 3T aluminum jackstands. The standard looking ones, not the tubular Daytona aluminum jackstands with the pins. The jackstands will have pinch weld adapters as well.



SM-G781V ?

 

One of the reasons a floor jack is on wheels is to allow the jack to move as the lifting point moves through an arc, typically, as the side of the car is lifted and the opposite side of the car is fixed.

The GORTECH scissor jack claims to be able to accommodate the movement of the lifting point as it moves through the arc while lifting. I'm not sure if it's due to a flexible base connection or such, but that's the claim.

Standard scissor jacks have fixed, rigid bases that do not move as the lift occurs. This can put side loads or twisting forces on the jack at the base and arms.

SM-G781V ?

 

Doesn't stand out in the photo, but there are a couple of metal ridges that should prevent sliding off the top.

Otherwise, there are adapters for jacks and jack stands for the pinch weld. 'pinch weld jack bracket' got a bunch of hits on Amazon.

Your second link had photos showing it.


Don't care for it. A rolling jack keeps the downward force pushing perpendicular to the ground, and jack base under the load.

 

Look for an adapter for the pinch weld to jack interface. There are many different types, ranging from rubber blocks with a groove.

DEDC Universal Square Pinch Weld Jack Pad,Floor Jack Rubber Pad Adapter,Car Lift Frame Rail Protection Accessorie-1 Pc https://a.co/d/cmgPhdO

Or

DEDC Universal Jack Stand Pad Adapter Pinch Weld Side Frame Rail Protector 2 Pack https://a.co/d/bMMnYyT

To more elaborate ones made out of aluminum, with magnets in them to stick to the pinch weld. I'd still use some kind of rubber material between this type of adapter and jack.

DEDC Universal Aluminum Grooved Magnetic Jack Pad, Jacking Puck Pinch Weld Frame Rail Adapter (Orange) https://a.co/d/7f5sSXF

SM-G781V ?

 

Yes, that is a limitation of this type of jack. I'm not going to be doing really high lifts, so I don't think it will be much of a factor.

I did mention that I would be primarily using the two central jacking points, front and rear, so the arc of the lifting point along that axis of the car will be longer than lifting from the side, which would have a much shorter axis/arc of movement.

I'm contemplating getting a RennStand jackstand as well, but I am having a harder time getting past the $200+ dollar price for a single stand. Add a pinch weld adapter to the Rennstand and you're looking at $249.

SM-G781V ?

 

FWIW, I never use the "pinch welds", on our 3rd generation.Neither does the Toyota scissor jack; it cups around it, and the bearing point is actually on the inside sheet metal.

The one time I used our scissor jack, even on the rear, it dimpled that sheet metal. The front would be worse. I've found alternate safety stand locations, for the rear it's the reinforced "humps" that have those longitudinal slots (for locking pins during shipping?), for the front I put them at front end of the two main longitudinal "rails" formed in the underside car body.

I've seen a low res pic of gen 5, those aforementioned rear locations are evident, and while the front is pretty much obscured by plastic panels, I'd suspect you'd be able to find something substantial/practical.

FWIW I've attached a gen 3 underside pic, showing my safety stand placement points.

 

Pretty sure that bent over pinch seam will fit down into the slot of most scissor jacks like the usual seam.

I just put a piece of scrap wood between the hydraulic jack and pinch seam. It usually would split to have rail to jack connection. I'm going to get adapters for the jack stands.