wingless’ Ratcheting Jack Stands

Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Automotive). This thread is read-only.

winglessMember since Nov 2017Apr 21, 2023 11:26 AM CT

The lift points and jack stand points are spaced closely together on my 2022 Porsche Macan, so I determined additional automotive tools were required to permit me to safely raise then support my new vehicle on jack stands.

The tools I purchased were four of these VKRP Enterpises ratcheting jack stands, plus four of these Rennstand 18M-P13 jack pad adapters. These 18M-P13 jack pad adapters fit into the exposed plastic rocker panel jack points. The vehicle also has nearby welded steel “frame” support points, hidden behind small removable covers. If I were instead to go w/ that support point, then these Rennstand 18M-P08 jack pad adapters would instead be used.

Unfortunately the VKRP Enterprises ratcheting jack stands have been discontinued. They work well and have a reasonable cost.

Fortunately there is an equivalent tool, this Rennstand 18M-RS3 jack stand, unfortunately at a higher cost.

The VKRP Enterprises ratcheting jack stand comes w/ three lifting plate adapters. There are two metal plates secured by pins / holes. One is a rectangular plate w/ upturned corners. The other has round parallel rods, for lifting on a vehicle vertical edge lip. The third is a round flat rubber disc, for lifting on a flat surface.

My attempt at using my Rennstand jack pad adapters w/ my VKRP jack stands caused me to discover the Rennstand pins are ½” diameter, while the VKRP holes were slightly smaller at 12mm, so I just drilled out the holes to ½” so all parts would fit.

Another thing that was discovered quickly is that my Hein Warner HW93657 4 Ton Hydraulic Floor Jack was waaay too large to work with these ratcheting jack stands. the front wheels were too wide to permit jack removal between the jack stand legs.

My solution was to also purchase this Daytona 2 Ton Low-Profile Aluminum Floor Jack. I quickly discovered that this light weight jack is MUCH more handy than my massively heavy truck jack and is used much more frequently (instead of Hein Warner) than I initially expected.

IMO the new vehicle design WRT to lifting points and jack stand points is a great big miss. My VERY strong preference is for a single / central lifting point at the front and at the rear, to quickly raise one end of the vehicle, then set it safely onto jack stands. A secondary preference had been lift points at each corner spaced sufficiently far enough away from the jack stand points to permit raising each corner, then setting it safely onto jack stands. The problem, as w/ my Macan, is when the placement of the lift point is too close to the jack stand point. Evidently I’m too much of a dinosaur and now these ratcheting jack stands are a required tool to permit safely supporting a newly designed vehicle w/ dangling wheels.

Hein Werner Jack too Large w/ Jack Stands Lifting an Audi Q3 w/ Large Metal Plate and Smaller Parallel Rod Metal Plate