Dear Dave,

At 11:24 AM 6/20/2010, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>When I first got the camper, I went through a drill to try out the
>OEM jack.  I did not and do not like it, as it did not seem as
>stable as the scissors jacks that I have been accustomed to with
>Japanese vehicles.

The stability offered by scissors jacks is illusory and may lead you
to neglect proper chocking procedures.  At least with the Bosch screw
jack you *know* that the jack is not going to provide lateral support
of any kind, so you won't be lulled into complacency.

>   But, it worked, and I have not done anything about a better
> jack.  One question I have, and have been a bit put off by in
> considering other jacks, is how does one adapt them to the jack
> points built into the side of the van?

The notches on the Japanese cars are simply to define the place where
the body structure has been reinforced to accept the jacking
loads.  The Toyota scissors jack that I'm looking at has a rotating
part at the top that can either accept  the thin welded body-edge
that's the usual jacking point on Toyotas, or be rotated 90 degrees
to lift under rear leaf springs.  Rotated that way, i.e. with slots
parallel to the jack body, it is wide enough to accept the
athwartships width of the Vanagon jack points.  However its working
load is 300 kg less than the Vanagon jack.  No doubt they make larger
ones for the Tundra and so forth.

>I would like to have a jack that I trust more to remain stable while
>changing a flat if needed.

First rule of jacks and jacking.  Never, ever trust a jack.  Right up
there with "Never take someone's word as to whether the gun is loaded."

Yours,
David