Jacks that fit under GTR lips that can reach the subframe?

[funkymonkey]

I fashioned a ramp out of a couple of pieces of 140x35 lumber, to get the bumper up slightly, and then one of these is what I use

[joshuaho96]

On 05/09/2025 at 5:38 PM, TurboTapin said:

So, I'm back with bad news. There's no jack long enough on this planet that will reach the front subframe. If by some chance there is, it would weigh 200lb's. 

I purchased a long reach jack... The damn thing weighted 120lb's and was massive. Didn't even come close, was still short at least a foot. It was a pain, but I brought it back. Next I decided HA! No problem, I'll get an Extra long reach jack. Well, I couldn't lift the box... It must have weighed 160LB's and luckily there was an open box in store. I took measurement and was still nowhere close. 

Sadly I've lost hope and have accepted defeat. 

On BMWs what I do because I'm more confident that I can't instantly crush the pinch welds and do thousands of USD in chassis damage is use a set of rubber jacking pads designed to protect the chassis/plastic adapter and raise a corner of the car, place the aforementioned 2x12 inch wooden planks under a tire, drop the car, then this normally gives me enough clearance to get to the front central jack point. If you don't need it to be a ramp it only needs to be 1-1.5 feet long.

On my R33 I do not trust the pinch welds to tolerate any of this so I drive up on the ramps. Before then when I had to get a new floor jack that no longer cleared the front lip I removed it to get enough clearance to put the jack under it. Once you're on the ramps once you simply never let the car down to the ground. It lives on the ramps or on jack stands.

[TurboTapin]

On 05/09/2025 at 10:59 PM, GTSBoy said:

I NEVER think about using a scissor jack unless there is absolutely no other alternative.

f**king things are dangerous, annoying and stupid.

They're wonderful when only used to lift your car up an inch so a real jack fits under your front lip. Besides that, I've only ever used them on the side of the road. 

On 06/09/2025 at 3:27 AM, The Bogan said:

Scissor Jacks are an accident waiting to happen, the only time they should be used are in an roadside flat, even then a tyre and rim should be placed underneath 

We call them widow makers here. 

On 07/09/2025 at 8:34 AM, funkymonkey said:

I fashioned a ramp out of a couple of pieces of 140x35 lumber, to get the bumper up slightly, and then one of these is what I use

Unfortunately, like I mentioned in another post, ramps are not an option for me due to generally working on my car once my kids are asleep. Cold starts, 4" exhaust and sleep rarely go well together. I honestly find using ramps a hell of a lot more work than what I'm currently doing anyways. 

[TurboTapin]

8 hours ago, joshuaho96 said:

On BMWs what I do because I'm more confident that I can't instantly crush the pinch welds and do thousands of USD in chassis damage is use a set of rubber jacking pads designed to protect the chassis/plastic adapter and raise a corner of the car, place the aforementioned 2x12 inch wooden planks under a tire, drop the car, then this normally gives me enough clearance to get to the front central jack point. If you don't need it to be a ramp it only needs to be 1-1.5 feet long.

On my R33 I do not trust the pinch welds to tolerate any of this so I drive up on the ramps. Before then when I had to get a new floor jack that no longer cleared the front lip I removed it to get enough clearance to put the jack under it. Once you're on the ramps once you simply never let the car down to the ground. It lives on the ramps or on jack stands.

That seems like a lot more work than just using a second jack under a front tow hook to raise it enough to get another jack under it. 

[GTSBoy]

7 hours ago, TurboTapin said:

That seems like a lot more work than just using a second jack under a front tow hook to raise it enough to get another jack under it. 

That's a lot of bending moment to apply to a hook that was not intended for lifting though. I instinctively hate the idea.

[Murray_Calavera]

@TurboTapin I think you would really enjoy having a quickjack.

[Kinkstaah]

1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

That's a lot of bending moment to apply to a hook that was not intended for lifting though. I instinctively hate the idea.

This is the only point I can access with any floor jack and my car is SUV height - What's the actual suggested alternative here?

I have also driven up on blocks in the past, but lets say you have a problem and the car is on it's wheels already and can't be driven up/off anything? Not a huge fan of bits of wood being spat in random locations either (it hasn't happened, but what-ifs occur)

Perhaps I would also really enjoy having a quickjack :p
Time to google quickjacks.

[GTSBoy]

5 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

This is the only point I can access with any floor jack and my car is SUV height - What's the actual suggested alternative here?

Are you saying the 34 is SUV height, and not that we're talking about an SUV here? (because if we're talking about an SUV, you don't fix them. You just replace them when something breaks. Not worth establishing sufficient emotional connection with an SUV to warrant doing any work on one).

I wouldn't jack my car up on a short little loop of 10mm steel rod poking out through a hole in the bumper bar, front or rear end. I realise that we're probably not talking about that type of loop at the front, being the one under/behind the bar on a Skyline.... but even for that one, trying to jack up on what amounts to a thin piece of steel, designed purely for withstanding a horizontal tension force, not a vertical compressive force (and so would be prone to buckling/crushing) and, my most particular bitch about it - located RIGHT AT THE EXTREME FRONT OF THE CAR, applying a load up through the radiator support panel, etc, with almost the entire mass of the car cantilevered between there and the rear wheels? Nope. Not doing that. Not on the regular. That structure out there in front of the front crossmember is not designed to carry load in the vertical direction. Not really designed to carry any load at all, really. The chassis rail that the tow point is connected to would be fine loaded in tension, as per towing. Not intended to carry the mass of the whole car, especially loaded all on one rail, with twisting and all sorts of shitty load distribution going on.

No, I will happily drive up on some pieces of wood, thanks.

12 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

Not a huge fan of bits of wood being spat in random locations either (it hasn't happened, but what-ifs occur)

That can only happen on driven wheels, and they are at the other end of the car, and this problem does not exist at that end of the car. And even then, I have been known to drive up on at least 1x piece of 2x8 each side at the rear, simply to reduce the amount of jack pumping necessary to get the car up high enough for the jack stands.

What really really shits me about Skylines is the lack of decent places for chassis stands at either end of the car. You'd think they'd be designed into the crossmembers.

[joshuaho96]

12 hours ago, TurboTapin said:

That seems like a lot more work than just using a second jack under a front tow hook to raise it enough to get another jack under it. 

I wouldn't trust the tow hook to hold. I would rather use a floor jack on the pinch welds. Honestly, I think your best bet at this point is quickjacks or similar.

[Murray_Calavera]

1 hour ago, joshuaho96 said:

I wouldn't trust the tow hook to hold

I've been doing it for longer then I can remember and on pretty much every car I've owned without any issues. 

Jack on a tow point (or under the rear diff), jack stands under control arms/other beefy suspension component is my go to if I'm not using the quick jack. 

[joshuaho96]

3 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

I've been doing it for longer then I can remember and on pretty much every car I've owned without any issues. 

Jack on a tow point (or under the rear diff), jack stands under control arms/other beefy suspension component is my go to if I'm not using the quick jack. 

I know on some cars it's explicitly endorsed in the service manual but a lot of them it isn't which is what gives me pause. I know a lot of cars also have you jack up the car by the radiator core support which is a lot easier to get to than some crazy deep section of the front subframe. I'm just reluctant to find out if any of that is really safe to do if not listed in the service manual. The FK8 has even the R-chassis beat in this regard, the front subframe jack point is almost fully behind the front tires and is surprisingly recessed into the car.

[Murray_Calavera]

4 minutes ago, joshuaho96 said:

I know on some cars it's explicitly endorsed in the service manual but a lot of them it isn't which is what gives me pause. I know a lot of cars also have you jack up the car by the radiator core support which is a lot easier to get to than some crazy deep section of the front subframe. I'm just reluctant to find out if any of that is really safe to do if not listed in the service manual. The FK8 has even the R-chassis beat in this regard, the front subframe jack point is almost fully behind the front tires and is surprisingly recessed into the car.

Makes sense. 

I would do something different if I felt like there was a better option. Generally the only other area I'm happy to jack on is where I want to put the stand. The pinch weld is not an option for me for either the jack or stands, so very limited options overall. 

Plus never having had an issue with doing this, has kinda reinforced in my mind that it's fine. I'd do it on any car without a second thought these days lol. 

[GTSBoy]

35 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

The pinch weld is not an option for me for either the jack or stands

The pinchweld is fine, even with a trolley jack, so long as you're not actually pushing on the pinchweld itself. More to the point, we shouldn't talk about lifting or supporting on the pinchweld, we should talk about using the sill "jacking points", which just happen to be adjacent to the pinchweld.

I just have dense rubber blocks with grooves in them for each of the chassis stands and the trolley jack, that I use at the sill jacking points if/when I have to lift/support there. They put all the load onto the steel pad of the jacking point and not the pinchweld. As intended.

[Murray_Calavera]

4 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

The pinchweld is fine, even with a trolley jack, so long as you're not actually pushing on the pinchweld itself. More to the point, we shouldn't talk about lifting or supporting on the pinchweld, we should talk about using the sill "jacking points", which just happen to be adjacent to the pinchweld.

I have too much trauma from every skyline I've ever seen having crushed jack points/pinch welds lol. 

 

5 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

I just have dense rubber blocks with grooves in them for each of the chassis stands and the trolley jack, that I use at the sill jacking points

Yep, works 100%, it's what I use when I'm using the quick jack. Don't know why I can't also bring myself to do the same thing when I'm using a jack. I blame the skyline PTSD. 

[Kinkstaah]

I used to do that (sills with rubber jack block)..

... then I got side skirts, and there's no way for the jack to actually work there, the jack pad itself on the jack is too big.
Is the answer to use a... smaller (?) jack? Hmmm.

[GTSBoy]

17 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

the jack pad itself on the jack is too big.
Is the answer to use a... smaller (?) jack? Hmmm.

Maybe? I have the Supercheap ToolPro low thingo. It has a somewhat smaller diameter lifting "bowl" than you would expect on a workshop grade trolley jack, and a split rubber pad to suit that diameter. It clears the "N1" style skirts I have. Probably wouldn't if the jack's bowl and a suitably larger rubber block were in use.

Having said that though.....you only need the rubber block to exist on the inner side of the pinchweld, so could carve away any rubber that fouled the skirt, leaving some there for "insurance" </simples>

[MBS206]

Just back on what was raised about jacking off the the tow/tie down point on the front of cars.
I've used it plenty.

I've also watched it on a car where you could see it move the front end of the car. It was like the front end/whole car being tweaked and twisted a bit.

I will say, I struggle to find good jacking points on MOST cars. The ones that have good points, I then normally struggle to find a jack tall enough to make the car change height!

 

One of my go to points for either the jack, or the axel stands though, is either a suspension pickup point, OR a subframe to chassis major bolting point.

I actually think its the subframe on my R33 that has a bit of a bend in it, from being jacked in the middle too. However, it could have been one of my many other cars I've had over the years! Or it could also be the from me jacking it up, and the fact the top of the front radiator support isn't there, so it can allow the front of the car to move and bend etc.