In my idiocy, I have had the entire van drop off the stock jack to the
ground without tire on. Luckily I wasn't under it but learned a lesson.
Basically, never take van advice from me!

On Mon, Dec 28, 2015, 6:05 PM Michael McSwain <michaelmcswain@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I never actually get under the thing unless it's on ramps.  I was working
> on my front brakes last night and had everything buttoned up and was ready
> to put the two front wheels back on and test drive it.  I went to raise the
> drivers side up a bit to get the wheel back on, (both sides were on jack
> stands sitting on a square of 2x6 lumber), and as I raised the drivers side
> the van shifted past the tipping point of the remaining jack stand and down
> it went. On nice flat concrete the original jack seems ok. On anything
> else, including my not quite flat gravel driveway, it felt sketchy before
> and certainly now.  I'm looking at current large vehicle OEM jacks and it
> seems that most are either scissor or bottle style jacks. Not sure if I'll
> go with one of those or find a spot under the seat for my floor jack, but
> I'm definitely no longer comfortable with the OEM jack.
>
> On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 4:11 PM Marc Perdue <mcperdue@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Ever since I had a scissors jack fail while jacking up my Ford F100
> > pickup with me up in the wheel well, I've been very leery of using
> > them on heavy vehicles. It was only dumb luck that I was able to
> > propel myself quickly enough backwards into a concrete wall that I
> > survived. I'm not sure exactly what it is that you're trying to do,
> > but I'd probably be looking at some combination of the original jack,
> > seriously heavy duty jack stands, and a high-quality floor jack.
> >
> > Safety first, always.
> > Marc Perdue
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 1:35 PM, Michael McSwain
> > <michaelmcswain@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Had a stock jack fail last night.  No harm done to me or the van
> luckily
> > > and I spent the next couple of hours looking at a million jack options
> on
> > > the samba. Seems like part of the problem is that you have to raise the
> > > body so high in order to extend the suspension far enough to lift the
> > tire
> > > off of the ground.  Would a scissor jack under the control arm not be a
> > > decent option allowing you to raise the van only the few inches
> actually
> > > needed to get the tire off the ground?  Is there an advantage, (other
> > than
> > > suspension maintenance obviously), to uncompressing the suspension?
> >
>