1995 850 wagon tire jack

Just recently became a Volvo owner. Bought an 850 wagon for my daughter for
college. Very impressed with the car, the safety factor and all the
discussions I have been following in this newsgroup. My daughter had a flat
on the R front this evening and I went to rescue her. I was very
disappointed with the tire jack. We were on the side of the highway in the
gravel and the jack kept sinking down in the ground and would not jack up
the car enough to lift the tire and rim off the ground. I had to run down
the highway to where I saw a discarded pallet, break it apart and use in
under the jack to make in functional. Just wondering if anyone else has a
similar experience.


Elrod

 

Few cars are equipped with jacks that will stand well in such soil.
The days of the jack with the large base that works in anything but
quicksand are all but gone. Smaller jacks save space as well as being
lighter. Besides, flats are so much more rare now than back in the..
let's just say back then.

A 12"x12" piece of diamond plate aluminum would serve well.

Back in about 1965 or '66 Dad and I were out somewhere in Palmdale-
back when there wasn't a freeway out there. In the old '57 or 58(?)
Ford ranch wagon- the one with the REAL wood siding applied over the
metal. Got a flat at about 10:00 at night in the desert. He pulled as
far off the road as he could, but it was all sand. Believe it or not,
about ten fewwt from teh car was a discarded real estate sign-
masonite I believe. I was enough to sturdy the jack. Still remember
watching the car sway a bit everytime a semi passed by.

Instead of a better jack, get your daughter a cell phone and
membership in the auto club- you'll both sleep better.
__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvo
'93 960 Estate

 

I've always carried a piece of plywood about 6" x 8" in my cars just for
this purpose. It's something my father impressed upon me, maybe because
he learned this lesson the hard way. The old "post" type Volvo jacks I
grew up with were very poor in this design aspect as well.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Good advice about the wood. As far as bad jacks, what about the 'post
hole diggers' included with all the old VWs? An acquaintance races and
has worked on Porches. He talks about how the older ones would body
rot, and you would put the jack in the jacking port, jack the car up,
and the jack's tongue would rise through the body of the car with the
can remaining on the ground!
__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvo
'93 960 Estate

 

The ones on older Volvos were similar. The post then lifted a lever
that hooked on that pin under the rockerpanel where the new style just
lifts. Thus the lever was actually pushing down on the pin, and the
weight of the car sat on the rocker panel. Imagine what happened when
that area got a bit rusty! My '74 was like this at the front, but I
realized before I ever got a flat and carried a hydraulic jack to use on
suspension bits to lift it. However, I was not smart enough to try
lifting the car with an actual flat tire, so when I got one, I was
surprised to see everything was too low now to get the jack under!

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)