Jacking Your Jeep: Safety Precautions

I cannot stress safety when jacking up a vehicle enough. My grandfather was a master technician for Chrysler. While working on a car back in the 1960's, it fell off of the stands and landed on his leg. It crushed his and pinned him. After they got the car off of him, he was taken to the hospital, and a pin was inserted into his femur through his knee joint into his lower leg. He had a leg he could not bend for the rest of his life, and died at age 89 November 14, 2004.

Any time I am about to put my Jeep up on jackstands, I can hear him warning me to be careful and follow some basic safety precautions.

Wheel Blocks are Essential. First, you always have lots of wheel blocks, and put them on all of the wheels. All of them. Some people recommend just blocking the diagonally opposite wheel from the one you are working on. Not me. I block them all and lift the Jeep off of the blocks.

Parking Brake + Parking Gear. You would be surprised how many dorks don't regularly use their parking brake, or when they do use it, they don't pull the handle nearly hard enough to prevent the wheels from rolling. Set your parking brake, good and strong, so that if your Jeep went into gear, it wouldn't move. If you can't do this, get the thing serviced, or maybe you should lift some weights or something so you can pull the handle harder. Put your Jeep in park, as well, if you have an automatic transmission. Take every single precaution to prevent your Jeep from betraying you and sending your soul to God earlier than expected.

Use Jackstands. Using a floor jack, or worse, a high lift jack or bottle jack, to support a car you are working on in your driveway or garage is dangerous. Always have jackstands, heavy duty, and rated for more weight than the vehicle, preferable 6 ton or 12 ton for your Jeep.

Front then Back. When you lift up your Jeep, always try to lift one end and then the other. Do not lift one side, and then the other while trying to get all four wheels off the ground. That's a great way to have your car come crashing down on you. So, first lift up the front wheels, then lift up the rear wheels. Or the rear, then the front. Or just the front. Or just the rear. Or just one wheel. But don't ever lift up the right side wheels, put stands under the frame, and then go around to the other side to lift the left side. That would be a recipe for doom.

Level Surface. Your garage or driveway must be level. Not "kind of level." It must be flat as a freaking pancake, or again, you risk having my grandfather's experience. Make sure the land is flat, or work somewhere else where the land is flat.

Room to move around. Make sure you have room to run around in your garage. My garage is tiny, and it has tools hanging on the walls and cramped spaces. If that Jeep comes off the stands, I want room to run away. I want to be outside in the driveway, not pinned under a Jeep as it slams into the wall. Especially a garage where the hedge trimmers are likely to fall on you if you bump into them. Ouch! That would be a grisly, humiliating death. So, I recommend the driveway always over the garage. Go outside to the driveway, even if it is cold, unless you have a really big garage with a lot of room to play.

Weather Reports are Good. Check the weather report. One of the dumbest things I have done to date is boost up my Jeep, pull off a differential cover, start changing the fluid, and then have it start raining a cold rain on me. That was a miserable experience. It rained really hard, and I couldn't move the Jeep indoors because (1) it would be dangerous and (2) there was no lube in the differentials. Check the weather before you start working, and make sure you have sunshine to work in for the duration.

Stay Out From Under Your Jeep. Whenever possible, if you must be under your Jeep, then have it resting on the ground. Don't put it on stands and get under it unless it is necessary to do so in order to perform your work. Especially keep your head from getting under a fender while it is jacked up and you are working on brakes or something. What a nightmare that would be, to have it come down on your head and snap it off like an icicle being broken off. Yes, it can happen. Sometimes it is necessary to be under a Jeep that is up on Jackstands, but it is rarely necessary to stick your head into a fender well.

WARNING: THIS IS NOT SAFE.

Raise and Lower With Great Care. Always use your floor jack aware that at any moment it could slide one way or the other, and your Jeep could suddenly lurch toward you and land on the ground. Raise it slowly, staying a safe distance away from it. When you put jackstands under it, use your arm only to slide the stand into place. Never bend your head under your Jeep as you slide stands under it. When you lower your Jeep onto the stands, don't release the jack and let it fall on them. Lower it very slowly, and softly, onto the stands.

Use Proper Jackstand Mount Points. When you place jackstands under your Jeep, always put them under the right places under the frame to do the work you need to do. Be careful to align them so that they are flat on the ground and solidly support the Jeep's weight. The best places are the axle tubes, as wide as you can place them. Look in the owner's manual for the axle tube mount points for jacking up your Jeep to replace a tire. When you want to work on the axles or the suspension, and you need the axles to droop down, then obviously putting jackstands under them won't work. In that case, you can put the jackstands under the frame. The Jeep is more stable on jackstands the farther out toward the corners of the Jeep the jackstands are placed. The wider, the better. But remember, keep it symmetrical - don't place them wide on one side and farther in on the other. Here are some pics of successfully jacked Jeeps:

ALWAYS READ ALL DIRECTIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS THAT COME WITH ANY EQUIPMENT.

ALWAYS READ YOUR OWNER'S MANUAL AND FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL THOROUGHLY TWICE THROUGH BEFORE BEGINNING ANY WORK.

I AM NOT AN EXPERT. ANYTHING YOU READ HERE IS SUPERCEDED BY ANYTHING WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE MORE EXPERT THAN I AM ON VEHICLE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR. ALWAYS SEEK A 2ND OPINION TO ANYTHING YOU READ HERE.

Online Resources

How to Jack Up a Vehicle by Advance Auto Parts. This is a very thorough write up on how to use a jack and jackstands to get your Jeep's tires off the ground so you can get under there and work safely.