I had been using a cheap jack with a small head--the piece of junk in the background. I upgraded to a Craftsman jack with a nice, large saddle and some 6-ton jack stands. With my truck as low as it is, I think a jackstand failure could kill me.

The only problem I have now is that the passenger side shock mount is so close to the pumpkin that I have to jack from the axle (red squares) and place the jackstands near the pumpkin (yellow circles).

Is this unsafe placement? Is it even okay to use the axle to jack up the truck? Even though my jack goes 20" high, it really won't contact the frame anywhere in the rear.

Any tips from the pros would be appreciated.

 

all those points are fine just as long as your not jacking it up on the shock mounts (although you can for doesnt recommend it because it 'can' bend the mounts on f250s and f350s). i deal with this all day everyday (deskownt tyre imployie) never messed up anything. the red boxes would be easier though because theyre more to the outside

 

I used the areas in red this weekend when I was rotating my tires. Not a problem.

Dan

 

Ditto!

Did that today... Rotated tires, changed oil, washed the truck. Was gonna do the fuel filter but I couldn't find a local shop with Motorcraft fuel filters...? WTF!

-Mike

 

The saddle of my jack goes under the differential. I put the jack stands between the ubolts (your red squares). I try to put the jack stands as far away from each other as possible for more stability. Don't forget the wheel chocks, too.

If you are doing work that doesn't require wheel removal - maybe a good set of ramps would do well?

Say Tim - I noticed that your bumpstops aren't shaved. Do they hit the axle a lot with your Hotchkis setup?

 

Whats wrong with just jacking it up from under the differential! Jim

 

Jack stands, not jacking it up

Tim - I like that diff cover, and have you considered cutting those bump stops since your lowered?

 

where did you get that dif cover ??how much???
thanks

 

Holy Bumpstop!!

 

Damn. I though I would take crap for having to ask about jacking points. Instead I get grief over my bump stops.

Well, originally the guy who installed my Hotchkis suspension put the OEM front stops on the rear. I was uneasy about this and swapped them back. By the time I realized that they needed to be shorter, I developed a leak in one of the QA1's, so I figured that some extra bottom-out protection would be good.

I will be replacing the bump stops with some shorter urethane foam stops after I get the QA1 back from warranty repairs. Anyone know where to pick up some of those trick foam stops?

Thanks,

TLS

 

The diff cover is available from Mag-Hytec.com. $245. Holds twice the fluid, has a magnetic drain plug, magnetic dipstick, and temp sender port--plus it looks WAY better than the already-rusted-out-POS that Ford put on.

Shorter ends links are required. Significant reworking is also required to mount a panhard. Details on my Web site.

 

Tim,

what do you think caused the QA1 to leak?

Just teasin about the bumpstops chief.

Bob

 

Since my GF left, I've had to rexplore my jacking point, too. Oh, you meant on the L

Sorry Tim - didn't mean to direct any grief your way. I just shaved my stock bumpstops last weekend because they were hitting the axle more than I wanted. I've got Hotchkis leafs but kept the Bilsteins due to lack of funds (maybe that's why she left). So I was wondering your's were hitting the axle, too, and if should get a stiffer shock sooner than later.

-B

 

haha

I work at "deskownt tyre" also

 

Of course you were--I was just teasin' back.

I have no idea why it leaked. No visible signs of damage. The oil was definitely coming out of the top, though. The body was completely covered in oil/grime, but when I took it off, it was still providing some damping. Just FedExed to QA1 today.

There is also a tiny bit of shock fluid leaking around on the adjustment **** on one of the fronts. Otherwise, the other three seem to check out okay. We'll see what QA1 says. I did notice a bit of a pop that would occur when going diagonally across something like a speed bump, but never really got down to track it down. Seems to have gone away. I wonder . . .

The truck sure rides funny with one shock, I can tell you that!