It's rotation time. Is it safe to jack both wheels off the ground with my scissors jack (the one that came with my Modern spare)?
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Two Wheels Off Ground with Scissors Jack?
- Thread starter PianoAl
- Start date
Soul Surfer
Cancervivor, tech geek & musician
I would not recommend. Just sayin'. A number of things could go wrong. I'd recommend using jack stands if you intend to do this. Just my 2¢
According to their website, that scissor jack can hold up 4000 pounds, you're good to go. If it was 2000 pounds, I would recommend against it, but at 4000, there's zero reason to be concerned.
Curious if it will jack high enough to raise both off the ground though. My floor jack has to go pretty high to get the entire side off the ground.
Shelburne
Member
My concern would be the positioning of that scissors jack. You need to place it in the area where the jack pads insert into the chassis of the car. That would be either directly behind the front wheel or directly in front of the rear wheel. My concern is that the car might be unbalanced on the jack if you try to raise both wheels off the ground from either of those positions. Putting the jack anywhere else other than where the jack pads go and not using the jack pads could damage your battery.
jackmott
Member
Pretty common to do this with a nice floor jack but that is a much wider base. Pretty much all modern cars (including the model 3) are stiff enough to get both wheels off at the jack points, but might be a little sketchy with the small jack.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
Using the rear jack point only, you CAN get both wheels off the ground to swap them. The car is indeed stiff enough to tolerate it for the time it takes to rotate tires, but I would NOT work under the car when it's on 1 jack of any type. However, I prefer to use a second jack at the front jack point while rotating tires "just in case".
ATPMSD
Active Member
Why take the risk? Telsa will come to you and do the rotation or you can take it to a shop like Discount Tire. Here in Atlanta Discount Tire offers free rotations.
Jeremy3292
Active Member
Rotated my tires this past weekend with the Harbor Freight jack below for $100 and a $20 jack stand like the one pictured above. Both tires off the ground, no issues.
www.harborfreight.com
1.5 Ton Low-Profile Aluminum Racing Floor Jack with RAPID PUMP
Amazing deals on this 1.5T Aluminum Racing Jack W/ Rapid Pump at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.
www.harborfreight.com
ATPMSD
Active Member
A lot of people do it with a jack and stand as noted and are fine with that! But if I may play devil's advocate, you need a few more things to do it "properly"Rotated my tires this past weekend with the Harbor Freight jack below for $100 and a $20 jack stand like the one pictured above. Both tires off the ground, no issues.
1.5 Ton Low-Profile Aluminum Racing Floor Jack with RAPID PUMP
Amazing deals on this 1.5T Aluminum Racing Jack W/ Rapid Pump at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.
- You need a set of jack pads, something like this: Tesla Jack Pads (Set of 4)
- You need a jack stand that can be used with a jack pad and the jack: Racing Red Edition Tesla "Safe Jack" for your Model S, 3, X, Y (Each)
- And a torque wrench
Jeremy3292
Active Member
Yes, I have the jack pads, the torque wrench, and I mentioned that I used a jack stand in my original post as well. I wasn't attempting to give a play by play on how to rotate your tires, I was suggesting the OP buy an inexpensive jack and jack stand to rotate the tires vs using a scissor jack. You also don't need an expensive jack stand. A simple $20 one below form Amazon will suffice, just remove the ratchet bar as you don't need it.
ATPMSD
Active Member
Glad to hear. I added the extra stuff for those who do not know about the other items.
The most important thing is to use a puck designed for the car’s jack pads. You only need one. Using a jack stand sounds risky as I don’t see how you could keep it from sliding off the jack pad and puck.
A simple floor jack and one puck under the pad near the rear wheel is how Tesla roadside service does it. I asked the service guy specifically this question while he was at my house to confirm.
A simple floor jack and one puck under the pad near the rear wheel is how Tesla roadside service does it. I asked the service guy specifically this question while he was at my house to confirm.
Do you mean that you remove the black thing, and rest the car on a puck on the red part of the stand?
I might just take it to a tire place, but with driving there and back and waiting for them to do it, it's faster to do it myself.
Jeremy3292
Active Member
Yep exactly. Obviously you still have your floor jack holding up the other side. It’s redundant safety for a reason.
If you are gonna bother with jack stands, something like that is the one to get.
Otherwise how exactly are you going to swap a conventional jack stand in?
I absolutely loath Teslarati, never buying anything from them again.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
Get them here now, less the red paint and custom Model 3 pads: RennStand - The RennStand Safety Jack Stand - RennStand
Well, Les Schwab does rotation for free, so that was too hard to resist. Tread quite good on my Vredesteins after 18K miles, surprisingly.
Les Schwab didn't have pucks but used mine.
Les Schwab didn't have pucks but used mine.
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