You're right, I haven't looked at yours - I don't think mine (Superduty) shows a floor jack.

Anyway, it's still a safety thing...

 

I have looked at your 2001 F250 owners manual. It shows the exact same picture and wording as my 04 F150. Picture is of a floor jack under the diff.

 

And I'll stand by my statement that a floor jack ain't going to hurt the diff housing...

I'll check my manual in the morning... It's in the Roadside Emergencies section?

Again, in that context, it's just safety...

And, again, knowing engineering-wise what's going on back there, there is no way a floor jack will damage the housing. Period. Believe me or not.

I'll shut up now.

 

The book with my 04 F150 says not to do it. That's good enough for me. I lift one side at a time and use jack stands.

 

Quote
The following is in no way personal, gpeade, just a set of observations;


no fear chris I am not offended by what you wrote.
Yes I totally agree with you and I understand about leverage and weight dist. etc. I am not trying to suggest that everyone forget the warnings and put a floor jack under the "hogs head".
The main point I am trying to get across, and I think Krewat also, is that the axle housing is physically strong enough to support the weight of the truck.
It's not a ? as to if it's wright or wrong. I read that section in my manual last night and I still say it's a safety issue. I feel that if you jacked the truck from any point under the axle and it bent sagged warped etc. then it would not be strong enough to drive down the road.

As to your comments about comments, yeah, your right. I've seen just about everything suggested here. I am not suggesting that anyone disregard any rules instructions or warnings. when you read these posts they have to be taken with a grain of salt and I hope that everyone reading here knows that. But I'm sure not all do. It's the same as a conversation on the street. You have to believe about 1/2 of what you hear.

There are some very knowledgable people that post here and some not so knowledgable ( to be politically correct ) and after you spend a little time here you can begin to figure that out for yourself.
I am just repeating myself here, but I am not suggesting in any way that ya throw the manual out the window and do as ya please. If anyone is that senseless than they deserve the huge repair bills that are in their future.

 

And I, in no way suggest someone stuck on the side of the road should jack up their truck from the pumpkin.

But saying the thing can't take it and you'll hurt the housing/tubes/etc, that's just plain, well, uninformed.

art k.

 

I would suggest, you guys that use your pumpkin or axle tubes to jack your truck up SAVE YOUR MONEY! You could be in for a huge senseless repair bill. It is all about weight distribution. It is that simple.

 

I just checked my entire manual, and you are wrong. (You did look at a Superduty manual, not the LD F250 manual, right?)

 

In my P30 manual it warns against lifting on the rear differential. And the diff on my 10 ton P30 chassis is MUCH bigger and huskier than any tiny little SuperDuty...
It warns that the axel tubes are stressed for bending the opposite direction.

No pictures though, but the P30 chassis is used industrial on everything from big wreckers down to bread trucks.

 

I looked at the 2001 F250 at www.motorcraft service.com.

Page 185.

 

I have decided to remove myself from notifications from this thread. Why would you risk ruining your rear differential over taking a couple extra minutes to raise your $20,000 to $40,000 vehicle properly. This issue has become idiotic and just plain silly. Good Luck!

 

Hey guys, why don't we agree to disagree here. Some of us are using facts and some of us are using opinions. Unless we get together and to some extensive testing we will never know who is right or wrong.
NY-Ford-lifer originally asked if it was ok to do this and we really haven't answered his question.
People have been using the rear end to lift trucks for years. Just because someone has successfully done it doesn't make it right or wrong. The manual advises against it so technically, no, you should not do it.
I like thousands of others have been doing it for years and to be quite honest will probably continue to do it. I may one day come to regret it but call me hardheaded I guess

 

Any takers? Take a piece of square metal tubing, lay across the leaf springs, in a way that you can setup a dial guage with the pointer on the top of the diff case. Then, jack it up at the pumpkin and read off what it says.

I might be doing this later today w/my 10.25" if the wife goes out

 

Try holding onto that drill when the bit grabs! The reason you can't stop the chuck from turning with your hand is that it is small in diameter. On a 300 in-lb drill, you would have to apply 300 lbs at 1" from the centerline of the chuck to stop it. No, you can't do that with your hand. On the other hand (no pun intended), the handle of the drill is 6 inches or so away from the centerline where you would only have to apply 50 lbs to stop it from twisting.

Yes, Krewat is right, the axle tubes are taking the full torque the rear end is transfering to the wheels (Newton's 3rd law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction). Remember the traction bars we used to put on the old muscle cars? The rear axle would try to twist the leaf springs causing the rear axle to hop. Traction bars moved the lever arm out which gave it more leverage which resulted in less twist.

The rear axle is obviously designed to take this torque but who knows about the loading by jacking under the pumkin. I still don't feel comfortable doing this, it just looks like it could do damage.......

 

And to clear something up, I in no way advocate jacking at the pumpkin when loaded, I'm talking about unloaded.