Why isnt there an aftermarket way to bulk up pinch welds jack points on cars
I always wondered this since I noticed that a lot of cars always have at least some damage to their pinch weld jack points, usually from hydraulic jacks, lack of adapters, or dropping the car onto jack stands hard. I get it not everyone has the right equipment or experience but it also seems like a poor and cheap design from the manufacturers. Why hasn't there been a method or aftermarket product that kinda bulks up the pinch welds. Hell I don't think I ever seen someone even weld or bolt on some steel to kind of guard the pinch welds from bending. Is there a reason for that, like structurally? Why are those hockey puck looking adapters the norm, just because its easier?
Tldr: Many vehicles suffer damage to their pinch weld jacking points from improper use of jacks, prompting the question of why there isn't a robust aftermarket solution or protective design from manufacturers to prevent this issue, besides those hockey puck looking adapters?
I have FM frame rails on my car. While obviously this is not specifically for the jack points, it does significantly reinforce them. That's kinda similar.
I drive a hot hatch and purchased aftermarket jacking rails for it. The rails are two long pieces of steel that I bolted underneath the car to distribute weight. I can jack the car up from anywhere along those rails.
Alternatively there are also jack pads you can buy for pinch welds. It’s just a block that you set on top of your jack. As you raise it to the point of the pinch welds, the jack pads surrounds it and helps distribute weight and support the car better.
This is really what it boils down to. I never had this issue as a mechanic, but I didn't generally use pinch welds as a jack point. Most vehicles have numerous options for using a floor jack. You could use a control arm, or cross member, or sometimes a drivetrain component. Additionally, sometimes the pinch weld has a designated spot for jacking that seems to be reinforced.
Maybe what you are saying only applies to newer vehicles and I am out of date. Totally possible! I did not experience this 10+ years ago, tho. Only on exceptionally rusty cars that the driver would be challenged to install thr spare on the side of the road.
A couple companies make them like TunerRack but I think the biggest issue is that it's no longer compatible with the scissor jack. A couple other issues are that the ones that use grub screws to pinch the welds can come off if the grub screws back out from vibration, and the kinds that require drilling sometimes develop obnoxious rattle if they wind up having play.
But the most unintended outcome of all this is usually those things are nice shiny anodized bits, so people tend to still use pads, which kind of defeats the purpose
Because it's usually pointless to anyone that knows how to work on cars. I use the frame. Because it's where I'm going to put a jack and it's faster. The only one I use is on one side of my Camaro to lift it high enough to use the frame on the other side because it's lowered. They may get damaged but it's only use is the side of the road to change a tire.
Unibodies do have a frame it's just not a completely separate assembly like a ladder frame.
As others have said there are lots of places to jack a car. Nobody uses the flange on the rocker panels unless they're trying to change a tire roadside with the emergency jack.
Exactly, jack points are an afterthought, it might have to be lifted for changing a flat, but otherwise it'll be on a lift platform at a shop, you're not hoisting it on Jacks at home to do work on it.