There is no reason to jack under the frame on these trucks. The axle is fine and better yet if you want to place jack stands for going under it, jacking at the shock mounts leaves you plenty of room for the jack stands. I have several 2 and 3 ton standard floor jack's, not the high reach, and never had any issues and mine is a 4x4 Off Road with leveling kit springs and 35's.

 

Sous, I dont put the bottle jack on the jack point, since I need that spot for the jack stand. I put it slightly inboard on both sides, in clear violation of Ford's instructions.

 

If your only goal is to pull a tire, work on brakes, or get clearance to get under it sure...but there are many reasons why you would want the suspension to drop that would require you to lift from the frame and not the axle...as others have mentioned using a chunk of 6x6 between the frame and jack works just fine to get some stands under it.

 

In that case you lift it by the axle, put jackstands under the frame then drop the axle.

 

FRAME?! I cannot reach my frame with any jack. My off road package makes the frame way too tall. Its axles or nothing. Hence my question.

 

Joshua as said by 00t444e (first names in your sig make it easier to give you credit) common sense says if you need the suspension to drop don't put your jack stand under it, use the frame.

 

I'm going to surmise that a bottle jack has a smaller footprint and would be easier to place a jack stand next to on the axle. When I need more height I have my choice of hoarded blocks to choose from and I place the appropriate piece on top of the jack with a floor jack or on the floor with a bottle jack. And now it's coming back to me...the driver's side tire gets in my way to place the jack stand out by the knuckle so I remove the tire and place the stand there.

 

This comes at a good time, I really need to upgrade from my 1ton sears floor jack I bought years ago when I was a mini-truck guy.

 

Jacks are a plenty and can be cheap at auctions, especially in farm country. You could get you a big ol' 20 tonner for $20.

 

I politely disagree sir. When I replaced my leaf springs in the rear of the truck I used the frame as the jack point just in front of each of the rear tires. I then put jack stands supported by cribbing under the frame as well. Yes, I could have jacked up the rear axle, used jack stands, removed the wheels, then supported the frame with another set of jack stands in order to remove the jack stands under the axle.

Or.... I just jack the truck by the frame. There are very few reasons why the truck should be jacked up by the frame, but there are some.

 

I invested in a decent floor jack that was on sale at NAPA. Operates very smoothly - both up and down, has good lifting height and is not taxed when lifting the heavy truck.

If you do much maintenance at all a good jack is worth it. Consider the cost if it fails when you're under it? Deals are out there to be had, don't forget the jack stands.

 

Sous,
Let me ask you a dumb question, why do you find it necessary to have to put jack stands under the axle just because it was jacked up via the axle? Why can't the stands be placed under the frame in the first place?

I have replaced my front springs (twice, defective spring) from jack stands by jacking the axle and placing the stands under the frame. I'm not saying you can't do it your way but why, when it can be placed under the frame to begin with.

 

If you can swing it, get one of these:
https://www.maxjaxusa.com

They wheel out of the way when not in use to give you all of your floor space back. I was saving my pennies for one of these when my engine blew and I spent more than I wanted to rebuilding it.

 

You had me drooling for a minute but the max capacity on that is #6000. At least there's one expense I won't have to explain.

 

And Im quite sure you cannot use that on a gravel driveway....but man is that thing gorgeous. Ive seen those used on buses. Obviously an industrial-sized variant of the same device.