Originally Posted by oldskewel (Post 1135248)

And another thing ... the extra 3.5" of lift from the 4x4 always helps, even with a jack that goes to 24".

Originally Posted by Purplefade (Post 1135255)

You have a handful of extra tall jackstands or did you build platforms for those too [emoji16]

Originally Posted by oldskewel (Post 1135257)

Not especially tall, and no, I have not built special adapters for those ... yet.

Originally Posted by X5only (Post 1135276)

oldskewel, I'm willing to pay you to make me the adaptor for the rear … no kidding.

Originally Posted by oldskewel (Post 1135317)

I appreciate the endorsement. And I'm happy with the solutions I came up with there. But really, they were made with the scraps of materials and tools I happened to have around my garage.

Also, customizing the fit to the floor jack is best done with the jack right there. When I first made them 3 years ago when I got this x5, I had a different jack, so I had to do a little extra routing / chiseling to make them fit snugly with the new one.

If someone else wanted to make something like these, it would not make sense to make an exact copy. They'd want to make them based on their tools and materials at hand. For example, that bracket I use on the rear adapter has one flange sticking up, and the other one flattened. The flattened one serves no purpose at all, and would have been cut off if that was easy, but it was easier to just flatten it.

Originally Posted by oldskewel (Post 1135247)

Now pics of the rear adapter.

Concerned about load on the differential, differential cover / seam, differential bushings. Also concerned about it slipping off.

I decided the steel cross-beam behind the differential looked sufficiently strong and wanted to lift at that point. The solution I came up with let me do that while keeping it pretty well locked in place with no load on the differential, and no chance of anything slipping off.

4x4 wood, like before. The circular cutout seen in the wood was done with my 10" table saw blade, to clear the protrusion on the differential.

The steel bracket screwed into the wood is for alignment. It does not take any load, but makes sure the thing is fit in properly and cannot slide out while jacking up.

So the light brown plastic thing sits on the floor-jack plate. The cutout section goes up against the differential, with enough clearance from the protruding fins on the differential so there is no contact. So that cutour is facing the front of the vehicle. The upward-turned flange on the bracket tucks in between the differential and the square bar - so it keeps this adapter from sliding too far backward, and off the bar. So when in place, the load goes from the jack, through the plastic thing at the bottom, through the 4x4, through the steel bracket, to the structural square beam on the x5. All of those in compression and secured from sliding out of place.

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Originally Posted by oldskewel (Post 1200584)

Now adding some photos I took recently when I used the rear adapter.



All the support force is upward, on the square beam that crosses the car from left to right. The 4x4 is in compression, sitting on the jack plate.



All the other cutouts and bracket (e.g., to interface with the jack plate, to avoid stressing the differential, or to keep it in place) are just for alignment purposes, keeping it in the exact right spot and stopping it from falling off.



As shown in the pics, the 4x4 fits with a little clearance in between the exhaust pipes (M54, stock everything).