Over the weekend I installed the snow tire/wheel package I bought from Tire Rack. The interesting thing is that I had to use the factory emergency jack because the jack points for the rear were too narrow to use the floor jack. Has anyone here had to jack their Ram up? Did you have to use the emergency jack too or is there a way to use a floor jack?

 

Use the diff. as a jacking point.

 

Outboard diff tubes, yes. Central diff housing, no.

 

Why not?

 

Not strong enough. The tubes bend or the welds break where the tubes go into the center section. All the maufacturers that I'm aware of say not to use the diff housing. That's not to say you won't get away with it for a long time but why take the chance?

 

Holy crap I have lifted my 72 chev at least oh 50 times by the pumpkin, same pressure pretty much as the truck on the ground???

 

I used the pumpkin as well when I installed the rear spacers on my leveling kit. Where should I have used?

 

Ok ill bite, how did you lift by the axle to put the rear spacers in. That makes no sense.

 

Spring compressors, probably a easier way but it's just what I did.

 

That Chevy had a rear end that could take it, too. Think about it. For thirty years they've been trying to make rear ends lighter and lighter. Lighter alloys, thinner wall tubing, lighter, redesigned pumpkins, etc. Now, say our trucks weigh 2½ tons, give or take. That puts roughly 2000lbs on the rear end (1000 per spring). The springs are roughly 3' away from the pumpkin so we're asking these components, that were never designed for this kind of stress, to resist a bending force of something like 3000lb.ft. on either side of the pumpkin. That's a lot to ask.

I wouldn't hesitate with a Dana 60. I'd be sweating heavily with a Dana 44. I don't know enough about the Chrysler units we have to know if they can take it, or not. But, really, it just isn't necessary and is, in my opinion, a bad practice.