Floor jack pinch weld adapters. Rubber? Metal? DIY?

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2019 Cherokee Limited. Want to use my 3 ton floor jacks to lift at the pinch welds. They are beefy. The rubber pinch weld pads I use on other vehicles are too wide to fit on the pinch weld because of the molding. So I was looking at metal ones. They will fit. But i’m not sure if metal is a good choice. For example I want to work on the driver side. Or I want to rotate the driver side tires, front to back. As I lift the body, it doesn’t stay level. It tips up on an angle. The rubber pads are forgiving, they flex. What will happen if I use metal pinch weld adapters? Could that possibly bend the pinch weld as I lift? They won’t bend they will stay flat to the Jack. Does anyone use the metal adapters? Am I worried about nothing?
 

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Years ago I bought a G35 that had lift points on pinch welds, and the service manual called for a specific Kent Moore adapter. I called KM, and it had never been produced. The guy said "just do what everyone else does and use some old hockey pucks." Then he said, wait, you're from SC - you don't have any old hockey pucks. But I was able to buy some, and they work great. There's no groove, but there's just enough give that at least in my case it never crushed the weld.
 
If you're lifting at a recommended lift point per the owner's or service manual, I doubt that any body damage will occur not matter what the stand pad is made of.

FWIW, the scissor jack provided with the Lexus raises the car around the punch welds and it's pad is metal.

I too have supported vehicles directly on the pinch welds 😬 with no damage. Just don't slam the vehicle down on the stand.

I wouldn't worry too much about the angle of the stand pad when lifting just one end of the vehicle.
 
I use a similar one on my Challenger and JGC. It works fine. I haven't had any deformation or paint damage on the pinch welds.
 
I don't like the idea of breaking the paint using metal in direct contact of any jack points (salt/rust belt). I would fabricate something other than metal.

It's important when using a floor jack that it can roll when jacking so you don't put side forces on the pinch welds. If your plastic trim is even with the bottom of the pinch weld, you can simply use an ungrooved hockey puck between the floor jack pad and pinch weld to jack it straight up (NO side forces).

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YMMV but on my cars, I jack from the unibody "frame" rail. All the unibody cars I've seen, have this channel that runs the length, that looks a lot like a ladder frame. I put a 1xwhatever under jack and the lifting force is spread out. I can then toss a jack stand under the pinch rail (or under the "frame" rail) as I feel necessary.

I'd like to buy that pinch rail accessory, for $15 or so I will. But then I'm left with the conundrum of, where do I toss jack stands?
 
i never use the pinch welds on any of my vehicle to raise them for jack stands. have seen too many crushed ones. most car have a front and rear jack point and i use that.

Yeah - problem is that one might have to read the Owners Manual to be 100% sure where they are 😷
 
My Mini is my first vehicle ever that comes with four jack pads ("support lifting platforms") attached. They are made from plastic but I can upgrade to metal ones if I choose to do so.
 
I have both of those pinch weld adapters as well as the hockey puck style. I use what ever works best per the vehicle. They're all different. Some vehicles, like my 2015 Nissan versa have no other option for a jack point. Every other area is thin metal that will bend/break.
 
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