Inexpensive DIY tire rotation.

I grew up very poor in a poor family. As a child and well into my twenties, I had to watch othere's who had better tools and cars that I had to drive.

That turned into a blessing, because I developed a knack of making simple and inexpensive do the same function as expensive. That developed into engineering skills in cost cutting but still functional designs to achieve the same outcome with less. In the aerospace industry, from which I retired, it had great value to manufacturers.

Although, I can now afford and own the Quick Jack Car Lift system and a set of the original Bogert Safe Jacks Rennstands, I still find it satisfying to develop inexpensive methods that can help others with leas resources.

This inexpensive method must only be used for rotating tires from front to back and vice versa one side at a time.
CARE MUST BE TAKEN TO NEVER GET UNDER THE CAR WHEN IT IS RAISED OFF THE GROUND.
Using my machine shop facilities, I made these custom adapters for the expensive two ton trolley jacks sold at Walmart for $33.

The center swivel is removed from the jack and replaced with my custom adapter that perfectly fits into the Tesla jacking socket. The socket has been measured at six inches above the pavement. The adapter mounted on the jack is about 5-1/5 inches high. It allows the jack to be easily rolled under my 2023 Model 3 without clearance issues.

The jack lifts the corner of the car at the socket about 13-1/2 inches above the ground as shown in this photo. The rear tire, as shown is raised about four inches; the front tire is up 1-1/2 to 2 inches due to the stiffness of the car's chassis.

 

[afadeev]

Can a regular 2 ton floor jack be used without an adapter puck of some sort? I'm at 11k miles on the OE tires and need to rotate.

Of course - lifting a Tesla is 100% like any other car.
Identify the factory reinforced lifting points (see the manual, if necessary), and lift. I put a $1.00 hockey puck in the saddle of my jack for easy of aiming, and to maximize friction between jack saddle and car's body.

No car is designed to withstand forces of lifting it under some random point in the floor. You will absolutely inflict serious damage to any and all cars if you do that, and every professional or DIY mechanic will pay attention to identifying easily identifiable lifting points on a car.

Most of the flat top low profile aluminum jacks now have steel plates with small thin rubber inserts in the center. The harder steel will both scrape and dent the thin soft aluminum that makes up the area around and of the jacking socket.

Jacking area of Teslas (and all other cars) is hardened steel, not aluminum!

When lifted on a wheeled floor jack, without the fixed post holding the top of the jack in the socket, there is a sort of "tug of war" between the friction of the jack or even the rubber jacking puck (if used) and the friction and inertia of the jacks wheels. If the friction component is overcome before the inertia and frictional of the wheels, the jack will slide off, thereby damaging the chassis of the car.

If you have cheap-o jack with poorly rotating wheels and narrow base, the car will still not slip off the jack saddle.
What will happen instead, is that the jack will start rotating and keeling over.

That's the reason for advise to invest into quality jack first, and foremost. Everything else (adopters, saddles, pucks, weight) are secondary considerations.

on another note, at 6000 miles i had 7/32 on the front and ~5.5/32 on the rear which is why i rotated a bit early.

That's very normal.
Rears wear at a faster rate than the fronts, even in AWD Teslas. Therefore, rotating front <-> back is a good idea.

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[Unclepaul]

My inexensive tire rotation is taking it to Discount Tire. They do this for free.

 

[Mike500]

Good advice. Those pucks can be had for a little over $20 for a kit of four. Why scrimp? I spend that much per week on beer.

Yeah, falling off a jack, stand or lift is a "kiss of death" for the bodywork and the frame of a car.

I had a friend back in 1973 who owned a really nice Austin-Healey Mark 3. He had an awful time with wheel alignments and rusted rocker panels. He told me he was in for an oil change and the car fell off the lift. The frame was bent and the rockers were rusted through on one side. He ended up selling the car.

 

[Mike500]

Jacking area of Teslas (and all other cars) is hardened steel, not aluminum!

Take a look under your car. They are thin aluminum and are easily deformed.

The only durable 35% glass fiber filled Nylon 6-6 jacking adapters are on the earlier designed Model S.

 

[Mike500]

Maybe, I am a worry wart, but come to think of it, everyone should look under their cars.

I recently did an internet search and found these damage photos with Model S jacking points.

And, the Model S had stronger and tougher jacking pads. Go figure!