jacking up truck

I think I read on a post here that you can bend your front axle by jacking the truck up from the center of the axle. I have always used the center of the axle when I had hot rod model a's and a t bucket and I've jacked up my epup that way a couple of times. So, can you really bend the axle this way ? Thanks.

on the a-100's the manual tell you to use some kind of steel beam to spread the weight if you would jack it up from the middle. if that helps, No Biggie a econo when it was delivered it had a bent front axle.

My econo came that way too, it seemed obvious it was from lifting in the center. I prefer to lift where the leaf spring meets the axle.

Ok, now I'm kinda worried. Can you tell by looking when the axle is still in the truck if its bent? I have very little play in the steering but it does have bump steer even though the po added stabilizing dampers. I haven't checked the alignment yet.

I'd say a bad bend will be clear as day.If a tow truck wraped a chain around it and pulled it it would be bent forward, or a jack upder neath it would be bent up , those would be the two most likley cases. find a straight peice of any thing solid any try taking a look, try looking from end to end.

This was nobiggie's front axle i think it cost about $200 to $250 to have it straightened,
Pluss the removel and replacement he did.

something I never thought about, won't be jacking mine up from the milddle anymore

A good tell is to get a 4' straight edge and hold it against the bottom then the front. I could see mine without it but it was slight enough to make you second guess yourself. The straight edge was a good lie detector. I ended up finding a good axle out of a yard.

My personel experience is that I have been jacking them up in the middle for years and have NEVER bent one doing it this way. I DO support them afterwards with jack stands under the spring perches. The picture above shows to me the "TYPICAL" bent axles I have also a stack of. IMO..... over the years not only have people bent the rear bumpers and scrappped the truck down the right side of the truck under the doors from learning how to drive these trucks that they have hit bump stops in parking lots a few times also.  I see it so commonly that I have some BIG I beams that I plan on making a fixture to use a bottle jack and straighten them out. As far as being bent the other way,, I dont have one that is bent that way. 
 The only issue I have ever had doing it this way was ONCE it slipped and I creamed a radiator, big time,,,,LOL,,,(not funny)
  Its not a bad practice to raise the truck up as close as you can to the spring perch and to leave enough room so that you can get a jack stand under the spring. There really isnt much weight on the front of the truck there, but not a bad practice to promote for others I suppose...
Vic

AXLE - was NOT BENT fron -Jacking! Bent from hitting something!! Ive jacked from center -YET =LEARNED!! best to jack up from close to wheel areas- like where spring mounts!!  

I checked with a straight edge and my axle is not bent from jacking. I haven't checked to see if its bent like in the pictures yet. The reason I jack it from the center is I swap rims from car to truck a lot and only have one jack. A lot easier and faster to have both tires on the truck off the ground at the same time then have the jack to remove the tires from the other car. I just got to wondering when I read you could bend it that way.