So I bought a QuickJack 5000TL during Costco’s recent sale: saved $300, hurray. Now I’m looking at one of the frames, not yet assembled, sitting next to my 2005 E320CDI. Two problems spring out:

First, the jack pads on the CDI are spaced too far apart for the maximum 60 inch width of the QuickJack 5000TL. Well, that I should be able to work around. There must be some place to locate QuickJack so it can lift the car safely and without damaging anything underneath.

Second, it looks like I won’t be able to remove the third (rearmost) belly pan, because it will be pinched between the car and the QuickJack. This is a more serious problem for jobs like transmission servicing. Gotta be able to remove that rearmost belly pan.

All of the workarounds I’ve identified so far are cumbersome:
1. Return the 5000TL for a 5000TLX, which has a longer (66 inch) span. This will probably be expensive.
2. Put the CDI on my existing ramps, remove the belly pans, take the CDI off the ramps, put it on the QuickJack. Why bother? Just do the transmission work on the ramps!

Anyone have a better suggestion? Anyone have the same combo of car and jack? (This same problem may also apply to my 1996 E300D, but I haven’t looked closely yet.)

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970