I have a 2024 Defender 130X with air suspension. I swapped over to my winter wheels yesterday and had trouble jacking up the car. Interested to know what Jack others use and any tricks?

I do one wheel at a time. Same way I have done for many years including on my previous Discovery also with air suspension. Start engine, raise suspension to max height. Turn off car and leave door open (so suspension doesn't adjust back down).
I have a trolley jack with extended height but I jacked it all the way to its limit and the wheel was still not off the floor. So I used my 20 ton bottle jack. Unscrewed the height adjuster to the maximum (so it was touching the body sill jacking point before I started to jack). Then pumped it up all the way. Worked perfectly for the front two wheels. However I couldn't get the back wheels in the air with it. And not easy to raise up the jack on a wooden beam as it was already touching the jack point before I started. So for the rear wheels I ended up jacking up as high as it would go. Coming back down which had the vehicle body end up an inch or so higher than when it started, then sat the bottle jack on a 1" plinth and jacked it a second time. That just got me there

Thinking there must be a better jack with greater lift clearance. What are others using?

Jack up the car, swap wheel,

 

Lower it to the minimum.
Then crack a door and do your rotation/seasonal swap

counter intuitive but this is the solution.

i have done multiple rotations and seasonal swaps this way.

floor Jack with no extensions.


I have also encountered the identical issue you describe doing it the way your brain would tell you makes the most sense. Ie. The way you describe. Doesn’t work.

 

I have my air suspension set to lower to access height whenever I turn the car off.

Every time I've rotated tires I just jacked it up with my floor jack. Never had a problem getting any of the tires at least 1" off the ground (didn't need to try for any higher than that).

 

I suggest jacking the rear under the lower A Arm with a floor jack. This keeps the suspension from drooping. Only takes a couple pumps of the jack to lift the wheel off the ground . At the front there are 2 plastic pads on the subframe. I would jack there with the floor jack. Also, chock fhe wheels. I carry a jack stand to put under the factory jack location as a safety device as i lift each corner. I dont like to use the factory jack since it is a real pain to use and it feels unsafe. It is still better than no jack tho. Keeping the door open does help with the air suspension trying to adjust.

 

Thank you for suggesting what I was thinking, but holding back. Jacking the under the frame is a wasted effort, when you are lifting a vehicle so high to get the wheels to clear the ground. Wise advice; lift the wheel, not the body. And unless you are using a high lift jack, it just won’t suffice in most cases.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will try with the lowered suspension instead of the raised. It's odd as the factory manual very clearly says to raise the air suspension first. I always did that on the Discovery too as otherwise I had to jack and jack and jack as the air suspension doesn't stop the wheel from coming down and down to find the floor.... Maybe defender is set up differently or doesn't have as much capacity for adjustment with the engine and air compressor off

But - as you point out. Jacking the wheel vs the frame is a much better idea. I have a good trolley jack - just hadn't worked out where to safely get a lift under the wheel frame.
And yes - I always put a 3 ton axle stand under a strong frame support element before I remove a wheel (and chocks) as I'm paranoid about it coming crashing down. Particularly when the jack is up so high

If someone has photos of where they jack the wheel (vs the body frame), that would be helpful to see. I assume the control arms are strong enough to jack but good to see what others have done.

 

As Sarek mentioned jack front where black plate is near suspension arm, for rear I jack near mounts too but I use wood block as it is not flat at all...

 

Don't forget to leave a door slightly open. That stops the suspension from adjusting during the tire change.

I use the jack points and add a jack pad between the floor jack and jack point:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-schwaben...ors/3107838kt/