Another way to lift the gen5

This has been a great forum, it is has helped me a lot, especially in getting a great OE spare tire kit for my SE from toyota at a ridiculously good price. So time to pay it back. I wanted to have a (somewhat) easy way to lift up the gen5 prius for oil changes and tire rotations, but without using expensive and/or problem plagued hydraulic floor jacks. I have to store my jack in an unheated shed that sometimes goes below 0 deg. F (-18 deg. C), which is probably not ideal for the seal longevity in a cheap (or expensive) hydraulic jack.

So I found this pretty tough and heavy duty 2-ton scissor jack, made for trucks and 4x4s, sold by gortech usa for a very reasonable price (I am pretty sure that they sell on amazon as well). This is not a promotion or a sponsorship, I paid full price for this jack. Anyway, this jack does the job quite nicely and it has a compound mechanism which makes lifting heavy vehicles pretty easy. (But, fyi, I don't carry this jack in my car for flats--it is too big and heavy--this jack stays at home in my shed.) But, to make this this big jack even better for the tricky gen5 prius, I made a few small changes. We know that the front jack point is very far back under the nose of the gen5 and I did not want to have to literally crawl on the ground under the car to position the jack on my driveway. So, without spending too much time on this, I made a rudimentary wooden sled/platform for the jack to fit on to and which I can slide around easily. To avoid more crawling, I also added a removable wooden handle that allows me to push and pull the wooden sled to easily get the jack in exactly the right spot. So here is that plywood platform with the big gortech jack on it:


This is the same plywood platform, with jack removed and showing the two parts (the sled, plus the very basic removable handle):



The jack's lifting head is all metal and it is kind of rectangular, but the front lift point on the gen5 prius is round, sort of conical, and has a large bolt head in the middle. So I made a 2-piece wooden 'cover' for the jack head that now perfectly fits the front (and rear) jack points on the prius and won't mar the metal on the car (and start rusting problems). Here is the an image of that custom wooden 'head', showing the side that presses up directly against the gen5's front jack point:



However, to make this part versatile, I made the head in two pieces so it can split up, such that I can use the wider flatter piece to jack up the rear of the car (the gen5's rear jack point is larger and it is fairly flat). Here are some photos showing those two pieces, showing both sides of both pieces:


2nd photo, show the back sides of the pieces above:




The gortech jack does come with several accessories that allow the user to crank the jack and lift the car, however, they are not extremely long, not as long as is needed to reach under the nose of the gen5 prius with its really far back front jack point. So, I combined the gortech accessories with a socket wrench and some long socket extenders to make jacking the car easier and without having to be under the car while that is happening. fyi, these photos (for better light and clarity) show the jack lifting a different car, not a prius, but the method is identical:


And I put a small piece of wood under my socket wrench so I can use the ground as leverage without smashing the wrench against the asphalt:




And, of course, an important WARNING: do not use this jack (or any jack) as the primary method to hold the car up while working on it. Use a jack to lift the car, and then lower the car on to at least a few reliable jack stands before working on the car. Failure to heed this warning may result in death.

Finally with the gen5 prius, this gortech scissor jack with my homemade wooden sled is just slightly (very slightly) too tall to slide under the nose of the car. But that was easily solved too. I got two scrap pieces of 2x10s, I put one under each front wheel and I drive the prius up on to these 1.5" (4 cm) thick blocks of wood and, voila!, now the jack and my wooden sled fit under the nose of the gen5 with no difficulty.

Let me know if you have any questions, I will try to reply.

Photo of one of the 2x10s that I drive the front wheels on to:

 

No, sir, no lathe.

But I do have a compass with which to draw circles, and a cheap jig saw that I am able to make angled circular cuts with. Ya just follow the pencil lines.



Wow, nice work on those ramps!

 

Not sure l follow, can you explain ?