When I change the tires on my truck I jack it up with my floor jack at the trany cross member. That lifts up the back wheels. When changed I throw 50 pounds on the tailgate and that is enough to teeder todder the front wheels off the ground and put the back wheels on the ground.

I change all the wheels with using the jack only once. Still looks new so I return it to napa for return. free rental.

 

Not bad, not bad...

I have block and tackle suspended from the garage ceiling.
I lift the entire truck just using the outside mirrors.
If I want one end higher so I don't have to bend over, I just pull on the radio antenna.

 

Last time I had the truck up on the tranny cross member. I had the dog in the bed. As he was running around in circles, the truck was corkscrewing around. The neighbourhood kids wanted rides. At 25 cents each, i made enough to get power mirrors. With power mirrors you just put a block under each mirror and use the power mirror to raise up the truck one side at a time.

no more returning jacks for me.

 

stick to the political threads

 

If you jack up a vehicle at the differential you put the maximum amount of strain possible on the axle housing for a static loading condition. The axle housing is made of several pieces, that just happen to join at the differential housing. Loading them improperly can cause them to separate and then leak. The axle housing is not designed to support the weight of the vehicle that is the job of the leaf springs.

The best spot to lift a vehicle is where specified in the owners manual. Normally this just so happens to coincide with the suspension mounting hard points. No surprise there, that is close to where the manufacturer designed the vehicle to be supported and made the frame/unibody the strongest.

 

i jack from the pumpkin often even though someone once told me it may crack the housing or somethin so stupid i laughed.

 

I don't agree with it either, and it's not my logic, I read it in a Ford service manual years ago. Chris, I thought the same thing, and have lifted by the diff many times with no problem, but do you know how the axle housing is assembled?

The 2004 Service manual says

CAUTION: Do not use the differential housing as a lift point. Leaks or damage to the rear axle cover and adjoining differential housing surface may occur if a floor jack or any lifting device is allowed to contact the cover at any point where the cover joins the housing.

The rear jacking points are located on the rear axle.

 

I have a hard time thinking that it could hurt my truck to jack it up by the rear pumpkin. If it can stand up to the hauling, towing, scraping over rocks, jumping, etc... that I do, then a jack seems kind of trivial.

 

X2

 

ok.. read it again.... s l o w l y. I know you can do it. It says nothing about the axle tubes. It says the cover and cover mating surface can be damaged.