Thread: Jack, Brace and Batt Question

Originally Posted by Chris078

I'm a little lost. on the passenger seat is has a "shipping data" plate" which shows the helicopter lift points and road/plane tie downs.

I'm looking for a nice flat spot at least 1" square under the vehicle that the bottle jack can safely lift the car from.

Sorry, misinterpreted what you said. Just slide the bottle jack under the diff axle tubes.

When you buy a bottle jack you need to make sure that it fits under there with a flat tire and also jacks up high enough to put a inflated tire back on.

There are also jacking instructions in my rear wheel arch cubbies.

Here is a photo

Originally Posted by BadCo.

Here is a photo

Thanks, found that placard on my truck. will get the jack out and check.

I'm a bit nervous about it because bottle jacks just don't look stable enough compared to a scissor jack.
guess I'll get under it and see if I can work out where to put the jack.

IMO this is the best bottle jack for fitting under the round axle. A jack from an early Disco. It is also 2stage, so goes under when a tyre is flat
Pete

Originally Posted by PeteFox

IMO this is the best bottle jack for fitting under the round axle. A jack from an early Disco. It is also 2stage, so goes under when a tyre is flat
Pete

that looks a million times safer than the one I got .

I think I'll have to visit a 4x4 shop. Neither Repco nor Supercheap have one like that.

Originally Posted by Chris078

Thanks, found that placard on my truck. will get the jack out and check.

I'm a bit nervous about it because bottle jacks just don't look stable enough compared to a scissor jack.
guess I'll get under it and see if I can work out where to put the jack.

not sure why you think thats less stable than a scissor jack, the base plates the same size... but I digress

you don't need to buy one of the red rover jacks you could just make up the adaptor thats on the top of the red rover jack and build an over engineered base plate and cradle

Making the adaptor

grab a small off (bout an inch) cut of round pipe stock that fits over the narrow part and if its a 2 stage ram not the wide part of your jacks ram plus 2 bits of 25mm flat.
weld one piece of the flat onto the end of the pipe bend the next bit of flat to fit the axle and then weld that to the first bit of flat. fill weld the lifted ends between the curved plate and the flat plate.

the bonus is that a most bottle jaks use a standard sized set of rams per weight class. the adaptor will fit a cross multiple jacks


Building the cradle

• place the jack down on 2 pieces of flat that are longer than the width of the jack + 2x the flat bar width placed under and wider than the jack so that about half the width of the flat is under the jacks base, Idealy you should be able to get additional pieces of the same steel in the middle of the jack.
  
• place 2 pieces of flat alongside the jack, weld these to the 2 pieces of steel that the jack is sitting on. you should now have a "box" that the jack can sit on with 2 pieces of flat bar that stand just proud of the height of the base of the jack
  
• place a piece of steel in alongside both sides of the jack that overlap the base of the jack and the box, weld that down.
  
• cut a third piece to sit between the last 2 pieces you welded down and weld that down so it sits across the front of the jack. weld that down.
  
• slide the jack out from the cradle you now have it sitting in. flip the cradle over complete any welds from the underside that need to be completed then place some more flat across the spot where the jack would normally sit so that when the jack is in place the center of the plat will be supported, weld that down. Ideally these last bits of flat should be the same length as the first 2 pieces you sat the jack on but you can cut them flush with the edge of the cradle
  
• turn the cradle over again, complete any weld joints required and drill mounting holes in the "tabs" that extend past the sides of the cradle

Making the base plate

first think about the size you want and where you might need to use it.

If you only want to use it on hard pack flat surfaces you realistically only need a bit of rubber glued to the cradle to take up the minor surface irregularities. If you're following proper jacking procedures you don't even need the cradle, the jack you have selected is plenty wide enough for the job. Most people tend to be comfortable with a 10x10 base width for hard packed work or working on a graded surface

In my experience a 20x20 plate will comfotably support the corner weight of a fully loaded beam axle landy in everything but a bull dust hole or anything with a ground pressure better than that of saturated fine beach sand. A 30x30 base plate will generally support you in both of those conditions. you can make up a cradle to increase the size of the 20x20 and there's nothing stopping you from setting it up so the metal cradle you just made can be bolted from a small plate to a larger one.

1/2 inch marine ply will let you make up to a 30x30 base plate
3/4 inch marine ply will let you make up to a 50x50 base plate.
If you need larger than that I don't want to know where you're planning on getting stuck and I definitely do not want to help you dig out so you can get the plate and jack under the vehicle. You also are going to have a sod of a time positioning the jack unde the axle because of the proximity of the wheels.



Prepare your wood by marking out for a 45 degree full champher all the way around the base plate excluding a small section 4 cm wide in the middle of one side.

Mark and cut the corners opposite this side at 45 degrees and back by about the depth of the material. Remark the champher lines.

Stand the wood on its edge and clamp 2 off cuts of wood either side of the section your not going to champher. Mark the center and drill a hole about 2mm larger than the diameter of your jack handle about 4 CMS deep into the middle of the area you are not going to champher. Drill a small pilot hole into the bottom of the hole you just drilled to take a wood screw.

Cut the champhers being carful not to cut into the area you just drilled out.

Install a wood screw in the hole so that it sits flush with the deepest part of the champher.

paint/oil/varnish it

Assembly.

center your cradle on the base plate so that opening of the cradle faces away from the edge with the wood screw in it and screw it down to the base plate using and appropriate number of the appropriate screws.

Using it

If you need this section, go have a latte, sell the landy, buy a prius and take out RAC membership then have someone else do all of the above.

Consider my omitting the rest of this section me openly and willingly giving Darwin a helping hand in chlorinating the gene pool.

Sorry for waking up this thread.

Does anyone know where to get a rebuild kit for the original Perentie jack?

Also, an ideal replacement for the original wheel brace is the Bearmach BR 0814 heavy duty wheel brace for Defender, RRc, Disco 1 and Series 3.

They fit easily in the Perentie tool box plus are far better than a 26mm socket and breaker bar when getting the spare wheel down off the winch.
Cost about $28 from my local Land Rover specialist repairer. (Yes the head does fit through the hole in the body easily)

the last one I rebuilt I just took the ol seals ino norsea in townsville an they had them on the shelf.