Jacking up lowered cars

burns

burns

burns

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2002
Posts
3,709
How do you do it? My Camaro is pretty low, too low to get a trolley jack under the front splitter given the long overhang.

carpark.jpg


I used to use some angled blocks of wood made from railway sleepers my neighbor had that he drove up then put a trolley jack under, worked a treat. Trouble is I don't have a band saw or anything capable of putting a nice long cut (1m or so) through a thick piece of wood other than a normal saw and I can't be arsed with that.

Currently I'm thinking caravan leveling block but I'm worried they may be too high. And they're a bit expensive at around £20.

levelers.gif


So short of cutting up bits of wood, what do you do?

(First new thread since 2007, yay :D )
 
I cut up bits of wood from an old desk (chipboard, probably about 15-18mm thick) and stack them two-high and drive onto them. Seemed the easiest way :)
 
Couple of ways:

1) You can get trolley jacks which are designed to work with low cars.

2) Drive the car onto some wood blocks then jack up.

3) Use the jack which came with the car then take over the jacking with the trolley jack.
 
You need to remember the jacking point, which on my cars has been a seam along the sill, will be 1/2 inch lower than the sill.
 
Last edited:
2) Drive the car onto some wood blocks then jack up.
Click to expand...
my style

working on a lot of golfs, and it being the law for golfs to be low, a block of wood sorts me out. i want it that bit higher too as ill only jack it with a nice block of wood between the jack and car to save the floor being killed to death

same with axle stands
 
I use the two jack method, or the wood chock method.

I've got a turd trolley jack that just fits beneath the car, but the seals have gone so it slowly lets itself back down. But holds it long enough to fit the decent jacks under \o/
 
Blocks or thick planks of wood usually do the trick or use a scissor jack to raise the car enough fit a trolley jack under.
 
The Manta has a Bilstein jack that gets it high enough to then get a trolley jack underneath. It doesn't look *that* low but the chassis rails are a fair bit lower than the side skirts so even one of those low profile trolley jacks will struggle.
 
Why do you need to cut as solid wedge of wood? Just cut a scaffold board or something similarly strong in half, then support at one end to give an incline.
 
Stupot_ said:
Why do you need to cut as solid wedge of wood? Just cut a scaffold board or something similarly strong in half, then support at one end to give an incline.
Click to expand...
Scaffold board is a good idea, nice and wide too. I will give that a go. Thanks for all the ideas.

It doesn't look that low, but the cross member is lower than the splitter, my jack is crap and there's a big over hang that the end of the jack handle ends up under. That picture does make it look quite high though.
 
Last edited:
There are two decent ways.

1) buy an alloy racing trolley jack, these go super low and would clear that camaro no bother.

2) Source some thick kitchen worktop cut offs and use them as ramps to get a standard jack under after driving the car onto them.
 
Buy a decent low entry jack, I bought a sealey 2500le for £90 from eBay which is a great bit of kit. Gets under my lowered mr2 no worries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom