Jacking woes

[Paianni]

So I have a trolley jack (SGS TJL2) and four axle stands (SGS JS1.5). The jack works properly on the rear mounting point but it can't lift the car high enough to allow for the stands to fit beneath the sill seams. No signs of oil leakage and the max. height seems to be consistent with the oem specifications. Incidentally it won't fit under the front bumper but with at least two stands supporting the rear, I figure there's probably a way around that.

I feel like I'm missing something that's probably really obvious but I don't know where to go from here in terms of safe options.

[Topdownman]

Have you tried using the oem scissor jack? The central front jacking point is quite a way under the car so even if you have a jack with a low enough entry, there is still the problem of getting the handle to go up and down without hitting the car. Then you have the problem of how do you jack up on the sill and put the axle stand in the same place if using a trolley jack!

If the rear goes up easier, it would probably be best to do that last to give a bit more clearance at the front.

(Driving onto some sturdy planks can give more clearance).

[shnazzle]

A familiar problem. 
Some stands are also quite tall. There's quite  a big difference between them.

The areas where you can put the jack stand is a bit bigger than first meets the eye.
Using a rubber block there was generally enough space to jack it up and place the stand.
I had to because, much like you, i couldn't get a jack even a few inches under the front of my car as it was far too low.

@Carolyn uses some different jacking points on the suspension where it some arms meet the body.

Whatever I did, at least one wheel always went under the sills just in case. 

[Call the midlife!]

I use some low rise, plastic ramps at the front to get clearance for the jack. Either drive up onto them or jack the car using the sills and put the ramps underneath, depending on how drivable the car is at the time.
But I've got a low rise, long handle workshop style jack which also helps.

[Joesson]

My jack / stands may be same as @Paianni, For a whole car raise I lift the rear end first. I have a block of dense hard wood, beech, with a small recess to locate and in the jack head and that does then give just enough elevation to get the stand under at minimum height.
At the front as @Topdownman says the problem is the handle even if the car is not lowered. Typically I put the jack diagonally  under the front cross beam from the side behind the ( left) front wheel.
Currently my car is elevated at the front end only and I did that with the OE scissor jack on the front beam. Plenty of elevation and I'm up a notch on the stands.
Always remember to prevent the car from moving forward or backward when lifting by Chocking the wheels at the opposite end.
With a lowered car I think I would be needing ramps or short planks to lift the car to or beyond OE height to enable the jack / s to continue the job.

[Carolyn]

If you look under the car, you will see the two chassis beams that fun the length of the car and sit about 9" inside the sills.  They are very strong and can be used for jacking the font of the car.  If you have trouble getting the jack under the car, drive it onto some 2" timber blocks, that should give plenty of room.

 My car is on jack stands right now, so I've taken a couple of pics of where I put jack stands to keep them out of the way while I do the work.

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[Paianni]

To be clear, I have no issue getting the jack under the rear of the car, I have trouble getting clearance for the stands after jacking it up.

Anyway, I made my mind up on vehicle ramps that'll elevate the front wheels by 11cm, I really hope this'll make the difference as this has been a bit of a money sink so far, I have a lot of oil and parts over the last few years waiting to be used.

[Joesson]

@Paianni

The clearance that you have when placing the jack under the car is the amount of redundant elevation. I have a recessed, to keep it in place, wooden block that sits on top of the jack head. Alternatively you could put the jack on some suitable timber board to raise the jack from the ground.