[dl1027]

I'm doing my first oil change and tire rotation. I looked in the manual and it says to jack the front end to place the jack on the frame behind the front tires. My question is are the any other good jacking spots more forward? There is a bar under the front that has the tie down hook on it and the skid plate is attached to it. Would this be OK?

 

[dl1027]

Use the center cross member under the front of the truck. You'll see a upside down cone/pyramid shaped piece with a hole in the center, the skid plate, if you have them, is actually cut out around it. You can jack from there.

Yes. I see that, upside down cone with a hole in it. So this is a good and strong spot to jack? I notice it is in the center of the vehicle. Can I jack with my floor jack there and then put the jack stands at the front bar where the frame ends (where the front of the skid plate attaches)?

 

[dl1027]

Turns out my jackstands aren't long enough if I put them at the front. I put them at the manual suggested spots on the frame behind the front wheels. The inverted cone works pretty good with the floor jack (not using the jack that came with the truck). I have one of the aluminum racing type jacks. Even without a spacer it barely gets the front tires off the ground. BTW, I have a 2007 PR DC. It has 6 lug wheels.

 

[dl1027]

Haha. I know what you mean. I have a DC Prerunner with a 3" lift and 33" tires and my racing jack won't lift the front wheels off the ground at all. I have to use the lower control arms and jack up one side at a time. It's time consuming, but it works.

Ooh. Jacking on the control arms, eh. I have always been afraid to do that out of fear I would bend them. Is it safe? If it is, that would actually the best way to jack for rotating the tires.

Any way, I'm all done now. Here's the method I came up with to do an oil change plus tire rotation:

1. Put on parking brake all the way and Loosen all the lugnuts
2. Jack up front end with floor jack under the inverted cone on the crossmember. This gets the front wheels barely off the ground.
3. Put jackstands under frame right behind the front tires.
4. Using a creeper remove oil drain plug and drain oil into a pan.
5. Remove oil cap (which does say 5w-30 btw)
6. Take rubber cap off of oil filter catcher and using a hook I made suspend a plastic cup under catcher drain.
7. Replace oil filter (old one was on very tight).
8. Remove front wheels
9. Let front of Taco down onto jackstands.
10. Jack up one rear wheel and replace it (I rotate crossing front to back)
11. Jack up the other rear wheel and replace it.
12. Jack up the front again (using inverted cone on the crossmember) and put the front wheels on.
13. Put the oil drain plug back in.
14. Remove catcher cup and put catcher drain plug back on.
15. Let Taco back down onto it's wheels.
16. Refill it with 5.5 quarts of 5w-30.
17. Retorque all lugnuts
18. Start it up, let it run a few minutes checking for any oil leaks.
18. Shut it down and check oil level.


It's about an hour and half job. Thanks to all who helped especially Adventure North.

 

[dl1027]

Awesome.

I use a set of jack stands for the rear and my 3 ton jack for the front when rotating mine. I didn't realize you were going to rotate your tires until I saw amp's post.:lol:

I was afraid to do it that way because the parking brake only locks the rear wheels and my driveway has a slight slope to it. It's for this reason I like to keep one rear tire on the ground at all times.