On Sun, 18 Apr 2004, John Rodgers wrote:

> I always use my vehicle jack that was supplied with the van - stock item
> - and have found it fully adequate for most jacking operations, when
> coupled with a 2X8X12 block of wood.

I usually use a hydraulic bottle jack under one of the frame members for
lifting the van.  I've heard of the stock jack breaking, and it has no
horizontal stability which makes me nervous about using it if I've already
got one side up and on a jackstand.  I reserve it for roadside tire
changes.

The bottle jack takes up less storage space in my apartment than a floor
jack would; unfortunately it's too tall to fit under my Volvo, so I'll
probably have to get a honest-to-goodness floor jack eventually.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Volkswagen Diesel Westfalia
'86 Volvo 240DL wagon