Most roads are built with a camber, which is to say they are slightly higher in the middle than at the edges so that water runs off them. You never notice it until a car is parked hard into a kerb, at which point the car is leaning, and the moment a jack goes underneath it that lean starts to matter.
The reason is straightforward. A jack lifts vertically and a car sitting on a camber does not want to go vertically. As the wheel comes up the car tries to slide very slightly down the slope towards the kerb, and if the jack is not set squarely it can walk out from under the sill. On the terraced streets around Ladywell and Hither Green, where everybody parks tight against a high kerb, that lean can be considerable. It is one of the reasons we chock and read the ground before getting anywhere near the car with a jack. It is also the strongest argument against doing it yourself with the small scissor jack that came with the vehicle, because those are the least tolerant of any angle at all. If the car is parked on a noticeable lean towards the kerb, say so when you ring and it gets planned for.
The compressor kit in the boot buys you time and nothing else. A fitter coming to the car is the version that ends the problem: wheel off on the South Circular, a proper look at the real damage, a repair to standard if it qualifies, a replacement from the van if it does not. Valve in Loampit Vale, balance in Lee, pressures before we go. The wheel comes off in Blackheath, not on a ramp in Catford. The SE13 postcode and a street in Ladywell: that is enough.
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Lewisham is terraced streets, high kerbs and one of the busiest junctions in this part of London. Between the High Street, Lewisham Way and Loampit Vale there is nowhere sensible to deal with a tyre on a main road, and the residential streets that look like the obvious alternative come with a camber and a kerb that make a roadside wheel change harder than it appears. Leave the car where it is parked, say if it is leaning, and let the setting up be somebody else's job.
The car was leaning enough to be obvious from twenty feet away. We rolled it out slightly by hand before lifting it, which took under a minute and removed the entire problem before it became one.
A driver had started the job and the jack shifted on him, at which point he very sensibly stopped and rang. Camber plus a small scissor jack is exactly the combination that does that. Nothing was damaged and nobody was hurt.
Parked on a flat driveway with room either side, which is the easy version. Most jobs are this one. It is worth saying so, because it is always the difficult ones that get remembered.
It matters once a wheel is being lifted. A car on a camber tries to move sideways as it comes up, so the jack has to be set squarely and the car chocked. On a steep camber we sometimes roll the car out level by hand first.
Yes, though it changes how we set up rather than being ignored. It is one of the first things looked at on arrival, and it is worth mentioning on the phone if the lean is obvious to you.
For an emergency on level ground it is exactly what it was designed for. On a cambered street with a high kerb it is the least forgiving tool available, and a jack shifting under a car is not a small event.
Not under power. If it can be rolled a short distance by hand on the level with somebody helping, that is fine. Otherwise leave it and the angle gets dealt with when we arrive.
Yes, across SE13 and the roads around Lee, Blackheath and Loampit Vale, day or night. Tell us the street and the registration and we come to wherever the car is standing.
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