Re: IML: Weight

[dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

All the suggestions here are accurate.  The closer you pick up the car to its
center of gravity, the more weight you pick up.  So, in theory, the bumper
jacks pick up the less weight, because they pick up the car from an extremety. 
On the other hand, the issue here is not so much whether the jack will handle
the load, as much of the stability of the car when its "hanging" from the jack.
 For example, when you pick up the car from the rear bumper, you lift the
minimum weight because you are the furthest from the CG (the CG is between the
two axles, but about 40-45% closer to the front, so based on the longest rear
overhang, you are as far from the CG as possible).  However, this is fairly
unstable for two reasons.  One, the front wheels that now are your main means
from preventing the car from rolling do not lock.  Two, the other rear wheel
also gets picked up some, so even though you only need to get one wheel off the
gound, you get one and a half.

The safest jack I feel I have used on Imperials is a small sizor jack I got from
a little escort in a junkyard.  Even though I pick the car closer to its CG than
the bumper jack, and both the car and the jack get loaded more, always both a
front AND a rear wheel are secure on the ground, so I can have more confidence
that the car is not going anywhere, even if I pick on the back.  I never felt
that the jack is remotely close to braking,

D^2 


-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm