Want to pick up a set of jackstands so I can rotate my tires without using the spare and also pull of the tires/rims to clean behind them occasionally. Was looking at a set at Wal Mart that adjusted up to 21" if I remember right. Is this high enough for a stock FX4? Would I be better off going with Craftsman or whoever?

 

Walmart jack stands to hold up a 30k+ truck you may be under at one point....NO. Buy quality.

Are you saying you...

Remove tire
Put on spare
Remove OTHER tire
Install tire to new spot
Remove spare
Install OTHER tire

 

Thats exactly what I'm trying to avoid. With my last truck (reg cab shortbed) I could pick up the whole side at one time with a big floor jack, not sure I can do that with the screw.

Exactly what I was thinking with the jacks. Not sure I want to trust my life to something from Wal Mart.

 

I'd go with something a little better quality that what you are going to get at Walmart. I've got a set of Craftsman stands that work great.

 

I do not know what stands Walmart sells, but get something that extends at least 24" and has at least a 2 ton capacity per stand. I would not want to put a 6000 lb truck in the air on anything less. You want the stands on a solid level spot on the truck and with the F150's suspension travel you need some height to get the wheels off.

 

Uhm, BS. A jackstand is just that. No mystical qualities about them. They are steel. Period. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is its load rating. Ensure it’s capable of supporting the most you would ever put on it, and then some.

I have some cheapo Harbor Freight stands that are rated to 3000lbs/ea. Don’t waste your money on a piece of steel with robotically welded seems. What a joke. It’s a farging jackstand. I have a 43,000 dollar truck, big deal. I have a 10second Mustang. Big deal. Has nothing to do with the rating of a jackstand.

Get the Walmart stands provided they are rated for what you need them for. If we are talking about tools, then that’s completely different, but jack stands….LMAO!!!


PS: Just an FYI…I have four pieces of ¾” wood (about 18” square each) which I sit the jackstand on so it doesn’t dig into my pretty epoxied concrete floor.

 

Be safe and get yourself a set of 6 ton jackstands. The cost a little more but are safer.

 

Yeah but my 3 ton chinese made craftsman jackstands are better than your 3 ton chinese made harbor freight jackstands because I paid more! So there!

lmao

 

OMG -- LOL

It's probably due to the much higher quality paint used by the craftsman stand! LOL

 

I have seen a jackstand fail. Now to base it off of a bad weld or just a bad product. I would say bad product.

The CHEAPEST and best "jackstand" would be the telephone book(s).

 

Whatever you do, make sure you get a set with some serious height! When I did my shackle installation I found out that "normal" jackstands aren't high enough to get the wheels up and the suspension to hang free on these new bodystyle trucks!

While this won't necessarily affect rotating the tires, you might find youself with another "truck project" someday where you'll be glad you have the height!

 

Since nobody has mentioned the BASE size of the stand, I will. I use 6 ton jackstands whenever possible because the base of them is twice as wide as the 3 ton ones. Bigger base = harder to tip over = safer (in my book).

 

I've seen them fail too, but then I sold thousands of them all levels of quality.

Get the Harbor Freight ones.

DO NOT GET the old tube style. Nothing with tin or a pin to hold it up… Those are junk. The tube stands would buckle or fold when the weight was exceeded.

Get the four leg square ones with the white extending cast metal prop with the jack like stops.


The only one of the square ones I ever saw fail had been used under a class C motor home. It was rated at 2 tons (4 thousand pounds) and the guy had let a 12,000 lb chassis down onto it. He was one of those people that think motor homes are just like 1 ton trucks...
The jack stand was driven into the concrete and then bent badly; however, it did take about twice the rated weight before dying.

Don't bother with the super heavy high jack stands unless you are doing a 4x4. On my truck I just use the 'light' 3 ton units. The big high lift ones are just too heavy to be convenient and are way too high for a regular truck.

Big safety tip, don’t put lateral or side to side load on any jack stand if you can avoid it.
It’s not possible for any stand to be as stable as a large rubber tire.

Guys who work in a shop where they may support twenty trucks in one day and expect customers and idiot helpers to lean on the trucks, bump the trucks etc. need industrial jack stands, home mechanics don’t.
Although when I worked in a shop we never used jack stands. Lifts, racks, pits but never jack stands.


Chris

 

Got lumber? Note the strategically placed concrete block. You've probably all it seen it before...but I think of this pic everytime I hear the word jackstand.

 

Looks like he is welding that leak he found in the gas tank.