Bottle Jack on Frame Rail?

[fo4imtippin]

Recently, I have been doing some suspension work. Is there much risk of bending the frame rail flange with a bottle Jack? Also, my front bumper has a drop frame for the mount that has a ton of huck bolts securing it. Does anyone have experience using this as a lift point? I'm mostly afraid of bending the flanges so I have been limiting myself to only lifting where there is a cross brace or an inner c channel reinforcing it, but naturally, all those spots have a ton of crap in the way.


I attached the manual for my bus for a diagramed of what I'm working with.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

i weld for a living and have plenty of steel available.
any time i question a jacking point?
i built a u channel top with a pipe bottom that fits my 20 bottle jack.
in my mind with a sufficient jack you should not be trusting the jack until you get jack stands and wheel chocks. the chocks before jack.
good base for jack and jack stands.
jack it above the working height you want the stand to hold it at.
if you need two stands then you might have to do little steps and play the bottle jack and jack stand game.
taking time to be safe is better dead
i personnaly think you will fine with a jack on your frame rail and once thing are starting to (suspension) stretch a little then it time for jackstands and solid footing under them.
i would not trust a standard concrete driveway to hold a jackstand without a pad under it.
the pad distributes the weight.
i deal with alot of cranes in the mud at work and at home i have a gravel driveway and have worked or had to change to many sketchy setups because heavy wrench turning made the jack and stands shift/sink.
jack pads jack stand pads.
anything to distribut the weight.

[fo4imtippin]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

i weld for a living and have plenty of steel available.
any time i question a jacking point?
i built a u channel top with a pipe bottom that fits my 20 bottle jack.
in my mind with a sufficient jack you should not be trusting the jack until you get jack stands and wheel chocks. the chocks before jack.
good base for jack and jack stands.
jack it above the working height you want the stand to hold it at.
if you need two stands then you might have to do little steps and play the bottle jack and jack stand game.
taking time to be safe is better dead
i personnaly think you will fine with a jack on your frame rail and once thing are starting to (suspension) stretch a little then it time for jackstands and solid footing under them.
i would not trust a standard concrete driveway to hold a jackstand without a pad under it.
the pad distributes the weight.
i deal with alot of cranes in the mud at work and at home i have a gravel driveway and have worked or had to change to many sketchy setups because heavy wrench turning made the jack and stands shift/sink.
jack pads jack stand pads.
anything to distribut the weight.

Thanks! I have a single wide concrete driveway at home and bus gets parked in gravel. I take it to a relatives shop for heavy stuff as there's many more tools and cribbing available. I start with throwing tractor rims under the frame on the 4 corners. This is in case any of my jackstands or jacks fail, the bus only falls as far it started. That's a good idea about adding a C channel on a pipe to the top of the bottle jack. I stacked 1in flatbar above the point on the top of the bottle jack, but having something that wont slip would be way safer. I had planned one air jack and one manual jack on each frame rail. After the ease of the air jack, i ended up just doing each side with it one at a time. I think i need 2 air bottle jacks now.


The radiator/bumper mount reduces down to 8in frame rail, but i assume where the tow hooks are can probably lift 8000lb right?