it seem strange that someone would not do things in a safe way, as it takes less than 1 minute to put stands under a vehicle. Be sure to use equipment that is rated for the job.......
Lifts also scare me. Not that it makes a difference with a car falling from 2 feet or 7 feet but from 7 feet it kind of scares me more.
I bought the torin double locking jack stands. They have a bar that slides through between the teeth that keeps it from any possible slipping. My lesabre weighs almost 6000 lbs, 3 tons. I'm not going under there without anything less than that. I don't even like to use steel ramps for that car. A couple weeks ago I did something that scared the poop out of me. I needed to raise the back end more to get more clearance for exhaust work. I started jacking the car up on one side along the frame rail, and the car started sliding off the other stand. When I got over there the car was barely sitting on the edge of the stand. I thought for sure that car was going to slide off the edge of that stand.
We lost a Buick Club member when his GS fell on him, you can't take any short cuts when making sure your car is safe to work under. Chris
3 levels of safety: 1. Jack 2. jack stands 3. 6"x6" blocks Add in wheel chocks. If it falls after all that......o No:
I took over a body shop in the 90s. When I got there, one of the body men was wearing a full length leg brace. He had been working on the rocker panel of a car and jacked it up to get a better angle on it. The jack slipped and it fell on his bent leg. His knee exploded. 1 week after I took over I caught him doing it again. ou: He was fired immediately.
I've used them a lot in the past with a piece of wood on top and have never had a problem. But I usually don't get under the car anymore without jackstands AND blocks or the jack. I've worked under them on bumper jacks, a 55gal drum, all sorts of weird, unsafe ways when I was younger and I just thank God I never had an accident. Yep, I was stupid back then. I know jackstands are supposed to be the best but they seem so wimpy and I have good ones. I feel safer with blocks and a piece of wood on top than I do the jackstands so if I have to be underneath the car I use both. I have ramps but I really don't trust them either.
:shock: When I was 16, I had a '72 El Camino SS fall off jack stands that collapsed under the weight of the car. Therefore, I NEVER USE THEM. They are just as dangerous as jacks, IMHO. I use 2 x 12 pressure treated wood cut into 18-24" lengths, stacked and placed directly under the frame rails. Yes, its a lot of work positioning these just right, but I don't have to worry about the car falling off if it wiggles a little from too much torque applied to a wrench. It's solid as the proverbial rock and about the safest method you can use, outside of a solid chunk of squared-off wood. Good luck to all of you jack stand users...
That NASCAR commercial comes to mind everytime I am near a lift. I always check to be sure that the locks are engaged on the lift before I go under it.
The concrete blocks are too susceptible to failure when a stress riser is present. A block of wood may help reduce a stress riser between the chassis and the top surface of the block, but all it takes is an uneven floor surface like a minor uneven crack in the cement or a tiny piece of debris between the two to cause a vast majority of force to be focused on one small area. Concrete can't survive high forces over a small unit area. Glad to know you don't use the blocks alone; I wouldn't even consider using them as the primary load bearer. Devon
My husky jackstands are double locking as well, they are rated 3 tons a piece and if they fail while having a jack as a backup and sometimes even ramps then I don't see much else that can be done. Jackstands are purpose built tools, I trust them more than any piece of concrete or hunk of wood (no offense to those who swear by blocks or wood)
One of my employees has a lift in his garage. His dad put it in, it's a 2 post lift. I had my truck over there after Christmas doing the brakes/shocks and I just couldn't get comfortable being underneath that thing while it was up. Creeps me out.
Whenever possible, I put jack stands under the car. I have at times taken a SINGLE wheel off and put the wheel under the car where it can stop the frame if the jack drops. I tend to put the car on stands if more than one wheel is off or if I leave them all on. I never go completely under a car anymore without stands and haven't in years. I may have told this story once but my uncle was working on the car in my grandmother's driveway back in 68 or 69 and had the car supported by the bumper jack and some cinder blocks. Anyways, The car managed to shift weight on the uneven shale driveway and the car came down on him. He fortunately had his arms up at the time, and he managed to press the car above his chest at the cross member until my mom and my aunt could get the bumper jack back up. He came out with some bruises on the backs of his arms at the elbow, on his chest and back, but he was otherwise OK. Unbelieveably he went back under the car to finish what he'd started after replacing the cinder blocks with some solid bricks. ou: Jack stands, Solid wood, granite blocks or a chunk of I-beam (my favorite), just don't go under with just a jack.
Not that I think wood is a good replacement for a jack stand, but an axe hitting a block of wood is a lot different than a car frame sitting on wood. With the axe, you are hitting it with a pointed edge. The point separates the wood grain by imparting a tremendous amount of force onto something narrow enough and shaped correctly to part the grain. The car sitting on a round of wood has no impact, and the frame is far to wide to wedge between the grains of wood and the static force is spread over a massively larger surface area. Wood has tremendous strength. Just look at all the things built from it. Many houses are sitting on top of a series of 4x4 posts that rest on top of what amounts to a firewood round. The PSI at the base of the 4x4 is huge, and it sits there for decades.
^^ In fact, if you've ever watched a ship get dry-docked for hull repairs (and I'm talking SHIP, not BOAT) you'll see that they usually place the ship on a series of well placed stacked timbers. We're talking in the 100K tonnage range.
I had a set of stands that were really nothing more than a pair of metal tubes that slid one in the other that were drilled with holes that used pins to adjust the height. They had simple triangular braced bases and were all welded. They sucked, and I'm wondering if that's what collapsed on you. I actually have one that I keep around to remind me to get out the "real" stands.
We have a pair just like that. They are pretty old, and coated in surface rust. My father keeps them around for odd jobs, like proping up the lawn mower or 4-wheeler.
