JP JackStand Hat Modification
07-21-2013, 03:25 PM
#1
Drifting
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JP JackStand Hat Modification
John Walton at JP JackStands LLC makes a fabulous product. I love the ingenuity and genius in his design. However… the system is a bit of a challenge on cars like ours, that sit so low to the ground.
I have the low-profile JP hats. The hats have a rubber disc with a hollow metal alignment pin in the center. The pin acts as an alignment feature, as well as to keep the whole thing from sliding off the car's lift point. My problem is, the car is so low, I can't get my fat head down under the car to eyeball the alignment. I often think I have it perfect, then... as I raise the jack the thing squirms out and pops off my rocker panel. The problem, as I see it, is that the hole on the car's lift plate is so much larger than the alignment pin on the hat. Plus, the pin is fairly shallow. All the other folks I know who use these stand have purchased small ramps to raise the car up to get it high enough off the ground in order to clear the jack and hat. Myself included. I just knew there had to be a better way...
Being the engineer that I am, I took the Rennline Jack Plate part, and adapted it to mesh with the JP hat. You just orient the T-nut on the hat to be perpendicular to the car, then push it into the hole, and give it a half-turn so that it holds itself on the lift point. Now you can get your jack and JP hat underneath it and have a much easier time aligning the whole thing.
To try this yourself, it's fairly simple. The hat needs to be machined to create a thru-hole in order to fit a 1/2" bolt. Then, each side of the hat is counter-bored in order to fit a 1/2" washer. Peel off the rubber pads from the Rennline part and place it on the JP hat. Simply bolt the Rennline T-nut onto the hat. Use thread locker to keep the bolt from backing out. I'll post up a quick sketch of the dimensions and details for the machining of the hat.
Here's an amusing video of the kit in action...
All credit to Chasen for the brilliant camera work! LOL
I have the low-profile JP hats. The hats have a rubber disc with a hollow metal alignment pin in the center. The pin acts as an alignment feature, as well as to keep the whole thing from sliding off the car's lift point. My problem is, the car is so low, I can't get my fat head down under the car to eyeball the alignment. I often think I have it perfect, then... as I raise the jack the thing squirms out and pops off my rocker panel. The problem, as I see it, is that the hole on the car's lift plate is so much larger than the alignment pin on the hat. Plus, the pin is fairly shallow. All the other folks I know who use these stand have purchased small ramps to raise the car up to get it high enough off the ground in order to clear the jack and hat. Myself included. I just knew there had to be a better way...
Being the engineer that I am, I took the Rennline Jack Plate part, and adapted it to mesh with the JP hat. You just orient the T-nut on the hat to be perpendicular to the car, then push it into the hole, and give it a half-turn so that it holds itself on the lift point. Now you can get your jack and JP hat underneath it and have a much easier time aligning the whole thing.
To try this yourself, it's fairly simple. The hat needs to be machined to create a thru-hole in order to fit a 1/2" bolt. Then, each side of the hat is counter-bored in order to fit a 1/2" washer. Peel off the rubber pads from the Rennline part and place it on the JP hat. Simply bolt the Rennline T-nut onto the hat. Use thread locker to keep the bolt from backing out. I'll post up a quick sketch of the dimensions and details for the machining of the hat.
Here's an amusing video of the kit in action...
All credit to Chasen for the brilliant camera work! LOL
Last edited by 24Chromium; 07-23-2013 at 02:41 AM.
when did you get a British accent?
07-22-2013, 12:30 AM
#5
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Fricking Awesome! WWCD!
Lar that is awesome!
Lar that is awesome!
07-22-2013, 03:10 AM
#6
Drifting
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These parts work a little "too" well. One morning at the track recently, I had swapped tires first thing before going out, and had the car on the stands to do so. During my second session that morning, late in the session, I'm hammering the brakes into a turn, when suddenly I hear "tink, tink, tink" . I knew something came off the car. I just didn't know what. Until I jacked up the car and noticed one of hats was still attached. I did a quick count off all the hats, and sure enough, one was missing. I go tell it to the head of grid. I knew which turn it was, and which direction it would have rolled. About an hour later, during the course workers break, I got my hat hand delivered to our camp by the very corner worker. He saw it go rolling by! LOL
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07-22-2013, 04:36 PM
#8
Burning Brakes
These parts work a little "too" well. One morning at the track recently, I had swapped tires first thing before going out, and had the car on the stands to do so. During my second session that morning, late in the session, I'm hammering the brakes into a turn, when suddenly I hear "tink, tink, tink" . I knew something came off the car. I just didn't know what. Until I jacked up the car and noticed one of hats was still attached. I did a quick count off all the hats, and sure enough, one was missing. I go tell it to the head of grid. I knew which turn it was, and which direction it would have rolled. About an hour later, during the course workers break, I got my hat hand delivered to our camp by the very corner worker. He saw it go rolling by! LOL
07-24-2013, 02:03 AM
#11
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Great solution! Too bad I am using the rennline strapping hooks in the front jack point.
07-25-2013, 10:33 PM
#13
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Jon
07-26-2013, 03:27 AM
#14
Drifting
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Brunnhoelzl. I have the 3-pump low-profile model. It's the lowest jack I've found. This jack is crazy expensive, so... I will freely admit that it's much cheaper to buy the shorty ramps and use those to get the car up high enough to clear the jack & JP hat.