[starlights]

Originally Posted by B58 parts

Are you asking if you can lift the entire X5 from one central point, all four wheels? Lol. Think about center of gravity and balance on an x and y-axis. I don't think any car and floor jack has ever done that, and if anyone ever tried, something bad or really bad happened.

No, at most I would swap two front wheels and two back wheels (staggered setup) - I am not that young anymore and I don't work on my vehicles to change oil and stuff - there is an indie and dealers for that. Last week my wife's SUV had a flat and I got there before Geico but unfortunately I did not have any good jack (except the widow maker from my vehicle). I used that carefully and changed her tire (I had a spare for her car). That got me thinking that it would be good to have a proper jack that I could use both in my home garage and throw in the back of the car for emergencies. Therefore I was thinking of Aluminum Floor Jacks - the lightest one that I could get away with. Unlike many on this forum, I don't routinely work on my car so the Jack would be used perhaps twice a year in my garage to rotate tires with the help of jack stands. I looked at the big Daytona Jack but it's an overkill for my situation, takes up space and will offer no portability. Still undecided

I saw this image in one of the reviews on HF website. The big, long reach Daytona jacks are on the top and I am leaning towards the blue Aluminum 3 ton Pittsburgh Jack in the middle. Its actually a bit more expensive than the Daytona long reach but better suited for my limited garage space and perhaps more portable?

[B58 parts]

For the X5, you want that nice green one on the top left for sure. I have that middle green one (in silver) and it sucks, it is still heavy, and can't do half of what the newer one does. I'm going to put it up for sale locally.

I also have that really small aluminum one in the bottom, Hugh Jackman jr, and it cant do anything. It isn't rated for the X5, and can't get it high enough for a jack stand, I tried. I couldn't even use it to support the subframe, had to use that other one.

Story time

I was leaving home depot the other day and there was a gentleman fully underneath his dodge neon fixing something in the parking lot with only the scissor jack. It was hard to just drive away.

A friend of mine had a neglected Porsche 944 turbo back in the day, really cool car, we lifted the back left corner to change the tire with the factory scissor jack, and the threads in the hole for the rod absolutely blew out and the car fell like a ton of bricks. It was scary as hell, and we were away from the car behind it.

[DrVenture]

No kidding. I have a friend who was under a minivan banging on the starter when the vehicle came down on him. Really did a number on him. I prefer my Raceramps when possible. If I use a jack, I don't get under the vehicle until the heavy duty jack stands are in position and, if possible, I leave the jack in place too.

I also have access to a drive-on lift, but not really that helpful for tire rotation. Or even brakes. Great for setting up pinion angles and adjustable panhard bars, with adjustable control arms. because it sits at ride height.

[Efthreeoh]

OP, my advice. Somewhere you can find the G05 X5 suspension travel in inches. You can measure from the ground to the bottom of the differential. You can find out the max lift height of the aluminum jack you are considering buying. Subtract the diff hight from the jack lifting height. Then compare that number to the roughly half the suspension travel of the X5. If the delta between the diff height and jack Mac lift is more than 1/2 the suspension travel, the jack will lift the tires off the ground.

The aluminum jack has more than enough lifting power to raise one end of the X5 at a time. To rotate your tires from left-to-right, lift at the diff and put jack stands under the plastic lifting blocks on the side sills of the chassis. You can then safely swap with wheels. The same goes for the front end.

Also, get a 1/2-inch drive electric impact gun to remove the wheel bolts. A decent gun is a around $150 and greatly eases the operation of removing wheels.

[XMetal]

Originally Posted by starlights

No, at most I would swap two front wheels and two back wheels (staggered setup) - I am not that young anymore and I don't work on my vehicles to change oil and stuff - there is an indie and dealers for that. Last week my wife's SUV had a flat and I got there before Geico but unfortunately I did not have any good jack (except the widow maker from my vehicle). I used that carefully and changed her tire (I had a spare for her car). That got me thinking that it would be good to have a proper jack that I could use both in my home garage and throw in the back of the car for emergencies. Therefore I was thinking of Aluminum Floor Jacks - the lightest one that I could get away with. Unlike many on this forum, I don't routinely work on my car so the Jack would be used perhaps twice a year in my garage to rotate tires with the help of jack stands. I looked at the big Daytona Jack but it's an overkill for my situation, takes up space and will offer no portability. Still undecided

I saw this image in one of the reviews on HF website. The big, long reach Daytona jacks are on the top and I am leaning towards the blue Aluminum 3 ton Pittsburgh Jack in the middle. Its actually a bit more expensive than the Daytona long reach but better suited for my limited garage space and perhaps more portable?

I would not bother with rotating staggered tires. I never rotate my staggered tires in over 20 years of owning cars that have them. Just buy the set that get worn out and be done. Do some research regarding reversing a tire rotation that's already set in it's directional rotation orientation. Some tires are directional as well, which can't be rotated side to side without dismounting them from the wheels.

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by starlights

I have never owned a floor jack hence seeking opinion on one. Is Arcane 3 ton floor jack sufficient for occasional in-garage lifting of X5 for tire rotation? It’s available at Costco and weighs 58lbs so I am interested https://www.costco.com/arcan-3-ton-p...100222458.html

Thanks!

A bit more expensive solution is to get two jacks to use to lift first one end of the vehicle then another.

(Years ago I needed tires -- for my Mustang GT -- and stopped at an indy tire shop. The shop was busy all service bays occupied but the owner used 4 (!) floor jacks to lift the car and got all 4 tires off the ground.)

An even better solution -- especially if you do other work on your vehicles -- is to get a portable hydraulic vehicle lift one that is spec'd to lift your heaviest vehicle and one that can lift the vehicles by their body lift points or by the tires/wheels.

If you have to limit yourself to one style or the other of course one that can lift the vehicles by the body lift points is the one size fits all solution.

[DrVenture]

Originally Posted by RockCrusher

A bit more expensive solution is to get two jacks to use to lift first one end of the vehicle then another.

...

That's what I do. You don't even need two low profile jacks, as once you start lifting, there is plenty of room for the regular jack to slide under.

Don't forget these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LR7R2P8...d_asin_title_1

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by XMetal

I would not bother with rotating staggered tires. I never rotate my staggered tires in over 20 years of owning cars that have them. Just buy the set that get worn out and be done. Do some research regarding reversing a tire rotation that's already set in it's directional rotation orientation. Some tires are directional as well, which can't be rotated side to side without dismounting them from the wheels.

Agreed with this too. Unless it's a circle track car, not worth it.

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by DrVenture

No kidding. I have a friend who was under a minivan banging on the starter when the vehicle came down on him. Really did a number on him. I prefer my Raceramps when possible. If I use a jack, I don't get under the vehicle until the heavy duty jack stands are in position and, if possible, I leave the jack in place too.

I also have access to a drive-on lift, but not really that helpful for tire rotation. Or even brakes. Great for setting up pinion angles and adjustable panhard bars, with adjustable control arms. because it sits at ride height.

I don't trust ramps. Especially not plastic ones. I'm a Jack stands, plus jacks, plus usually whatever wheel I'm working on under the car kinda guy.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

Agreed with this too. Unless it's a circle track car, not worth it.

Of the five BMWs I have owned, every owners manual recommends not rotating the tires because (a) it adversely affects handling and (b) there is no economic benefit (assuming you pay for tire rotations).

I've always rotated tires on my BMWs because I DIY and I have a lift.

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by BeEmVe

I could not find an aluminum jack that was not made in China. I would buy one if made in another country. I am tired of buying crap made in China so I avoid it. Any other country is fine.

I bought and 2 Ton AC Hydraulic jack made in Denmark.

I had an AC jack for 30 years (when I bought my first BMW and need to change snow tires/wheels).

It just died on me in December and I went out and bought a Harbor Freight Daytona low profile. I won't be alive in 30 years (or at least not changing my own wheels).

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Of the five BMWs I have owned, every owners manual recommends not rotating the tires because (a) it adversely affects handling and (b) there is no economic benefit (assuming you pay for tire rotations).

I've always rotated tires on my BMWs because I DIY and I have a lift.

It's funny, I had a conversation at work about this and one of my coworkers (who knew nothing about cars) was mortified I didn't rotate my tires every 5k miles. I had to explain what staggered tires were and then that RWD tires experience much more similar wear front to back than FWD cars.

It was funny. She was also mortified that sports car tires last 15k miles sometimes. I think she's gonna be a Corolla girl for life.

[BeEmVe]

Originally Posted by jkoral

I had an AC jack for 30 years (when I bought my first BMW and need to change snow tires/wheels).

It just died on me in December and I went out and bought a Harbor Freight Daytona low profile. I won't be alive in 30 years (or at least not changing my own wheels).

What died? The hydraulics can be rebuilt.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

It's funny, I had a conversation at work about this and one of my coworkers (who knew nothing about cars) was mortified I didn't rotate my tires every 5k miles. I had to explain what staggered tires were and then that RWD tires experience much more similar wear front to back than FWD cars.

It was funny. She was also mortified that sports car tires last 15k miles sometimes. I think she's gonna be a Corolla girl for life.

My E90 and Z4 run staggard. I do rotate side to side but found the rears wear 2:1 to the fronts. I swap them side-to-side just to keep the tread wear patterns even. From about 22,000 miles to 350,000 miles I ran a square setup on the E90 and did the standard cross rotation. I would get about 35,000 to 40,000 on a set of high performance all seasons from mostly Yokohama or Michelin sets. I never found any ill effects to handling though. If you can rotate for free, it's not a bad thing to do IMO. It's not worth paying for rotations.

[starlights]

Thanks for all the responses! I kind of agree with non requirement for staggered tire rotation. I check the tires routinely and so far after 5K they barely show any wear and are wearing uniformly (using the tread measuring tool).

So if I ditch Tire Rotation or get them done at the time of oil change then my requirement changes to get a safe (relative to Scissor jacks) portable jack that I can use outside of the house - the search begins again .

Any suggestions? Not looking for a tank, only a safe and robust jack that can be used on the road to lift one wheel as required.

EDIT - I may catch a lot of Flac for suggesting this but any thoughts on a bottle jack with built in locking stand for occasional (no more than 2-3 lifts per year or less) such as this for on road and in garage use? https://www.amazon.com/Powerbuilt-62.../dp/B00GJJZ5NI

EDIT-2 - Here is another strange looking one made by CAT and weighs under 25lbs - https://www.amazon.com/Wheelie-Off-R...dp/B0DK4PFRH3/

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by BeEmVe

What died? The hydraulics can be rebuilt.

I knew that, but needed a working jack that weekend, so the quickest solution was running to Harbor Freight.

[MaxVO2]

Originally Posted by DrVenture

No kidding. I have a friend who was under a minivan banging on the starter when the vehicle came down on him. Really did a number on him. I prefer my Raceramps when possible. If I use a jack, I don't get under the vehicle until the heavy duty jack stands are in position and, if possible, I leave the jack in place too.

I also have access to a drive-on lift, but not really that helpful for tire rotation. Or even brakes. Great for setting up pinion angles and adjustable panhard bars, with adjustable control arms. because it sits at ride height.

****I'm a big fan of the Race Ramps. They work great. I have the two piece ones and carefully jack up the car one level on both wheels and then do the second level afterwards. Very stable and raises the car up enough for me to do oil changes or whatever I need. Worth every penny for under carriage work.

If the wheels have to come off, etc.. I use standard jack stands with the Berger adapters to not damage the jack points, or two jacks with the Berger adapters if I am not working under the car.

Better safe than sorry. I love pancakes but not enough to want to become one myself! So many horror stories of cars falling onto people because they used only a scissor jack or something while working under the car. That's just crazy.

Oh, and uhh don't wear flip flops while working under the car!

[starlights]

So after a lot of consideration, and the fact that my primary requirement was to have a relatively more robust jack for travel than the scissor jacks I decided to go with a portable CAT off-road unit. Ordered it from Autozone for under $100 (after their $20 online coupon).

Costco takes care of our tire rotations for free and I don't work on wheels or brakes in my garage so the key feature that we required was portability for long distance travel (we have a spare wheel for both cars). This unit weighs around 25 lbs and is compact enough to be thrown in the trunk.

https://www.autozone.com/engine-and-...cat+floor+jack

Appreciate all the responses and valuable insights from everyone. Thank you!!