I use the Griot jack in the garage, and it is great. Raises the rear easily, but you still need ramps in front to reach under far enough to get to the front crossmember. But it weighs ~90 pounds and is not suitable for hauling to the track unless you trailer everything, much less as a daily passenger.

I know this thread, as most others, is getting a little off the original topic, but C5XTASY raises another question - about raising one side of the car, instead of the front or rear. I used to use a different jack with the "Corvette adapter" under just one rear jacking point to lift the entire side of the car, i.e. both wheels off the ground. Since the car is so stiff, this is easy to do by jacking at only the one point, but I have begun to wonder - what kind of stresses might this have subjected the car to or any damage possibly done? Is this something I should not have done? Anyone know or have an opinion?




[Modified by rbeckham, 8:27 PM 3/17/2002]

 

Any thoughts out there?
Ed

 

I considered that when using a small (about 3 1/2 inches high) garage roller jack when I lifted her to do the brake calipers. Although the FRC is rated the "most rigid" of the C5s, I wasn't comfortable with stressing one whole side of the car - dead in the middle - to simply save myself a little time. The benefit of time saved didn't outweigh the possibility of either 1) over-stressing the frame on one side or 2) possibly damaging the underbody (since I don't have frame savers). My roller jack will lift 2 tons, so that wasn't an issue... AND it certainly would have been nicer to not have to fight the initial lift because my jack handle doesn't extend out far enough and I have to wrestle it with a 6" ratchet extension until the car gets high enough that the jack handle will go up and down. I'm sure that made sense. :crazy:

I also have scissors jacks.. but when placed properly under the front, I couldn't get enough "spin" room to allow the handle to go a full rotation - regardless whether I did it from the front (air dam kept getting crunched) or when coming in from behind the front fender well. And when I finally DID get the car up enough to use the scissor (just as a test), I didn't have the muscle to actually spin the scissor jack even one time around. It didn't have the torque (or *I* didn't) to lift the car. It's an older jack, but is well greased and works fine -- and I still lift weights occasionally and at 6' 200# can still bench an honest 185 for 4 or 5 reps. But I didn't have the strength to spin the scissor. Maybe I was just weak or drank too much the night before. :) But before you spend the bucks for a scissors jack, check to make sure the one you're getting will have a ratio low enough to allow you to use it without doing steroids first.

After all that said, I'm STILL looking for a nice, convenient and easy way to lift her short of installing professional grade hydraulics in my garage. :jester

 

Huh? I mean, what?

 

Look at these two.
http://www.calcarcover.com/product.a...o+Product+List
http://www.calcarcover.com/product.a...o+Product+List

The second one is too tall. Minimum height is 7.5 inches. But the first one may work. A bit pricey though! Good Luck!

 

I modified the saddle of an old Toyota Corolla jack to fit the A&A rails on my 'vette, and that worked pretty well. However, it barely fit the front with fully inflated tires, and the weight rating of the jack wasn't reassuring.

Just a few minutes ago, I tried the scissors jack from a 4th gen F-body under my 'vette. The jack lifts easily and fits underneath with PLENTY of spare room in case of a complete flat. Again, I have A&A rocker rails - I don't think this jack would work so well without them.

A 4th gen Corvette jack will probably work like a champ, too, but the 4th gen F-body jack is a little nicer, because the lug-nut wrench (which fits stock C5 lugs) folds and clips onto the jack, making for a compact unit.



[Modified by The Batman, 4:36 AM 4/1/2002]

 

Cant you just make ramps or buy them somewhere... I never like lifts anyway, what if the dam thing breaks...

 

Even when the tires are inflated, I can hardly get a floor jack under the car. Good luck to you guys who think you will be able to even get under the car when you have a flat let alone plug a tire. Most of the time when a flat tire occurs the beads have come off the rim... so a little air compressor spitting air will never ever reseat the tire bead.

My best advise is forget the jack and have a Cell phone and a AAA card handy. Like I said... good luck to you guys. :)

vetterdstr :cheers:

 

I use an early 1980's vintage Cadillac jack; they are strong, cheap and fast compared to the screw type jacks. All thats needed is a spacer at the top such as an old bearing race.

 

<EDIT> Thi jack won't work for your application of carrying it the car, but it is still a great floor jack.

I JUST received my floor jack this morning, got the A/C Hydraulics DK20, $266 shipped to my door, it's the one pictued on the right.
http://www.geocities.com/genidude/hydraulicjacks2.html



Nice low 3.1" clearance to fit under my lowered C5 with lift pads attached. I figured if I'm gonna jack up a $50K car I might as well use the best quality, low-profile jack around! :cheers: I'll let you know how it works when I need to use it for the first time. :cheers: And for those worried about stressing the car, this car is STIFF!! Over at a friend's house when changing the oil you can jack up one corner of the car and it will lift 3 wheels off the ground! :eek: NOW that's STIFF!!!


[Modified by Tormania, 9:15 AM 3/25/2002]

 

I found a low profile (1 1/2") scissors jack to keep in the trunk. Got it from California Car Cover (www.calcarcover.com) for $250. Small, lightweight and works great. Around the garage I use the ASE low profile DK20 jack I got from geocities.com. Get's the car up and down is seconds.