Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:46:47 -0400
Reply-To: Ed McLean <email99@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ed McLean <email99@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: Re: Kudo's to Dennis Haynes and his frame mount receiver hitch.
No! No! No! No! No! It's not a kool idea. It's a very bad idea.
Do not ever use a highlift type jack to raise the end of a vehicle. It will
fall over.
If you lift both rear wheels off the ground there is nothing to keep the van
from twisting to either side or rolling forward or backwards and falling off
the jack. The highlift jack just doesn't offer that type of support. Your
parking brake won't work and even if you have a Syncro, the front wheels
will rotate in opposite directions as your precious vehicle fell off the
jack. You would have to chock both front wheels both front and rear
extremely securely and that just can't be done, even if they were lashed
down with chains. Jacking up the side of a vehicle is completely different
than jacking up the end of a vehicle.
A jack of this type will just not offer any support to a lateral force of a
vehicle falling off the jack. A standard hydraulic floor jack is much
different and offers much greater support to resist a lateral force.
This is very dangerous. Don't do this, not even for just enough time to get
jack stands in place.
Ed McLean
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:43:48 -0500, John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET> wrote:
>Kool idea!! Just don't forget to open the rear hatch and take out the
>jack stands before lifting the van with the wagon wheel jack (old name
>for highlift jack) You won't be able to get you rear hatch open.
>
>I think I will get myself one of those highlift jack just for the purpose.
>
>John Rodgers
>88 GL Driver
>
>Bob Stevens wrote:
>> Although not Dennis's finely crafted and stout leverage-point, I have
>> some tube bumpers that have receivers in each, front/rear, that have
>> stood up to being used to pull me out of a steep canyon in Moab, so I
>> trust these are reliable.
>>
>> My point ... I just got a high lift jack and had thought of using it
>> to lift the entire end of the van for placing of jackstands. This may
>> afterall, work. ;-) ... with caution and chocks.
>>
>> bob
>>
>> Unbeknownst to me, the man put a single jack under the
>>
>>> receiver tube on the hitch and jacked up the rear with the one jack. I
>>> happened to go out and I spotted it. I was flabbergasted. Terrible shop
>>> craft - there are jack points right?? I did say something to the
>>> manager, but the damage was done, and I was curious to see what the
>>> situation was going to wind up being. Well, it would seem that hitch
>>> held up just fine. The square tube cross piece didn't bend - heck! it
>>> didn't even bow the slightest.
>>>
>>> I gotta hand it to Dennis. That trailer hitch is hell-for-stout, and I
>>> would recommend it to anyone!!
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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