I will buy two rubber chalks, and use a jackstand as well as a bottlejack. Question, my car didnt come with a jack so i bought a 10ton (or 20ton i dont remember, atleast 10ton) at harbor freight. Then i bought a jack from someone parting out their excursion. Which do yall think would be more reliable?

 

Definitely the Harbor Freight one, the stock one is think rated at about 2-3 ton if that. Just meant to lift one wheel 4 inches off the ground.

 

BUt keep the bottle in the right rear compartment where it's supposed to be, use it for emergencies.

 

And no scissor jacks lol.

 

Fast question, I have an SUV jack and 2-ton jack stands. No issue using the 2 combined to gain safe access under my EX for most things. However, I want to do some rust prooffing and scraping under the truck. I would like to get all four wheels off the ground and use the stands at eack wheel to support the truck and safely roll around under the truck and do my scraping and rust proofing. I have done this on other cars but think i my need 3 or 4 ton jack stands for added safety. Any thoughts?

 

If you are going to get under there and grind/scrape and work on your truck you really need at least a 4 ton at each wheel. I have done this same thing spending almost 2 weeks off and on under the truck, scraping, angle grinding, removing bolts, pounding and painting. I had it on the ground for a good part of it (for safety) but the portion where I did want the wheels off for access I used a 6 ton jack stand at each wheel, and 4 high lift 8 ton jack stands on the frame - 2 under the frame behind the front wheels and 2 on the hitch receiver. Probably over kill but crawling around, grinding and pounding on a 8k truck with no wheels on at all - I wanted to make 100% sure there was no way for it to come down. It comes down with you under it, no wheels there is only one end result for you.

 

Thanks Sammie
That is what i figured.

 

Ummm, no. Not with the work you were doing.

Here in Cali, I'd be concerned about an earthquake hitting while under there doing that kind of work, for hours on end, for days on end, so the more safety you can have, the better it would be!

Stewart

 

I don't agree with the majority of folks in this thread.

Everyone is throwing around the idea that having lifting and supporting equipment that's rated to lift the Excursion all by itself being necessary. I beg to differ.

Here's the empty weight ticket for my Excursion. This is with a full tank and nobody in it:



So each axle weighs less than 4,000 lbs, which means that each wheel supports less than 2,000 lbs. Yes ladies and gentlemen, that means that for an empty Excursion a lifting appliance rated for 1 ton would be sufficient to lift one wheel off the ground safely. But nobody makes a 1-ton jack, at least not that I've ever seen. And the majority of jackstands are rated for 3-tons or more. That's a tool rated for 6,000 lbs that's being used to support less than 2,000 lbs. That's a 3-1 safety rating without even factoring in the engineering safety margins when they engineer the equipment.

Bottle jacks are unsafe? Says who? When used properly they are just fine, but just like any professional floor jack they aren't considered to be safe to support a vehicle you're working under. I've found my 8-ton bottle jack to be a very useful tool to lift one wheel of my Excursion; I've used it numerous times and have lived to tell about it. Of course my life never depended on it, as it's sole purpose was to only lift the axle enough to get a jackstand under it.

You simply have to use the right tool for the job, and the manufacturers of these tools do the hard part and tell us how much weight is safe to lift with them. For an empty Excursion of any flavor, a 2-ton jack or jackstand is more than adequate for anything you're likely to do with it as long as it goes high enough to get the job done.

 

Northern tool has 3.5 ton jacks and 4 ton
Jack stands. I also have a set of 11k suv ramps.

The floor jack weights 100lbs and works great!

For a flat on the hiway i use ..... AAA.

 

Would you put a 2 ton jack stand under your EX, take all 4 wheels off and get under it pound, pull, scrub and grind? 2x4 = 8 and my Ex weighs under 8k but not by much. That doesn't account for movement trying to break loose bolts, torquing them back or anything else that might move the vehicle. That was what the last guy was asking (follow up question not the OP). So ya changing a tire you don't need that kind of support (what the OP was asking), laying under the truck working with all the wheels off I wouldn't do it. IMHO if you are going to be under the truck with all the wheels off you need at least a 4 ton jack stand at each wheel. Again different standard if you are working at edge of truck but flat on your back under it with no wheels on it at all is different. Most vulnerable situation you can possibly be in. Some may disagree but if it were me I'm not getting under a truck without 4 tons at each wheel plus some insurance on the frame just in case. Even a jack stand can fail.

 

But under which circumstance are you going to have more than 8,000 lbs on an axle? How much overkill do you really need?

By those rights we would be mounting THESE TIRES on our Excursions? I mean...if a tire were to happen to blow we could lose control and kill ourselves and our families right? So would we not need tires rated for the same 4 tons?

And your math is a bit off, four 2-ton jackstands have a combined total of 8 tons. A ton is equal to 2,000 lbs, so four 2-ton jackstands have a combine total of 16,000 lbs, which is equal to more than two Excursions stacked on top of each other.

 

Ok will give you that on the math tons vs lbs. and I'm a bean counter even Just telling the guy what I feel comfortable with doing exactly what's he was asking about doing. Had one come down on me once so maybe I'm a bit more cautious now than some.

 

Wow...how'd that happen? That would scare the hell out of me. I remember when I was laying underneath my front end swapping my springs thinking about what would happen if my jackstands failed in some manner. On the bright side I figure I wouldn't feel much.

I think the big hazard with jackstands isn't them collapsing under the weight but rather falling over or slipping off.

 

Was my fault, had a smaller 2 ton jack stands under middle of the frame and had failed lock my hubs or put it in 4HI before I shut it off. The drive shaft pulled free of the slip yoke unexpectedly. The rear axle was un bolted and was sitting back a bit on a jack stand, when the drive shaft let go the truck moved enough to rock the 2 tons more than their smaller base could handle and one of them tipped. Good news is I had 6 tons on the rear frame and the wheels on the front so it settled back and I didn't get hurt. But scared the crap outta me. Kept thinking what would have happened if I had the front wheels off too?