[benoved]

This is probably the best explanation of how to jack up the car, and he is using Kia Soul to demonstrate - But I have zero experience jack up the car this way.
How safe it is for the car ?
Im referring to this point which he uses to lift the car:

 

[TosenR]

This is probably the best explanation of how to jack up the car, and he is using Kia Soul to demonstrate - But I have zero experience jack up the car this way.
How safe it is for the car ?

I'm not a mechanic or expert. My 2 cents is I think the jackstand placements in the video are wrong. I don't think the pinch welds - they are very thin - are designed to support the weight of the car, that's why people end up with bent (and then rusted) pinch welds.

Not stated clearly in neither the Kia Soul 2014-19 Owner's Manual - Changing Tires nor the Kia Soul 2014-19 Service Manual - Lift & Support Points but I believe the notches are there to visual show the locations of the four places on the underbody that have been reinforced for the placement of a jack (aka a lifting point designed to handle the weight of the vehicle).

The lifting point is on the underbody right on the other side of the pinch weld between the two notches, not the pinch weld itself.

The kia roadside jack has a slot cutout on the lifting plate for the pinch weld to fit into - Factory scissors jack, Gen 2, 2014-2019.

I don't have a Kia jack.

I assume the slot in the jack lifting plate is deeper than the height of the pinch weld thereby the pinch weld is not subjected to any upward or lifting force.

I assume the wider section of the jack lifting plate is the sole (or main) point of contact where the lifting force from the jack is applied to lift the vehicle.

Thus by positioning the Kia roadside jack between the two notches and so that the pinch weld fits down into the slot, the jack will be properly located to make contact with the small reinforced section of the underbody engineered to be a lift point.

 

[rhysoul]

Those places he shows are fine. They are very strong parts of the car that have to hold the weight of the car. Ive also used the bolt that goes into the subframe on the front lower control arm to jack the car up.

I use one of these rubber pinch weld adapters on my jack stands, and if I’m just jacking the car up for a few mins to change a tire, I use the rubber hockey puck adapter on my floor jack and use the pinch weld at the notches to jack it up.

 

[TosenR]

Those places he shows are fine. They are very strong parts of the car that have to hold the weight of the car....

All the places he shows? He didn't use any pinch weld adapter on the jack stand.

I use one of these rubber pinch weld adapters on my jack stands, and if I’m just jacking the car up for a few mins to change a tire, I use the rubber hockey puck adapter on my floor jack and use the pinch weld at the notches to jack it up.
View attachment 139380

When using my floor jack near the pinch weld I use a block of scrap 2x4 placed alongside the pinch weld at the lift point.

And when want to have the car up for a longer period of time or to be safer versus solely using a floor jack, then in place of standard jack stands I use Unijacks.

 

[rhysoul]

All the places he shows? He didn't use any pinch weld adapter on the jack stand.



Whe using my floor jack near the pinch weld I use a block of scrap 2x4 placed alongside the pinch weld at the lift point.

And when want to have the car up for a longer period of time or to be safer versus solely using a floor jack, then in place of standard jack stands I use Unijacks.

He used the floor jack on the suspension parts and the jack stands on the pinch weld. You don’t have to use those rubber adapters, but I like them just to help keep the pinch welds from getting beat up. The block of wood is good too. You could even cut a groove in the center to go over the pinch like the hockey puck ones.

Shop lifts can fold over the pinch welds if the tech isn’t careful. My 2011 souls pinch welds were all bent out of shape from the guys at Firestone before I started doing my own maintenance on it, so I just used pliers to straighten them. Someone mentioned it’s not the pinch weld itself, but where those notches are, are the reinforced jack points so it doesn’t really matter if the “pinch” part is all bent out of shape.

That UniJack thing looks neat. How do you like it? Price isn’t as high as i thought it would be either.

 

[benoved]

Those places he shows are fine. They are very strong parts of the car that have to hold the weight of the car. Ive also used the bolt that goes into the subframe on the front lower control arm to jack the car up.

I want to put the car on Jackstands so I cant use the pinch weld places. I want to verify that I can use the other place he used to lift the car - he said it the place where the crossmembers connects to the body. as show in the picture
Is this the Bolt you are referring to in your answer ?

 

[rhysoul]

I want to put the car on Jackstands so I cant use the pinch weld places. I want to verify that I can use the other place he used to lift the car - he said it the place where the crossmembers connects to the body. as show in the picture
Is this the Bolt you are referring to in your answer ?

Yes. Exactly how he shows. Floor jack there, jack it up then put your jack stand on the pinch weld and lower the floor jack slowly on to the stand.

 

[TosenR]

...That UniJack thing looks neat. How do you like it? Price isn’t as high as i thought it would be either.

It isn't a perfect solution - How often does that occur.

The lifting range is actual subdivided into multiple sub-ranges - depends on where set the height pin for the jack stand part. So it isn't like a floor jack or a bottle jack where the entire range from minimum height to maximum height is choosable at any given time.

I wish the overall height in the down position was a little lower then would consistently be able to simply slide under my car past the pinch welds which hang down.

Since there is no axle or curved structural member on the Kia Soul where I need a concave top I wish they made a replaceable jack stand riser with a flat top instead of the typical concave-ish top. Then that might take care of the slight clearance issue with the pinch weld.

And I wish the bottle jack cylinder was a little taller such that the top height of the first range was a little higher.

The larger of my two roll around hydraulic floor jacks - still a relatively small floor jack - can easily slide under my car yet still lift the car high enough to remove a tire. But a floor jack isn't safe to work under.

So the Unijack isn't perfect for my use on the Kia Soul but basically does what I want it for. I was able to completely jack up my car (I have four Unijacks), bleed the brakes and rotate the tires at the same time.

Price is higher now. I got mine a few years ago for under $40 each.

Noticed sometime back that they'd come out with a Pinch Weld Saddle Adapter for the Unijack.

 

[jdmartin]

I want to put the car on Jackstands so I cant use the pinch weld places. I want to verify that I can use the other place he used to lift the car - he said it the place where the crossmembers connects to the body. as show in the picture
Is this the Bolt you are referring to in your answer ?

Had my car up in the air plenty of times from there, as @rhysoul said, then put your jack stands where the jack point goes at the pinch weld. Then lower your car until the weight is on the jack stands, and when the floor jack is free crank it back until it's just touching where you jacked it from, then take the handle off. Now you have 3 support points. You can never have too many support points when you are working under a vehicle.

 

[benoved]

Yes. Exactly how he shows. Floor jack there, jack it up then put your jack stand on the pinch weld and lower the floor jack slowly on to the stand.

Great. Thank you.

 

[rhysoul]

when the floor jack is free crank it back until it's just touching where you jacked it from, then take the handle off. Now you have 3 support points. You can never have too many support points when you are working under a vehicle

That’s an excellent point. I do this too and will even lay the tire under the car right next to the jack stand. Also use wheel chocks (or a block of wood). You can never be too safe.