block of wood with trolley jack?

[ludicrous speed]

Edited by ludicrous speed on Wednesday 17th November 21:03

[Hedders]

If you are not careful you will scratch the trolley jack.

[Ian Geary]

er, you may scratch the under side of your car, possibly damaging the under seal...

it depends on the lifting plate of your trolley jack, and your car. If your car's oe jack point is however a small lip of metal, there's a chance you could distort this.. but then a block of wood would do this too.

what I've done is cut a groove in a block of wood so that it supports the sills without damaging the lip

hth

Ian

[WhoseGeneration]

ludicrous speed said:

used a trolley jack in the place the normal jack goes and didn't bother with the wood. what could go wrong if i do this again?

Weird question, however, what vehicle?

[y2blade]

won't the wood feel left out

[theironduke]

I always use a trolley jack in the workshop, with big stuff i replace the scissor jack in the boot with a Lidls special too

[NiceCupOfTea]

Wood between trolley jack and car? Obvious thing is it will damage the sill/whatever on the car. The wood spreads the weight and is more compressible than the jack!

[Rich_W]

You will probably have bent the sill. I'd advise you not to do this again But get either a peice of wood or even a small book even. Just to spread the load out and not imprint that "cup" shape into the floor.

[WhoseGeneration]

Ian Geary said:

what I've done is cut a groove in a block of wood so that it supports the sills without damaging the lip

hth

Ian

This is the answer, preferably using hardwood.
Replicating manufacturers' model specific tools.

[Dogwatch]

Rich_W said:

a small book

...maybe not a Penguin though...

[ludicrous speed]

WhoseGeneration said:

ludicrous speed said:

used a trolley jack in the place the normal jack goes and didn't bother with the wood. what could go wrong if i do this again?

Weird question, however, what vehicle?

well it didn't look like it did any damage but then i read always use a bit of wood, so i just wanted to know if it's really that important. was on a focus.
the jack has 'teeth' on the cup bit and if i put a bit of wood on this it doesn't look like it would be very stable.

[WhoseGeneration]

ludicrous speed said:

well it didn't look like it did any damage but then i read always use a bit of wood, so i just wanted to know if it's really that important. was on a focus.
the jack has 'teeth' on the cup bit and if i put a bit of wood on this it doesn't look like it would be very stable.

Look, you have to consider just what you are doing, trolley jacks are universal and the heads on those are from a bygone age, where there were strongish points where the heads could be located.
So, this means you might need to take a piece of hardwood and shape it to use in your particular jackhead vehicle interface.
Always remembering to never go under a vehicle solely supported by a jack or jacks.

[XG332]

Get a proper rubber pad head. Or as I did, make one out of cork block and duct tape.

[sceptic]

Rubber ball, complete with dog teeth marks.

[Chicane-UK]

I use an old rubber Top Mount in my jack cup. Fits in perfectly

[GarryA]

I cut a section out of an old superbike tyre I had lying around, works a treat.

[NiceCupOfTea]

a bit of 2x1 planed will fit across the cup nicely