In all fairness I have not tried per se. Reason being is I have two jacks so if I need the front raised I jack up both sides and then put my jackstands under the front or rear cradle.

Here is another "trick" I "learned" myself.. Jack up the car from the side using the pucks, then use a 4x4 piece of wood about 8-10 inches long standing on its end and slide it right under the cradle. Now you can let the jack down and it will hold the car up enough for you to get the jack under there to jack from the cradle in the center.

 

Thanks for the feedback on the Race Ramps. I'm giving thought to using your 2x12 idea to get a jack under the front cradle and lifting both wheels. Then, instead of using conventional jackstands, the Race Ramps wheel cribs like you show in your picture under the rear wheels look like an appealing and very safe alternative to jackstands.

 

problem with race ramps and wheel cribs is they don't really let you take the wheels off..

 

Good point. May have to rethink the plan. My primary consideration was being able to safely lift the car to do oil and filter changes.

My alternative thinking was to use the 2x12 trick to elevate the front enough to get a jack under the front cradle. Then lift the car up and put a jackstand under each of the two side jacking points. This would work both for wheel maintenance as well as oil changes and would not require purchasing a lot of new equipment for lifting the car.

 

Did my oil change last week. Drove the front onto two 2x12's on each side, used the pucks to lift the rear onto two 2x12's so the car was level. Was then able to reach under and remove drain plug and filter. Easy and quick

 

Wow! This is easy. I am pleasantly surprised that this gave you enough room to reach filter and crankcase plug, but the price is right. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I use a two step process. I use 2 inch high 2 1/2 inch diameter jacking pucks ( to clear side skirts) and low profile jacks on both sides to raise car enough to get my large Jack with a cross brace under the front or rear proper cross member Jack points. Then depending what I am doing may put Jack stands under the jacking pads. Have also lifted the sides and put Jack stands under the front or rear cross member Jack points. Made this pic for post where they lifted on the front spring, hence the Caution do not lift! When changing oil I made some 6 inch high wood stands that fit under rear wheels and use Jack stands on the front jacking pads as mentioned above to get the car level. Don't like to use 4 Jack stands and get under the car.

 

Lowered C5 for me, but diagram looks the same. I drive the car onto a doubled up 2x8 ramp I made for 3" of lift. This gives me just enough room to reach the back cradle with the harbor freight 1.5 ton alum jack. I use a board placed width wise on the jack base to spread load across the cradle -- the board is cut to a length that there is a few inches on either side. I used to be able to just start jacking, now I have to push the air dam out of the way until I get about 1" of lift. Once the car is high enough, I put a jack stand on each side of the cradle and lower it on to them. I use Esco flat top jack stands, which have a flat rubber top and I can set the cradle directly on to them. They're great and well worth the money. If I were to do it again though, I would get the smaller version that goes down to 11" lift as 13" minimum height on mine is often more than I need and I've never needed full extension from them. Doing oil tomorrow and can take pics if interested.

 

I would love to see your pictures of how you do your oil changes. Also, thanks for the feedback on the Esco flattop jackstands. I have been eyeing them for some time, but couldn't decide whether they were worth the purchase price. I do like their flat tops and seem like they will work much better on Corvette lift points than the typical v-shaped tops of other jackstands.

 

Thanks for the great drawing. Helps remind me to stay away from the DO NOT LIFT area of the chassis. I agree with your thoughts about being uneasy crawling under the car when lifted with 4 jackstands. I'm more and more inclined to use some form of wheel cribs like your wood stands rather than jackstands if I am going to be under the car.

Zare191 says he can get to the drain plug and filter just by driving up on single 2x12's. I'm going to experiment with that technique and see if it gives me enough clearance to do the same. If it works, it looks like the safest and least expensive way to go.

 

Let me start by apologizing for no pictures, but it was starting to get dark and I was in a bit of a hurry...

In my case, I had to remove my right rear wheel to have some curb rash repaired. It all went smooth as silk; no problems...

Step 1: Back the car up onto ramps (ramps were $60.00 at Walmart. I use them all the time to work on my lawn tractor).

Step 2: Cut off a 14" section of 2X4 and place it on top of the pad of your floor jack, centered (I have a 3 ton low profile, but even a standard jack will work)

Step 3: Place a chock under one of the front wheels.

Step 4: Roll the jack between the rear wheels until the 2X4 is perfectly centered on the cross member between the leaf spring and what I believe is the transmission pan (there are photos of the cross member earlier in this thread).

Step 5: Jack up car up until it just starts to lift, stop and loosen the lug nuts from the wheel(s) you wish to remove. Don't remove them, just loosen them. Now raise the jack up to where the tires clear the ramps.

Step 6: Place a jacking puck on top of each jack stand (I actually removed the arms and placed the pucks eyelet down into the frame of each jack stand. Fits perfectly. You can also place the pucks into the the mounting holes in the frame of the car. Give a half turn to lock.

Step 7: Slide the ramps out of the way.

Step 8: SLOWLY lower the floor jack until the pucks almost make contact with the car (or the stand depending on how you did it). Adjust, so that the stand, pucks, and car will connect perfectly on target. Lower again slowly until everything meets perfectly, then take the jack the rest of the way down.

Step 9: Remove the wheel(s)...Grab a beer....

 

As promised, pictures of my lifting procedure.

First step is to get the front lifted a bit on ramps. I got the directions to build these somewhere on the forum. In my opinion, they are much larger than needed and cumbersome. On the left you can see my "mobile ramps" that I throw in the car and take to autocross, this might be too small as they are easy to drive over accidentally... so do something in between


Here is my jack and support board, pretty self explanatory ~12" long.


Jack positioned under rearwards front cradle. I know a guy that uses the front one without issue, and you probably can too, but not for me.


From the other side, make sure you are not putting pressure on the oil pan/drain bolt.


Pushing air dam out of the way for the first couple strokes. This wasn't necessary before I lowered my car.


Where the jack stands will rest on each side. I try to center them with the cross.


Front on jack stands.


To the rear, turn the board longways.


Lift by rear crossmember. There is a gap in the middle that the jack or stands would slip into, thus the board. Ideally I would have two more boards to span the crossmember and place my stands on either side, but I don't, so onward we go...


Why I wish I had the shorter esco stands, jack at full reach. Ignore the cone residue, it comes off


Jack the front puck location and slide stand into rear puck location. Repeat on other side.


Car in the air!


Has a slight forward rake in this configuration to help drain all the oil.


Hope that helps

 

Thanks dhowdy for the great set of pictures and accompanying explanations. It clarified a lot of the issues that must be dealt with when lifting a Corvette for an oil change. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do this.

 

No problem I had to do it anyways. I'll also admit that I moved the front stands to the puck locations after these pictures (I should have just put them there to begin with), which is going to be dependent on the size of your oil drain pan, but it definitely gives you more room to work. Then I just lift the rear cradle with the jack while it's draining to get that forward rake back.