Hi all;
Is it common practice for shops (dealerships, brake places, tire places etc) to lift a car using only the very bottom of the pinch welds? Most of the shops I've been to use what I believe is called a four pole lift system where each of the metal pads at the ends of the arms have "cutouts" around the perimeter. They simply place the metal pads on the bottoms of the pinch weld and lift the car. Some had hard rubber pads incorporated on top of the metal pads that are pretty much all gouged up with slices in them. Other places like Discount Tire seem to have these mini-lifts that have supports on either side of the lift that basically contacts the entire pinch weld area from right behind the front tire to right in front of the rear tire.
Either way, contact seems to be exclusively made on the bottom of the pinch weld areas rather than wrapping around and further contacting the rocker areas on either side of the pinch welds. I've read some posts on BITOG where folks here buy or make "pucks" with a groove down the center to use on their hydraulic floor jacks. Why aren't shops using these? Is it acceptable to only exclusively contact the bottom of the pinch welds?
I was thinking about this when getting an estimate for some new tires at Discount Tire. That's where I noticed their mini lifts contact almost all of the pinch weld area (but still only on the bottom). I suppose this way at least contacts almost the entire length to spread out the weight.
The factory service manual for my Maxima shows an accessory for garages that looks like a professional version of the pucks folks describe here. It looks like a device meant to be used at shops but the parts folks could find no trace of it in their system and the service writer or even mechanics had no clue about them.
Is it common practice for shops (dealerships, brake places, tire places etc) to lift a car using only the very bottom of the pinch welds? Most of the shops I've been to use what I believe is called a four pole lift system where each of the metal pads at the ends of the arms have "cutouts" around the perimeter. They simply place the metal pads on the bottoms of the pinch weld and lift the car. Some had hard rubber pads incorporated on top of the metal pads that are pretty much all gouged up with slices in them. Other places like Discount Tire seem to have these mini-lifts that have supports on either side of the lift that basically contacts the entire pinch weld area from right behind the front tire to right in front of the rear tire.
Either way, contact seems to be exclusively made on the bottom of the pinch weld areas rather than wrapping around and further contacting the rocker areas on either side of the pinch welds. I've read some posts on BITOG where folks here buy or make "pucks" with a groove down the center to use on their hydraulic floor jacks. Why aren't shops using these? Is it acceptable to only exclusively contact the bottom of the pinch welds?
I was thinking about this when getting an estimate for some new tires at Discount Tire. That's where I noticed their mini lifts contact almost all of the pinch weld area (but still only on the bottom). I suppose this way at least contacts almost the entire length to spread out the weight.
The factory service manual for my Maxima shows an accessory for garages that looks like a professional version of the pucks folks describe here. It looks like a device meant to be used at shops but the parts folks could find no trace of it in their system and the service writer or even mechanics had no clue about them.