Rotate the tires with one jack?

[Watts_Up]

I have the pads for the jacking points and the torque wrench but not sure if its possible to rotate the tires using a single jack.
Let me know how you guys that do it yourself accomplish this. Thanks

I would recommend just rotating front and rear on the same side,

because if you already have some curb rash on the right side,

if you rotate the wheels in a X pattern then you will get a 4 wheel curb rash instead of a 2 wheel rash curb !!!

Honestly for any possible advantage of doing a X pattern rotation, I prefer keeping 2 wheels without any rash.

But Check the alignment, this is the most important.

 

[dmurphy]

QuickJack. The Safe Jack Rennstands are an awful solution.

I use a regular ‘ol jack and some regular ‘ol jack stands. Not a big deal.

Can’t use a QuickJack - I do this stuff outdoors in the driveway.

 

[DMBM3]

The mobile ranger who did my rotation used a single jack. Looked like the rear jack point and it lifted both wheels on one side enough for him to swap them.

Same thing here. Mobile tech used rear jack point and swapped tires front to back on same side.

 

[JCtx]

Good to know you can SAFELY lift the car from the rear to rotate tires... but I still don't like doing that. I bet you have to lift the rear tire quite a bit in order for the front to barely be off the floor. Twisting the chassis like that can't be good for longevity, but once every 10 to 15K miles shouldn't cause any issues, I hope. And yes, you can do that in any modern car... but not without creaking in protest, like when getting sideways on an inclined entrance.

By the way, what is the rear distribution on our Tesla? Is it heavier on the rear, to lift it from there? But I'd like to know the percentage. Hopefully somebody knows . With dual motors, and the battery in the middle, it should be close to 50/50 IMO, but let's see. Thx. By the way, I'm going to order a set of 4 jacking pucks with an O-ring in there, so they stay on if you ever have to take car to a shop. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

 

[dmurphy]

Good to know you can SAFELY lift the car from the rear to rotate tires... but I still don't like doing that. I bet you have to lift the rear tire quite a bit in order for the front to barely be off the floor. Twisting the chassis like that can't be good for longevity, but once every 10 to 15K miles shouldn't cause any issues, I hope. And yes, you can do that in any modern car... but not without creaking in protest, like when getting sideways on an inclined entrance.

By the way, what is the rear distribution on our Tesla? Is it heavier on the rear, to lift it from there? But I'd like to know the percentage. Hopefully somebody knows . With dual motors, and the battery in the middle, it should be close to 50/50 IMO, but let's see. Thx. By the way, I'm going to order a set of 4 jacking pucks with an O-ring in there, so they stay on if you ever have to take car to a shop. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

I just keep a puck in the trunk. Way better than waiting for it to fall out from under the vehicle.

Weight is close to 50/50. Most of it is concentrated in the battery which is - by its nature - well balanced.

no concerns jacking up one whole side at a time.

 

[Gasaraki]

I found it was cheaper to just buy a second jack (>$100 at Harbor Freight) than those specialty jack stands.

I don't trust Harbor Freight jacks. Anything that puts my life in danger, I'll never use Harbor Freight stuff. Other uses, sure, maybe.

 

[KenC]

I just keep a puck in the trunk. Way better than waiting for it to fall out from under the vehicle.

Weight is close to 50/50. Most of it is concentrated in the battery which is - by its nature - well balanced.

no concerns jacking up one whole side at a time.

I presume he means when he has to have it serviced. Back in the Fall, I hit a curb with my rocker, requiring a repair. I took it to the bodyshop, and inserted the pucks and left it like that. If they needed to lift it, then the pucks were there, and if they didn’t need to lift it, then fine. I put enough hockey tape on my homemade pucks so that they hang tight. Plus, they’re very visible, being salmon-colored. I suppose I could drive around with them, but why? Just put them in when necessary.

 

[android04]

Good to know you can SAFELY lift the car from the rear to rotate tires... but I still don't like doing that. I bet you have to lift the rear tire quite a bit in order for the front to barely be off the floor. Twisting the chassis like that can't be good for longevity, but once every 10 to 15K miles shouldn't cause any issues, I hope. And yes, you can do that in any modern car... but not without creaking in protest, like when getting sideways on an inclined entrance.

By the way, what is the rear distribution on our Tesla? Is it heavier on the rear, to lift it from there? But I'd like to know the percentage. Hopefully somebody knows . With dual motors, and the battery in the middle, it should be close to 50/50 IMO, but let's see. Thx. By the way, I'm going to order a set of 4 jacking pucks with an O-ring in there, so they stay on if you ever have to take car to a shop. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

There isn't much articulation in the suspension, so you don't have to lift much at the rear to lift the front off the ground. And there's no creaking or sounds. These cars are much stiffer than normal cars. AWD/Performance have have a 50/50 weight distribution, and LR RWD have 53/47 (IIRC). That 53/47 is about 250 lb additional weight in the rear for the drive unit on the LR RWD. And it doesn't matter if I lift from the front instead, it will work fine.

 

[alexgr]

I have the pads for the jacking points and the torque wrench but not sure if its possible to rotate the tires using a single jack.
Let me know how you guys that do it yourself accomplish this. Thanks

Get a second jack. You can lift the entire side of the car with one jack, but I would not rely on keeping it on one jack without wheels. Also, my standard jacks were creaking and twisting a lot when lifting up the car. It's heavy, better use 2 jacks.

 

[alexgr]

lol. ANY modern car does that.... otherwise you'd have cracked windshields and whatnot...

Not VW Golf, Mazda 6, Toyota Camry, Nissan Versa, Honda Accord, and Acura MDX in my personal experience. You may want to retract your statement.

 

[alexgr]

I've been thinking about looking at a QuickJack, but have been a bit lazy lately... haven't researched which model QJ would be appropriate for a Model 3.

Any help?

I use standard $20 scissor jacks. Works fine, especially, in a limited space environment of my garage.

 

[eHaw]

If you put snows on in winter you can choose the lazy man's method - I rotate when I switch seasonally. It means that my tires go a little longer than I might like but so far I have had no problems with uneven wear. 2018 LR AWD.

 

[Pied]

I use 1 safe jack + wheel chocks on other side to lift one side of the car from the rear. I wouldn't use safe jacks to lift entire car up. That is how Tesla will rotate your tires, minus the jack stand.

If you want to constantly lift the entire car up, get a Quickjack. They're awesome. I have the very first version which unfortunately does not work on the Model 3.

 

[beachsideev]

anyone bought the ebay safe jack version lately? I can't seem to find them on there.

 

[ChrML]

Simple. Like this: (my car)

 

[jsmay311]

Did not know the car was that stiff that both sides came up.

lol. ANY modern car does that.... otherwise you'd have cracked windshields and whatnot...

Not VW Golf, Mazda 6, Toyota Camry, Nissan Versa, Honda Accord, and Acura MDX in my personal experience. You may want to retract your statement.

Y’all are conflating the travel distance of the suspension with the stiffness of the frame.

The original comment attributed the Model 3’s ability to lift both wheels off the ground with a single jack to the car’s “stiffness”.

Texas_star_TM3 was simply pointing out that all modern cars’ frames are strong enough to prevent significant twisting of the frame when jacking up one corner. If a frame twisted so much that it was the primary reason you couldn’t lift both wheels up, you’d have far greater problems than simply not being able to do a tire rotation with one jack, as texas_star_TM3 mentioned.

If other vehicles had similarly short suspension travel distances, they too would be able to lift both wheels on one side off the ground with a single jack, even without the added stiffness of a giant battery pack.

 

[MarsOrBust]

No the reference was to both wheels coming up with 1 jack. I have never had a car do that.

 

[KenC]

If you were so inclined, (I'm not), you can actually lift both wheels off the ground with a Porsche jack to rotate your wheels:

 

[Phlier]

If you were so inclined, (I'm not), you can actually lift both wheels off the ground with a Porsche jack to rotate your wheels:
View attachment 626770

Wow, look at how small the footprint is of that jack! It looks like it would actually be small enough to fit inside the small lower compartment of the trunk. Is that the case?

Oh man, I gotta get one of those...Any chance I could get the model number of the jack from ya?

My frunk is already packed with: emergency road side kit, tire plug kit, various pliers, flashlight, rubber cement (to lube a tire plug), various pliers, first aid kit, roadside reflectors, rubber gloves, AED, ventilator and a sponge. So yeah, it needs to be small enough to fit the lower compartment in the trunk.

 

[MarsOrBust]

My frunk is still not fully loaded, for now I have Duct Tape, Rope, mask, blindfold and gloves.