Getting some new wheels/tires this week and need some advice since I don't have a decent jack, only the one in the Defender's boot which I'm not using. Any advice on a jack to use and maybe best/easiest method for dealing with the wheel nuts? Live in California. Ideally I will be swapping wheels 3-4 times a year. One set will be everyday wheels/tires, while the other will have some nasty, thick offroading tires for some of the tougher trails out here that have sharp rocks (don't want noisy tires all year round).
Any additional tips on jacking the vehicle as well would be appreciated. Of course will be referring to the service manual as well.

 

you will need one or two chokes under wheels, put car in offroad (high) position and use jack points from the manual. front are easy (black pads), rear you'll need wood support as it goes on uneven mount with edges. Wheel nuts were easy, I used breaker bar to undo nuts and hand tight, electric driver with manual torque wrench after.

 

I do my seasonal swaps twice a year.

I've done it with the OEM scissors jack and it's a lot of work.

A floor jack (Harbor Freight have mine on sale at the moment) really makes life easy.

Plenty disagree with this but repeated multi-wheel swaps have verified this.
Lower the car to access height, turn it off and leave a door ajar. Now all 4 corners are lower and your jack will get the wheels off the ground as needed with greater ease. I use the pinch welds as jacking points and have a 3T floor jack.

• Have your wheels ready to go. Chock the rears/fronts as needed
• Use the jig to assist in position of the new wheels. Just screw it in a little bit. The tolerance on it is very precise so it can bind up a bit if the wheel is not on correctly.
• Tighten the bolts in a star and have a torque wrench set to 104 ft lb or the equivalent setting in Nm (140 I think and it's in the user guide)
• Torque check after your first drive.
• Autozone provide loaner torque wrenches if you don't want to but one but it's useful to have.
• Label your tires for a 5 wheel rotation pattern for next swap.

 

You'll want to buy a decent floor jack, and I would encourage using a jack stand from a safety standpoint. Many will say you don't need to, and they haven't ever had a vehicle fall off a floor jack, etc. But it can happen. Your choice.

If you are changing that frequently I would also suggest a battery powered impact gun if you don't already have one (or a good air impact if you have a compressor to drive it). Always final torque with a good torque wrench by hand, not with the impact, but the gun can get you tight enough to put it on the ground before you final torque.

 

In addition to raising the car to off road height if you have air suspension, keep the driver's side door open so it won't try to self level.

 

Genuinely curious what the advantage would be in raising the suspension to off road height?

 

The prevailing theory is that by doing so, the remaining suspension travel will be less so less jacking is required. Based on multiple threads on this topic, I think the jury is still out as to what height to set the truck to minimize suspension travel. That and door open/closed strategies and wait times needed to disable the active suspension.

 

These newfangled contraptions creating problems I never had before.

 

20+ at home tire changes on the Defender and for me the jury has very much delivered its verdict.

Lower the car, turn it off, crack a door and the suspension doesn't hinder you. No waiting is needed.

Pop it into off-road height and my floor jack is rendered useless.

 

I just installed winter tires on all 4 of our family vehicles over Thanksgiving weekend. This will save you so much time.

(This model is "battery not included". I already had a 20V Dewalt battery from my Dewalt leaf blower)

However, use a regular socket wrench to loosen the lug nuts before jacking. Thread each nut on by hand then use the gun to tighten to just contact. Then finish tightening with a torque wrench. (Star pattern as noted above)

I also put anti-seize on the points where the wheel makes contact with the hub. On some of my Audis I had to break a seized winter tire free using a block of wood and sledge hammer. Not fun.

To protect the jack points, get a set of these: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-schwaben...ors/3107838kt/